SXSW day 4, friday, march 16

The start of today made clear how much of an impact SXSW has on the city and it’s capacity of handling people. Since I’m staying at a friends place a few miles outside of the city, I depent on motorized transport to get into the downtown area. Cycling there would meansuicide. Downtown is amazing for bicycles, but everything on the other side of the freeway is a single ticket towards a certain death. My friend, who was playing a show, was supposed to pick me after he went downtown that morgning to drop his gear of. Never made it back due to extreme traffic at 1 pm already. We called a cab around 1 pm and waited to 2.30, but no cabs came, due to maximum capacity. Decided to take a bus. Could get in, but the bus was extremely filled and every stop ahead had shitloads of people. I’m not saying the city suffers under SXSW, but I can imagine that most locals will be glad it’s almost over again.

So, after 3,5 hours, we finally made it to Waterloo records, where the mighty Howlin’ Rain was scheduled to present some of their new songs. For those who don’t know Howling Rain, they are a ’70 rockband with (ex)members of Nebula, Earthless, Saviours and more, and they are the best band around in this genre, I think. They sound somewhat reminiscent to Comets on Fire here and there, but les savant-garde, and more Allman Brothers / The Band influences. They had an amazing sound, and are extremely skilled musiscians. But no viruosa if not necessary. Great swing, great fuzz and anamazing singer / lead guitarist. And always a pleasure to hang out with their bassplayer Cyrus, who stayed a couple of days at my place during Roadburn festival, some years ago. One of the best shows of the festival so far.

AFter that, local blues hero Gary Clark Jr. was on, but this was a bit too much straight forward smooth blues for me. The parkinglot at Waterloo was filling up rapidley with people wanting to see The Cult. They were scheduled to present some new songs as well, and after starting 45 minutes late (it is and allways will be The Cult, they just go on late, regardless of anything), they played a pretty solid set of 4 new and 2 old songs, ofcourse ending their set with “She Sells Sanctuary”. Ian Ashbury is still on of the best powerrock vocalists there is, and Billy Duffy has such a recognizable guitarsound, you could hear from the first note on, you are dealing with professionals here.

Great to see that all these (bigger and smaller) bands do the free dayshows at Waterloo. It gives a lot of people the opportunity to see em. All the bands playing the Waterloo parkinglot are there to promote the new album, that is for sale at Waterloo after the show, and can be signed by bandmembers after purchase. Good businessmodel, works for everybody.

So, because of delays, evening was falling again, and I wanted to go to the Stage at 6th, to see Purling Hiss play thepatio stage there. However, what I didn’t know, was that Jack White was scheduled to play the indoor stage (750 capacity I guess) that evening around midnight. So when I came over to the venue, there was a really long que forpeople wanting to see Jack White (it was 8 pm, they were early), and I could’t get in. It’s once more a logistic decision that I don;t understand. One venue, two stages, and the big stage congesting the logistics for the smaller one, so nobody could see the bands on the pation stage. And this venue has a backdoor for the patio, so you could easily do it with seperate entrances and serve both crowds, bands and showcasing labels way better this way.

Rescheduled, and decided to go to the Scoot In, where Brooklyn Vegan had a showcase. Cycled alongside the Spotify house on East 4th. It’s insane how much money they must have put into that. They took a nice wooden house, the size of half a block, painted it green and white, and arethrowing showcases there all week.  At Scoot-In, Canadian band KenMode was on, but I didn;t really like them, so Iwent back downtown to see punkrock hero Dave Smalley play a semi-acoustic solo show at a fancy hotel bar on Congress. Whey I came in, he was playing The Wild Rover and Whiskey in the Jar (he’s of Irish descent), and he was telling a lot of nice anekdotes about the DYS / Down By Law years. He also played some DBL songs like Independence Day and Heroes and Hooligans. Once more, aging punkrockers proof to be the coolest.

Back to Scoot-In again to see All Pigs Must Die, an allstar metalband with (ex) members of the Hope Conspiracy and Converge. They play an awesome mix of Entombed-like metal with powerviolence drums and blackmetal atmospherical midtempo atmospheres. I was really impressed, and the stage presence was really intense, crowd was going mental, and this was the best metalshow I’ve seen this festival for sure. Coming over to Europe  soon, I hope. Funny to see all the violent dancers flickflacking and kickboxing through the moshpit, by the way. Bunch of monkees…

Decided to stay at the Scoot-In the rest of the evening. Ringworm was up next. They are a metal/hardcoreband from Cleveland, and with their groundbreaking mid ’90’s album “The Promise” they defined the dark metalcore genre and sound, where many modern bands are influenced by nowadays. I saw ‘m once or twice in the ’90’s, and it was fun to see ‘m again now. The Human Furnace (their singers nickname) is the most evil metal midget around, and some of their songs really stood the test of time, but I couldn’t help thinking they sounded a little outdated…especially after contemporary powerhouse All Pigs Must Die.  But it was a good show, and I enjoyed it.

Last but not least, Black Breath was one. And they showed everybody who’s boss in the genre of dark metallic sludge/hardcore (altough competition is fierce with All Pigs Must Die). Enormous amounts ofguitar-amps and speakercabs, and an overal sound that basically crushes you to small bits. Fucking heavy, intense and insanely tight band, with great songs, nice Entombed-esque guitarthemes serving some of the best underground metal on the planet now. Can’t wait to see ‘m at Roadburn next month. Great way to end the evening. Hitched a ride back to my friends house, and went to bed. Despite a rough start, it was a great day once again. 

SXSW day 3, thursday march 15th

“Hello Frank Kimenai

Congratulations! We are emailing you, Frank Kimenai at frank@incubate.org, to inform you that you have been selected to receive 1 admission for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.”

This was the first thing I read this morning, when I opened my email. Going to see The Boss tonight, I’m one of the lucky few. Never saw Springsteen live before, so I was in for a treat! Amazing! Nevermind the elaborate schedule of bands that I wanted to see this evening, put everything aside and go see the Boss in the Moody Theatre, a 2500 capacity hall. That was my forsight for the evening. But first, another afternoon ofchecking out bands ahead of me.

Cycled downtown, got my Springsteen ticket, and dropped by the 3voor12 radio studio in the convention centre. 3voor12 is covering the festival live this year, with 6 hours of live radio each day. Great initiative! After saying hello, I cycled up 24 blocks (my excercise for the day) for the Austin Psych Fest party, which had an insane line-up. I came to see one of my favorite bands at the moment, one I’ve never seen live. Purling Hiss, a lo-fi psychedelic garagrock band. They played a short and loud set of really raw and intense rock, including my favorite song Run From TheCity I love rock trio’s.

I conincedently ran into Romain Manival of a small upcoming French bookingagency, that books Amen Dunes and some more of the psychedelic rockbands.  I was supposed to meet him yesterday at the Sacred Bones showcse, but missed him. Funny how you always meet the right people at the right place, in a festival of 100.000’s of people. Saw some more bands, like Crystal Antles. Other bands on the bill were Amen Dunes, Psychic Ills, Crocodiles, Wet Hair, Royal Baths and shitloads more. These sort of line-ups is impossible to bring together in the Netherlands, but here, everything is possible.

It was almost 6 pm, so it was time to cycle downtown again, and make my way to the Springsteen gig. I expected big lines in the Moody Theatre, but everything went surprisingly smooth. These people are professionals. The venue was a nice, compact room, with 2 stories of balconies, and it is fully equiped for live recordings for television and radio. A lot of live music tv is made here, given the pictures of all the artists on the wall. Impressive.

After seeing The Low Anthem, which was quite ok, I got a bit bored, because the wait was quite long. It was suppose to start at 7pm, but Springsteen started at 9.15, with two supports. Didn’t know that, otherwise I could have seen some more bands. Had a good chat with Dutch Springsteen fan #1, Ton Engelshoven of OOR magazine, who had seen him more than 20 times in the last couple of decades. He was extremely excited. So was I.Anticipation was high, and when Springsteen started I actually felt a bit nervous and got goosebumps all over. I will not review the show, since you’ll be able to find plenty of better reviews online, but let’s just say that he brought interesting guests (Tom Morello, Arcade Fire, Jimmy Cliff and Erik Burdon), and I have never seen a 64 year old stagedive as smoothly as the Boss. It was an amazing experience that I will charise for the rest of my life. BRUUUCE! BRUUUUUUUCE! BRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCE!

I went downtown again and saw a couple more bands. Went to see dutch grime/dubstep/hiphop act Dope DOD, which was pretty ok, but the US crowd really needs to get familiar with European dubstep I think, because they didn;t quite get it. Dropped by the Lexington London showcase real quick to say hello to Stacey, the owner. She told me the showcase was rescheduled to a bigger venue by the SXSW organization, because of highanticipation for the turnout. Too bad it was half empty now…even for local heroes Ringo Deathstar. I rushed down to the Mohawk for the Secretly Canadian showcase, saw Sharon van Etten, which was quite ok, and a lot of friends from Utrecht / Amsterdam. So after some drinks and a failed attempt or 2 to find an afterparty, it was time to gome home again. 

SXSW day two, wednesday, march 14

My day started, slightly hungover, with a trip to the ScootInn venue at the east side. Scoot In is a really cool shed with a roofed stage on the parkinglot, and a huge-ass skateramp besides it. Thrasher Magazin and Converse a throwing a couple of free dayparties there. My friend Steve Dolemancino, who used to work for TeePee records is marketingmanager of Converse nowadays, and hand-picked a lot of cool bands for the show. Today’s line-up is insane. Cro-Mags, Saviours, Nachtmystium but above all, legendary and notorious punkband FEAR are playing.

Bumped into a lot of friends at the venue, the guys from Saviours and Nachtmystium, and some other types I haven’t seen in quite a while. It was a really mixed crowed, young kids and old punks rocking out together. It’s heartwarming to see 10 year old kids in Cro-Mags t-shirst on the shoulder of their heavily tattood punkrock dad, singing along together, or skating the ramp together. A lot of shows at SXSW are 21 up, but this is an all age show, and I think that’s a good thing. You see people like John Joseph (singer of the Cro-MAgs) taking time to talk to these youngsters, explaining them what he stands for, giving them autographs and taking pictures, and the fathers of these young kids watching with a big smile on their face. Great initiative of Converse and Thrasher to throw a party like this.

Bandwise, the quality of the programm fluctuated from boring to insane, and from yawning to goosebumps. First band I saw was WHIRR, an young stoner / shoegaze / metalband, reminding me a bit of Pains of Being Pure at Heart, but 10 times as heavy. Nice, but not great. The Whip played emotional, Modern Life is War kind of hardcore / metal, but they bored the shit out of me. Too much of a forced image. Next up, Saviours. Always good, always delivering, and always in a good mood. Heavy, pounding riffrock with classic heavy metal (twin)guitar leads. Kick Ass. After Saviours, time for the legendary Cro-Mags. The allstrar line-up of the bands already somethingspecial. Ofcourse John Joseph on vocals, Graig Ahead (Sick of It All) on bass, AJ Novello (Leeway) on guitar and Mackie (Cro-MAgs, Fun Loving Criminals) on drums. They kicked of with the Clockwork Orange intro, and just hearing it makes me shiver and gives me goosebumps. Then “We Gotta Know” kicked in, followed relentlesly with World Peace and Show You No Mercy. Crowd went insane. Headwalks, stagedives, skateboards in the moshpit. It was a madhouse. They played a short and tight set with some Bad Brains songs and Leeway songs aswell. Great!

Next up, and from a completely different musical tradition, was the psychedelic blackmetal band Nachtmystium. Just found out a buddy of mine, Will Lindsay, who used to play in Wolves in the ThroneRoom, is playing bass with them. Always nice to see him, great guy. Nachtmystium played a kick-ass, but really noisy and harshsounding set. What striked me was that the attendence wasn’t that high. The indoor room was filled to the roof during Saviours, but during Nachtmystium, there were maybe 70 people there. In Europe, this would definitely be the other way around.

“This song goes out to everybody that has ever the misfortune of being in New York City”. “All I want is MORE BEER!” ,“Aaaaaaaaaaaai Love Living in the City”. One two three four, One two three four, One two three four! Just a couple of FEAR intro’s. These old punkrockers were headlining the Thrasher party, and it was amazing. Notorious louthmouth Lee Ving looked like an old Chinese Restaurant owner, combined with a biker image, and he was funny as hell.  Rude, politically outspoken, and obnoxious. Just the way it should be. They played a short set of about 40 minutes, and all the hits were played. The crowd was rowdy, throwing beer, pogoing, and seeing old punkrockers going mental is alway cool. Perfect way to end the afternoon.

After a bite to eat and some coffee, the evening programm was on. I had a big schedule of about 25 shows, so a busy night ahead. Met up with Frank Satink of Goomah / Ev’Hands early evening, we both wanted to see the Mirel Wagner show at Red 7, but there was a que of about 50 meters, and apparently, it was a private party by Sony. This annoyed a lot of people. Just don’t put the show in the schedule if you are not allowed to get in, I’d say… Next up was the Sacred Bones showcase at Elysium. They had six bands playing. First up was Wyland Miles, guitarist for Fresh and Only’s, doing his own music. It was quite ok, sounded a bit Brittish / romantic ‘80’s poppy, but I wasn;t that impressed. Thee Oh Sees were up at Red 7, but after queing for another 15 minutes, I came into an almost empty venue (why the que, people?), and saw a band called STatic Jigs, which were boring. Red 7 has apatio stage as well, but no Thee Oh Sees there too, some band called Roll the Tanks played, and they were’t interesting at all. It’s a general thing that annoys me during SXSW. The total lack of information in the venues. No infoabout line-up changes, no schedules inside, no signing to the different rooms in a building. The service level is pretty low here. Not a good thing.

I went to Hotel Vegas, where the Hardly Art showcase was on, with great bands like XRayEyeballs and Jacuzzi Boys. I went to see Shimmering Stars, but they were boring and totally uninspired. Decided to go to Barbarella to see SleepOver, but they haven’t even built up when they were supposed t start playing. My carefully prepared schedule was now defintly fucked. Not a great way to start the evening. I went back to Elysium for Amen Dunes, a psychpop trio on Sacred Bones records. The Elysium is quite a big venue, holds about 400 people, and I think it was a bit too big for Sacred Bones. Attendence was quite good, about 200 people for the show, but I think I prefer a bit smaller room fort his. Another thing that popped to mind is that if you throw a showcase for your label, you should make a party out of it. Sacred Bones programmed 5 bands, but didn’t do much about the venue. No banners, an ugly venue-logo beamed behind the stage. Ideas like a presenter, an inbetween bands DJ, a nice info- and merchbooth, that would make the showcase much better. But, generally speaking, the bands were all good, and that’s the most important thing. Amen Dunes played a nice show, getting louder and more intens while the set progressed. And his vocals are really good.

Next up was Bleached at the Beauty Bar patio, which, after 10 minutes of queing to get in the venue, was apparently full, so another 10 minutes to waste. Information, people. Inform your public! Decided to go back to Red 7, where Lee Fields and the Expressions were supposed to be on at 11. Came in just prior to 1, only to see that Thee Oh Sees were in the middle of their set. Schedulewise, this was ofcourse another fuck-up, but I got the chance to see Thee Oh Sees which was the upside of it. They were great, energetically, two-drummer outfit, great stageprecence. Enjoyed every minute of it, together with Willem van Zeeland of VPRO’s 3voor12, who had an amazing time as well.

We decided to wait for Lee Fields, and after a 30 minute change-over, they started. You know you are seeing a professionalband, when the first note they hit, is already the right note. Everything was balanced, sound was amazing, and Lee’s stage entrance was highly anticipated. But, tob e honest, after 3 or 4 songs, I got a little bored. It sounded really retro and all, but I could’t pay attention much longer. I think that retro-soul wise, I really prefer Charles Bradly over Lee Fields.

I went to see Crocodiles after that, at the Stage on 6th venue. A young, wavy poppunk band from England. They were ok, but they couldn’t capture my attention, so I decided to cycle to Hotel Vegas again, where K-Holes played. And boy, that was the right decicion. K-Holes are a NoWave punkband, looking like a bunch of ‘80’s goth/pop musicians in black, with an excentric blond singer as frontwomen. They played an energetic set of loud nowave with great saxophone leads, and awesome bassplaying. Together with Thee Oh Sees, the best band of the evening.

Back to Elysium to see Psychic Ills, which were ok, but nothing special going on, so decided to go see High on Fire presenting some new songs from their upcoming album. Once again, they payed no regard to the schedule, so High on Fire started 45 minutes late. The sound was horrible, and I decided to leave after one song. High on Fire is absolutely one of my favorite bands ever, but this was just not good. I’ll give m another chance though. Oh, and Matt  Pike was not looking healty at all. He had a beerbelly the size of an beachball. Hope he’s doing ok…

Time for the last two bands of today which were Night Beats at Buffalo Billiard (huge room for a noise/garagetrio, attendence of 25 people in a room for 500, show was great, band amaing and awkward), and closing act was The Men at the Sacred Bones showcase again. I saw a rather uninspired show by them in Rotterdam a while back, but this was kick-ass. THeir new album is more poppy, and the crowd was singing along, pogoing and stagediving. They even did an encore. Great way to end the evening.