Event: South by
Southwest Music Festival 2015, Day 3: Levitation Showcase
Venue: Hotel Vegas
(outside stage)
Location: Austin, Texas
Date: 19 March 2015
Introduction: As
previously mentioned, I've split this day into two parts, and this post will
cover my evening spent at Hotel Vegas. Levitation, previously known
as the
Austin Psych Fest, sponsored showcases all day
at the venue, starting with unofficial events in the afternoon,
transitioning to an official SXSW event at 7pm, and running well past
1am. They ran three or four stages (depending on how you count): two
separate ones inside, and one big one outside, which was loosely
split in half so that one band could set up while another was
performing. It was a little weird, but it mostly worked. I stayed
outside and hung out for as long as I could.
I actually got there a
little before the official events commenced, so I saw the end of a
set by Deerhoof. I only saw enough to know that they certainly
aren't your average band. They were trying to do an
audience-interactive call-and-response thing in an odd time signature
with stop-start rhythms. I'm amazed that it even halfway worked.
Then came the official
showcases. First up was Think No Think, an Austin power trio.
They had a little too much of a bro-ish cock rock vibe for me. They
were far too invested in upholding rock 'n' roll cliché. They could
play reasonably well, but they stuck to standard noisy, thrashy hard
rock, the kind of stuff Led Zeppelin and The Who did much better once
upon a time. They were big fans of their feedback to a point of
excess.
[Think No Think at
Hotel Vegas.]
Golden Dawn
Arkestra: This Austin band is apparently unrelated to the
original 1960s Austin psychedelic band The Golden Dawn. They are,
however, definitely psychedelic, but in a much, much funkier sense. I
guess this is what is known as Afrobeat. This was some sort of really
out-there, high-energy, post-apocalyptic, semi-mystical experience. I
think there were fourteen people on stage, but it was hard to tell
who counts as a member among the many people that were performing
music, dancing on stage, and dancing through the audience. Everyone
was dressed in some sort of cosmic outfit, there were props, there
was a lot of percussion, and I think there was a heavy dose of Sun Ra
influence. There were horns, there were hints of reggae, there was
rhythm, and there was a lot of funk. There was also a lot of singing
about unity and visions and awakening. It was great.
[Golden Dawn Arkestra
at Hotel Vegas.]
Holy Wave: An El
Paso psych band. These guys were very much in the traditional vein of
psych rock, with hippy hair and looks to prove it. Their music was
fairly straightforward but easy to enjoy. Their guitarist somehow
managed to break two strings in rapid succession, which put a bit of
a damper on their energy level.
[Holy Wave at Hotel
Vegas.]
Merchandise: By
now this band is an established
favorite of mine. I can't get enough of their
blend of
Chameleons-style
ethereality, quasi-industrial noise, and pop hooks. I was surprised
to hear they were playing SXSW again, but I wasn't about to complain.
Here's their setlist:
1. No You and Me
2. Little Killer
3. Green Lady
4. Anxiety's Door
5. Long noisy jam with
unknown special guest [Edit 2016.03.30:
Rat Bastard]
[Merchandise at Hotel
Vegas.]
I still can't really
figure out what was going on at the end. They started with a
relatively weak song and then played three really awesome songs, so
they were on a good path. But then they said they wanted to do
something "special", so they brought out a guest and
started some sort of dark, noisy jam. I can't even tell what the
guest was doing – he was just holding some little device in his
hands. Guitarist Dave Vassalotti spent most of the jam crouched down
by his effects pedals, and although I couldn't see him, I think I
could hear his instrument. The whole thing was very self-indulgent.
At least the rest of the set had something going for it, even if
Carson Cox's vocals had too much reverb and they used backing tracks
in the absence of guitarist/keyboardist Chris Horn. [Edit 2016.03.30:
After listening to a recording of the set, I think Cox was drunk or
something.]
[Edit 2016.03.30: Merchandise with Rat Bastard.]
Moon Duo: This
duo plus drummer psych/shoegaze band hail from San Francisco. They
make a great space with the synth and drums, and the guitarist solos
beautifully on top. There are vocals, too, but it's more likely that
the listener will end up hypnotized by the music than told any sort
of story. It did start to drag a tad, but on the whole I found it
rather entrancing.
[Moon Duo at Hotel
Vegas.]
Songhoy Blues: This is a Malian
"desert rock" group, exiled from troubled northern Mali but
apparently making big waves (they are the
first African band signed to Atlantic since 1972!).
I've reviewed other desert rock bands from Mali and Niger that
played major festivals in Austin (
Imarhan Timbuktu at SXSW 2014 and
Bombino
at Austin Psych Fest 2014), and they've all taken different
approaches, generally rather successfully. Songhoy Blues might just
be the best band I've seen yet in this genre. Their style was very
funky, very danceable, but also with a strong rock edge. The drummer
was excellent, always offering energetic, syncopated rhythms; the
bassist was really funky; the singer was charismatic and
enthusiastic, even if I couldn't understand his lyrics; and the lead
guitarist was simply on fire. He never slowed down! He just kept
tearing it up, constantly playing amazing lines of lead guitar. It
was an incredible experience to behold.
[Songhoy Blues at Hotel
Vegas.]
The Pop Group:
Well known as the furthest thing from an actual pop group, I'm not
even sure how I feel about them as a studio band. I bought Y
in London in 2009 after years of hunting for it (it's never been
released in the USA), but it's a bizarre album. They had three
amazing singles, a few scattered other notable tracks, and a lot of
extreme experimentation that wasn't always very successful or
listenable, and then they broke up. Their new, post-reunion album
(Citizen Zombie) has a few decent moments but is mostly
not very good. I'd heard that they were best seen live, so when I saw
a chance to do so, I wasn't going to pass it up. Sure enough, they
delivered. Here was the setlist:
1. We Are All
Prostitutes
2. Citizen Zombie
3. Thief of Fire
4. Shadow Child
5. She Is Beyond Good
and Evil (cut mid-song)
Unfortunately, the band
took forever to set up and soundcheck, despite the intended
rapid-fire schedule set by the venue. I couldn't tell exactly what
was wrong and who was on stage making demands. It seemed like someone
with the venue was trying to fix a microphone feedback issue, but I
think there were band associates making various complaints and
demands as well. At any rate, the band took forever (relatively
speaking) to hit the stage. But when they did, they did it with full
force. Five aging men turned into a lurching, jagged, aggressive mass
of energy. They rocked with an incredible force, as if they were
struggling to contain it. They walked a line of being too much, too
far, of being just about to fall apart and shatter into pieces –
but they held it together as if they were strong enough to form the
chaos into music.
Bassist Dan Catsis was
incredible, forming the foundation of the sound with hard, angular
funk. Mark Stewart's vocals were somehow surprisingly clear, even
despite the mess of a soundcheck (or maybe because of it!), and the
words all made sense, conveying a terrible feeling of socio-political
frustration. "Thief of Fire" was a performance like I'd
never seen before: brimming over, at the edge, barely contained. Even
the new songs soared far above their studio counterparts. "She
Is Beyond Good and Evil" was about to transcend space and time,
but then suddenly the stage went dark and all sound was cut. The
drums stuttered to a halt. Stewart, clearly enraged at the indignity,
yelled at the sound crew to at least let them have a closing word
with the audience, but the sound was not restored. Instead,
spitefully, over the PA came Roy Orbison's "It's Over".
Other attendees have suggested that they blew the circuit and lost
power, but I am suspicious that an active role was taken by the
venue.
[The Pop Group at Hotel
Vegas.]
Gang of Four:
The Pop Group and Gang of Four make a great double-billing: two
pioneering post-punk groups with extreme political bents; sharp,
angular, and funky instrumentation; and careers that rose and fell in
just a couple years. While The Pop Group never reunited between their
1981 breakup and their reformation in 2010, and their membership has
hardly changed over those two periods, Gang of Four have had a much
more complicated history. After hemorrhaging members and quality in
the early 80s, the two remaining members (vocalist Jon King and
guitarist Andy Gill) have periodically revived the band with various
lineups from then until now. They managed to reunite the original
lineup in 2004, but this only lasted until 2006. In 2012, even King
left, but Gill refused to let the band go and has still carried on,
now with a replacement singer, John Sterry.
Sterry might not be
King, but at least he can approximate the vocals reasonably well.
Gill still plays his guitar deftly, but the whole thing looked and
sounded a bit odd. Bassist Thomas McNeice and drummer Jonny Finnegan
are reasonably good musicians, but one can't but notice that Gill is
quite a bit older than the other members, and he seems out of place
in his own band. Gill, Sterry, and McNeice kept shuffling their
positions on stage and trading microphones, and bizarrely, it
appeared that Gill was repeatedly pushing Sterry around. One gets the
impression all is not well and cordial within the band. It doesn't
help that Gill wears a constant grimacing expression of scorn.
The performance was
fairly good, but the newer songs are conspicuously of lower quality
than the older ones. "To Hell with Poverty!" was a
highlight of the set, but "Anthrax" came out a little
weird. Gill and Sterry attempted to recreate the asynchronous
dual-vocal parts of the studio version, but Gill's spoken part came
out choppy and inconsistent. I guess it sort of worked, as far as
reinforcing the disaffection and disillusion of the song, but it
certainly didn't turn out as well as the studio version. Here's the
full setlist:
1. Where the
Nightingale Sings
2. Not Great Men
3. I Parade Myself
4. Anthrax
5. Stranded
6. Damaged Goods
7. To Hell with
Poverty!
[Gang of Four at Hotel
Vegas. Gill's sneer is partially obscured by the microphone
silhouette.]
Scores:
Think No Think: D
Golden Dawn Arkestra: A
Holy Wave: B
Merchandise: C-
Moon Duo: B
Songhoy Blues: A
The Pop Group: A-
Gang of Four: B-
