South by Southwest Music Festival 2015, Day 3, Part 1

Event: South by Southwest Music Festival 2015, Day 3: Pitchfork Day Party

Venue: Mohawk
Location: Austin, Texas
Date: 19 March 2015

Introduction: I'm going to split this day into two parts for two reasons. First, it was a very long day, and second, I spent it all at two events/venues that nicely divide the day into two halves. The first part of the day, i.e. all afternoon, I spent at Pitchfork's day party at the Mohawk. Say what you will about Pitchfork (and there is plenty to be said!), they get some things right, and one of them was their lineup for this event. I couldn't resist, especially since I rather like the venue.

When I first showed up about fifteen minutes before the first band hit the stage, the line wrapped around about two blocks. I modestly walked to the end and resolved to just suffer through it. After my failures last year involving waiting in long lines for day parties (see here and here), I decided to just be patient and deal with it. I figured it was earlier in the day than when I'd tried getting into unofficial events last year, and the doors had only just opened. Thankfully, my patience was rewarded: I made it in just after the bands started playing.

First up for me was Hundred Waters on the outside stage. Yes, I saw them last year at SXSW, but since I've missed them on two other occasions, I really wanted to see them again. Here's their setlist:

01. Out Alee

02. Cavity

03. Murmurs

04. Show Me Love

05. Xtalk

06. Down from the Rafters

07. [Animal]

While I was disappointed that they didn't play anything off of their debut album, they mostly picked the best songs off their second album, The Moon Rang Like a Bell, and they even managed to take the worst song on the album, "[Animal]", and make it way better. Trayer Tryon's live bass made a big difference, and they quite successfully brought the song to a big crescendo to close their set. I wish they'd use more live (i.e. non-electronic) instrumentation like that, as it was the blend of acoustic and electronic that first drew my attention to the group. Nonetheless, the live drumming is great, and the music noticeably improved whenever Nicole Miglis played keyboard parts. It was amazing to watch her play tricky parts without even looking. She took "Show Me Love", previously an a capella song, and accompanied it with a beautiful, cascading piano part. (A similar version appears on their new remix album.) "Down from the Rafters" was also performed in a rearranged manner, mixing up the sections of the song and adding several new sounds. I think the band's willingness to continually grow their songs and their sound makes them stand out all the more.

[Hundred Waters at Mohawk.]

Next up was Alvvays on the outside stage. I don't know where this band came from, but they seem to already have quite a following. I thought their music was pleasant but a little lightweight. They have good pop hooks married to a basic indie rock sound, and they seem to have an aversion to abrasion. They just let the music flow along. It was enjoyable even if not transcendent. Their setlist has been posted online:

1. The Agency Group

2. Next of Kin

3. Your Type

4. Atop a Cake

5. New Haircut

6. Dives

7. Adult Diversion

8. Party Police

9. Archie, Marry Me

[Alvvays at Mohawk.]

Then came Will Butler of Arcade Fire on the outside stage. He brings a lot of enthusiasm and energy, but not a lot of nuance, which is a bit ironic considering his role as a multi-instrumentalist and embellisher in Arcade Fire. The big surprise was that his lyrics are pretty good – which you wouldn't know from his main project, since the words are usually dominated by his brother Win and Win's partner Régine Chassagne. Will's vocals might be merely decent, but they were enhanced by a crew of three women singers, two of which also contributed keyboards. The result was something of a classic 50s/60s rock 'n' roll rave-up style. Every song was upbeat! The downside to this style was a tendency to take one hook and abuse it just past the line of being annoying. His setlist is available online:

1. Son of God

2. Surrender

3. Anna

4. Something's Coming

5. What I Want

6. Take My Side

[Will Butler at Mohawk.]

Fourth on the outside stage was Title Fight. I had a hard time figuring them out. I'd heard that they were a hardcore band experimenting with shoegaze, but in concert they leaned heavily on the hardcore/emo/punk side and only barely dipped into the shoegaze side. When they did venture out, it worked, and they might one day find some interesting ground there. But most of the time, they kept to a generic, thrashy, intense corner of sound. Highlights were the introduction to the second song ("This is another song about foliage") and the guitarist's Siouxsie shirt.

[Title Fight at Mohawk. Note spraying bottle of water and plastic cup captured in mid-air!]

I then moved inside to catch Twerps, an Australian indie rock group. They split vocal duties between some sort of stoner bro guitarist and a rather unemotive woman guitarist/keyboardist. They gave off a laid back vibe, and even if their music wasn't very exciting, they did manage to reach some good places, which they were smart enough to hold on to for a long time, but not too long. It was just enough that they never got annoying. I caught a few snatches of great lyrics, such as the first lines they sung: "Are you wise enough to be in this bar? / Are you cool enough to be with the stars?"

[Twerps at Mohawk.]

Last up on the inside was DJ Windows 98, also known as Win Butler of Arcade Fire. He came out in a bandana face mask along with two Haitian drummers. Win started DJing Haitian music with his laptop and soundboard while the drummers drummed. After the first song, a man in a gold bodysuit joined the crew, but I was never able to figure out exactly what he was contributing (or who he was). About halfway into the set, Win switched over to more mainstream American pop and hip-hop. The first part was great – there was a welcoming party vibe, and the percussionists were putting down great beats. But when the music transitioned, so did the quality level. The tunes weren't as good, the vibe changed to a generic club feel, and the drummers didn't really have as much to contribute. The highlight for the crowd appeared to be a mashup of Beck's "Loser" with Kanye West's "Jesus Walks" (which can be heard online). I don't think I understand live DJ sets.

[DJ Windows 98 at Mohawk. The man in the gold suit is not pictured here. Sorry.]

Scores:
Hundred Waters: A-
Alvvays: B
Will Butler: C+
Title Fight: D
Twerps: B
DJ Windows 98: C+

P.S. Videos of songs from Hundred Waters, Alvvays, and Title Fight have been posted by Pitchfork.

[Edit 2015.03.25:] P.P.S. Footage of Twerps and DJ Windows 98 is now also available at Pitchfork, also featuring a photo with that guy in the gold suit.

[Edit 2015.03.28:] P.P.P.S. Footage of Will Butler can now also be seen at Pitchfork.

Arcade Fire / Kid Koala / Lost Bayou Ramblers - Live 2014.04.10 Austin360 Amphitheater, Austin, Texas

Despite being fond of Arcade Fire since the beginning, I never truly got into them until the last six months or so, when my spouse started playing their albums around me. When we heard they were coming to town, it wasn't hard to be convinced to go.

Artist: Arcade Fire
Venue: Austin360 Amphitheater
Location: Austin, Texas
Date: 10 April 2014
Opening Acts: Lost Bayou Ramblers, Kid Koala

Setlist (see here for a slightly different tabulation):
01. Normal Person
02. Rebellion (Lies)
03. Reflektor
04. Flashbulb Eyes
05. Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)
06. The Suburbs →
07. The Suburbs (Continued)
08. Ready to Start
09. Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
10. No Cars Go
11. We Exist
12. My Body Is a Cage (tease) → Afterlife → Temptation (New Order cover tease) →
13. It's Never Over (Oh Orpheus)
14. Heart of Glass (Blondie cover) →
15. Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)

Encore:
16. Controversy (Prince cover)
17. Here Comes the Night Time
18. Wake Up

I can't review this concert without explaining the venue. The Austin360 Amphitheater is a new addition to Austin, just about a year old. It is part of a larger complex: the Circuit of the Americas, a motor racing circuit that opened in 2012. It is located on the edge of town, past the airport, apparently just outside city limits (as far as I can tell). It is difficult to get to by car and essentially impossible to reach by any other means. Once you arrive, it costs about $20 to park in a massive unstriped lot located approximately a mile from the seats. Tickets can be purchased in advance online, supposedly for $12, but because it's through Ticketmaster, it ends up being about $17.50. (What a deal!) Naturally, this is after the cost of tickets, which were nominally $46 for a decent seat, but again, because it is through Ticketmaster, there are about $11 in additional fees (per ticket). Lawn seats were slightly cheaper, but better seats ran the gamut up to $200.

I think the preface is necessary to understand the general mood as we approached the venue. There was still some fun to be had, because the band (apparently controversially) asked fans to dress up, and most did. However, I had made a key mistake in planning by not correctly predicting the set times of the opening bands. Since Kid Koala had gotten the lowest billing, I assumed he would go on stage first, followed by Lost Bayou Ramblers. Kid Koala didn't interest me, but Lost Bayou Ramblers did, so naturally I wasn't upset that being delayed by the atrocious commute and parking situation meant we missed whoever went on stage first. Or at least, I wasn't upset until we neared the actual venue and heard Lost Bayou Ramblers leaving the stage, followed by Kid Koala beginning a DJ set. It turns out he was set up on a second stage in the crowd, and so he filled the void between the bands. It wasn't a bad idea, but the nonstandard arrangement led to my disappointment in missing a band that I wanted to see and catching another that I didn't.

I think I would have liked Lost Bayou Ramblers if I'd seen them. I think I would have liked Kid Koala if I hadn't seen him. He didn't do much for me except fill some space; I didn't find much merit in his particular style, and I really didn't appreciate his offhand remark about strippers.

But anyway, eventually there was some movement on the main stage. A person came out with a rather unique headpiece consisting of a four-sided television screen broadcasting Rick Perry's face. He addressed us and then introduced another person with a giant Barack Obama bobblehead. Somewhere in this process, masked bandmembers came out on stage to the tune of "Deep in the Heart of Texas". Eerily, a large section of the audience sang along, and even clapped in time at appropriate points. (Texas is strange sometimes.)

Finally, the masks came off and Arcade Fire kicked into "Normal Person", a hilarious and biting song from their new album, Reflektor. Whereas the prominent lead guitar on the album is almost exaggeratedly loose, live it was stronger and tighter. "Rebellion" also exhibited a little more strength on stage, where almost the entire band shouted the "lies, lies!" backing vocals instead of just Régine Chassagne, as on the record. This began a pattern of alternating among highlights from each of their three biggest albums. (Neon Bible was represented merely by "No Cars Go", coincidentally also found on their debut EP, and a tease of "My Body Is a Cage").

I tried to make sense out of who all was on stage and what everyone was doing. This was a challenging task. The band nominally consists of six members, with two additional regular contributors who seem to come an go as "official" members (Sarah Neufeld and Owen Pallett). They were augmented on stage by four additional musicians: two percussionists and two horns players. While Sarah and Owen mostly stuck to their violins, the core members drifted between instruments throughout the show. Even Jeremy Gara, the primary drummer, switched to guitar for some songs. Régine and Richard Reed Parry, the most notable multi-instrumentalists, both sat in on drums on occasion (usually on a seemingly redundant second set) when they weren't switching between keyboards, celesta, vocals, vibraphones, guitar, bass, and steel drums. It was quite fun to see who played what parts, and impressive to behold the quality of the musicianship.

Other highlights were the heavy dub beat and bass of "Flashbulb Eyes" and a rousing rendition of the band's first single, "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)", the only song on which Régine drummed alone. "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)" was also a strong performance, but I was surprised to see that one of the dominant instrumental melodies was actually a bass solo!

Win Butler introduced "We Exist" with a clear statement that the song was intended as a demand for acceptance and respect for gays. "Afterlife" was an odd performance; it was preceded by a brief, minimalist version of "My Body Is a Cage", and near the end of the song, Win sneaked in a few lines from New Order's "Temptation" ("Thoughts from above hit the people down below / People in this world, we have no place to go"). The weirdest part was the presence of a strange, shiny, reflective figure that arose from a third stage in the middle of the crowd.

This was immediately followed by "It's Never Over (Oh Orpheus)", in which Régine went to the third stage and sang her parts from there. I suppose this was done in some sort of spirit of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth, but it was a little strange, since she was rather hard to see, and the people in the lawn were probably totally of out luck on that one. After that, Régine reappeared on stage, ready to sing another part as the band began to play what sounded like "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)". However, the band subtly switched gears and they did a full-blown, awesome cover of "Heart of Glass", before jumping right back into "Sprawl II" and doing the song its fair justice.

The encore was another strange affair, started off by Win coming on stage with a giant Pope Francis bobblehead. He was accompanied by what I presume was a recording of the pope speaking in Latin. Eventually the rest of the band joined him for a version of Prince's "Controversy", which naturally includes a rendition of the Lord's Prayer. This led into a great take on "Here Comes the Night Time", complete with confetti cannons. The final song was their standard closer, "Wake Up", but at its conclusion, the band marched through crowd and kept playing on any instruments they could carry.

I found the performance to be quite strong and the setlist to be excellent. The sound was good, but not quite up to the standard of other Austin venues. (The fact that it was very windy probably didn't help.) The biggest downside of the whole thing was certainly the venue. I suspect that the band didn't quite know what they were getting into by playing there, and they apologized several times during the show for the trek we had to make to get there. While they were quite thankful that we put up with it, they seemed a little disengaged at times as a result. The show was great, but I think they asked for a lot from their audience, and it made them uncomfortable as a result. Hopefully they learned a lesson and won't return there.

Scores:

Kid Koala: D

Arcade Fire: B+

P.S.: Since I didn't actually see Lost Bayou Ramblers, I can't really give them a score.

P.P.S. Thanks to Alyssa for countless reasons!