South By Southwest, Austin, TX, March 13-17, 1997

For those of you that have been anticipating this article from my "Upcoming Events" link, I apologize for my tardiness. Also, I might have been a little over zealous when I predicted "full coverage of South by Southwest". The magnitude of the event has caused me to be able to report only on the small portion of it that I got to see. South by Southwest is an incredible showcase of bands from all over the world that converge upon Austin, TX once a year. Austin has been called "The Live Music Capital" and for good reason. Every inch of Austin can be converted into a music venue, including restaurants, parking lots, and coffee houses. Over 1000 bands played there during a 5 day span. I was only there for two nights, Friday and Saturday, but got to see several good acts in multiple venues. Each venue had a five band lineup and moved each artist in and out within an hour. For the most part, all the clubs stayed on schedule and did a really professional job. Many bands have come out of South By Southwest with the proper exposure to hit the big time, like Cake and Soul Coughing, who were playing the larger venues this time around.

The crowds in Austin are great for seeing live music. Everyone there seemed to truly appreciate good, original music, and was game for a variety of styles from rock to country to blues to jazz and lots in between. Although a lot of the weekend is still a blur, here is a general account of what I was able to experience. I have made an effort to identify links for all the bands I saw so you can fill in some of the details I might have left out.

On Friday night, I met up with a friend who lives in Austin and she had recruited a couple other music lovers for our adventure. We started out at Liberty Lunch with hopes that we could meet up with some others, but the place was so packed that it was nearly impossible to even think about tracking someone down. We only heard a few strains of one band, Helium, and because we were not terribly impressed, we had to move on. Next stop was the Waterloo, where we heard a couple of songs by a group called The Haynes Boys from Columbus, OH. I remember them being very good, but only heard the tail end of their set. Next was The Picketts from Seattle, WA. They had an interesting lineup, strongly weighted toward a variety of guitars, a lead singer that played a drum kit, and a female lead that had an excellent acoustic guitar style. They were heavily influenced by the rockabilly sound, but had some very nice ballads and straight rock songs. The first several songs had some catchy lyrics relying on cliches, "Actions Speak Louder Than Words" and "Don’t Let the Little Things Get You Down", as well as an interesting cover of The Clash’s "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" I couldn’t find too much about this group on the Internet, except one reference to their membership being composed of former members of the Young Fresh Fellows. Hopefully, we’ll be hearing more from them, because they had a talented and diverse sound that was a lot of fun to experience.

After the Picketts, we were a little too cold to continue standing outside at the Waterloo, so we hit Ruta Maya for some coffee where Rebecca Gates was playing. She is from Portland, OR and is actually a member of a group called The Spinanes. She had a nice acoustic sound, perfect for the coffee house environment, and even did a little playful male-bashing in her song that had originally been titled "The Death of the US Male" (can’t remember the real title). After the coffee, we headed to B-side and caught the end of Charlie Robison, a local of Austin, who had a nice country rock sound. Charlie was eventually followed by Jo Carol Pierce, who was quite an experience. A native Texan, she had an interesting way of weaving stories about personal relationships and childhood into her songs. She played keyboard and was backed by several guitarists that offered the male commentary on the stories. Jo Carol talked about when suicide was good ("in the morning, so you wouldn’t have to endure the rest of the day" or "the first day of a new job, so the next day you could call in dead"), revelations at the HEB Pantry, and the tale of Secret Dan, a disappointing lover. I personally found her very entertaining, but our one male compadre had no interest in her long winded style. Jo Carol has definitely had some interesting musical influences in her life, having grown up with Joe Ely and Jimmie Dale Gilmore (who she eventually married and divorced).

On Saturday, we decided to take a different approach and stick with one venue for the entire night. We chose La Zona Rosa for its primarily TX band lineup and the fact that it included Sister 7 who I had missed earlier in the week in Houston and Robert Earl Keen , a TX favorite. The second evening started with a disappointing dinner at La Zona Rosa because we could never get seated. There was apparently an Arista Records Showcase going on in another room and the few tables that were left were being camped out in by others waiting for the show to begin outdoors. After grabbing a few warm tortillas off the buffet, we ended up having the grilled corn and chopped beef sandwiches (pickle sandwich in my case) that were sold by an outdoor vendor . The first band was an unusual group from Charleston, SC named Jump, Little Children that played a diverse set of rock with country influences but at times verging on screaming metal. They had an interesting stage presence in one lead singer that wore tight floral pants and played a toy mouth keyboard. On their song, "Easter Parade", he was marching around in the crowd with the instrument like a drum major. Some of their songs even approached a hip-hop sound. Altogether, Jump, Little Children offered a very entertaining live show.

Next was Jeff Black. Although he was very good and had a talented band, Jeff Black lacked the stage presence that others in the showcase had displayed, so I don’t remember much about his performance. It was generally a mellow country/rock style headed with an acoustic guitar. After Jeff Black, we got to see Abra Moore , who often guests with the popular band, Poi Dog Pondering. Her style reminded me of a cross between Edie Brickell and Melissa Etheridge, and at times sounding like Liz Phair. I really thought she was great until Sister 7 hit the stage. Sister 7’s lead singer was more heavily influenced by Melissa Ethridge with occasional songs sounding like Fiona Apple. She had a lot of energy and moved a bit like Alanis Morrisette.

Finally, Robert Earl Keen hit the stage. He played lots of his old favorites like "Amarillo" and "Gringo Honeymoon" and added some new songs. The crowd was really into his beer drinking, partying style. A highlight of the performance was when Margo Timmins of Cowboy Junkies joined Robert Earl on stage for a couple of tunes. Robert Earl is a gorgeous man that is always fun to see, and it was a great way to top off the evening and conclude my participation in the festival.

All in all, this was a weekend of outstanding musical talent. Add to that some stories about a very expensive diamond ring and some tales of weird friends, and I had an enjoyable, fun weekend. Since there was so much going on, there were several artists that I had wanted to see but missed, including Melanie Doane, The Candy Butchers, and Matthew Sweet. I’ll just have to catch them next time around. South By Southwest is a great time and a must for any music lover in the TX vicinity. I hope some of the bands I saw will be the "next big thing" because many of them were talented and entertaining. The next big festivals of this type are North By Northeast in Toronto in June and North By Northwest in Portland in October.

On That Note, I'm outta here......

C

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