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SXSW DAY 4: Texadelphia
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SXSW DAY 4: Texadelphia
The Sound of Philadelphia, 12:30 p.m. @ Convention Center
This was a panel discussion featuring Leon Huff, Kenny Gamble and Joe Tarsia live from Philly International HQ (via Skype or some other equally hiccuppy web video chat thing on a big screen in a really big and underpopulated auditorium), and in-person panelizing by Bruce Warren of WXPN, Chris Junior of Goldmine (a music collector mag) and Akina Adderley, an Austin singer performing at the festival. For what it was, the event was a fairly illuminating conversation that touched on the Delphonics, Intruders, Patti Labelle, Wilson Pickett, Nancy Wilson, Teddy Pendergrass, the Schubert Building and tons more. When the anecdotes reached the ’80s, Gamble surprised me when he said he was, in retrospect, relieved when hip-hop and rap pushed soul, R&B and disco out of the limelight. He and Huff and co. had been building hits and careers for years and “needed a break.” Could that possibly be true?
Kurt Vile and the Violators, 3:30 p.m. @ Auditorium Shore
Swift, confident set from the Philly guitar dude recently featured on the cover of our Music Issue. Broken pedal = no “Freak Train,” but he didn’t need the “hit” today. Crowd was into it. Surprisingly good sound for a wide-open festival type atmosphere. Maybe it’s the lack of buildings or any other structure for sound to bounce off of and muddy up. Tallest thing nearby might be the Monster Energy drink tower of scaffolding which nobody climbed to the top of because it’s freaking 80-something degrees.
Man Man, 4:30 p.m. @ Auditorium Shore What The Hell Kind Of Name Is That For A Place?
If you wrote them off as some kinda porn-stached hipster-Muppet-Tom Waits novelty act, I dare you to stand by that now. Honus Honus and co. put on a phenomenal live show. Musically clever, raucous and perfect for a dusty sweat-storm show near some guano-stenched river.
!!!, 6:30 p.m. @ East Side Drive-In Pig Pen
Oh. So this is what everybody was trying to tell me about !!! like four years ago. (It’s pronounced chik chik chik, btw.) I was always kinda mad at these guys for hogging the top spot on my iTunes and never gave them a chance. Turns out they’re this amazing Sacramento funk-punk dance thing, a male Peaches, albeit a bit classier. They covered Prince and Nate Dogg like it was nothing, and chronic self-groper Nic Offer sang from deep in the Tasmanian Devil dust pit in front of the stage every chance he got. Girls and dudes went crazy for it.
The Dead Milkmen, 7:30 p.m. @ East Side Drive-In Tatooine Playset
Wow. I’ve seen the revived Dead Milkmen a few times but I had no idea their following still burned so strong outside their hometown. People, this show was nuts. The stage diving was non-stop (including some hilariously bone-crunching miscalculations), and Rodney Anonymous (City Paper’s Aid or Invade columnist) even got into it at the very end. Brave, brave man. It’s funny watching the Milkmen’s frontmen play out their yin and yang on stage. Rodney’s really into the crowd climbing up, jumping off, going batshit. Butterfly Joe, however, made a few half-hearted attempts to encourage sanity and moderation, which Rodney quickly overrode, even as the stage became a turnstile for punks looking taking pictures of themselves with the band before diving back into the fray. I hope they took a second to appreciate the music; the Milkmen sounded great on “Bitchin’ Camaro,” “Tiny Town,” Punk Rock Girl,” etc., and the new stuff fit right in, in that it was also loud, weird and unpredictable.
Odd Future, 9 p.m. @ East Side Walk-In Vacuum Bag
There’s a lot of buzz around these guys as some kind of gruff saviors of hardcore rap. Sounded like shit to me, but it did turn the crowd into a pack of alpha-dog douches, which I guess is a kind of enthusiasm.
Mark Eitzel, 10 p.m. @ St. David’s Bethell Hall
He’s got such a great earthy voice, and sings about dirty friends and booze and guys in fedoras and dolls with the most beautiful faces and the Mission District and zzzzzzzzzzz. Wake me when it’s over. Oh it’s never going to end? Then I’m sleepwalking out of here.
Comedy Showcase, 11 p.m. @ Esther’s Follies
Once again after a long day of sweating in dusty parking lots, a sit-down show at a comedy club is irresistible. Especially since Donald Glover (who plays Troy on Community and performs some stunning hip-hop as Childish Gambino) was on the bill. I’m a big fan, and he’s why the line went around the block and the reason I was willing to sit through a bunch of the same comedians I’d seen one day earlier in the same venue (which is a really, really nice watch to see comedy). Too bad Glover didn’t show up. Dick move, Troy. I skipped Ty Segall for this?
Anyway, I can’t be too pissy — Glover has been slobberingly apologetic — the rest of the line-up was strong: Amy Schumer was kinda brilliant and dirty, Kurt Braunohler was way better this time around, also by working blue and Darryl Lenox did a subtle-ish storyteller kinda thing that managed to win the room despite being the guy who followed the way-too-late “Donald Glover isn’t here” announcement. Oh yeah, Chris Cubas hosted and opened with some of the Reggie Watts stuff he was saying to me in the audience the night before. It went over really well. Dude is funny and I’d love to see him host some kind of loose Doug Benson type show or podcast.
The Blackheart Procession, 1 a.m. @ Maggie May’s
Maybe I’m just harboring some Childish resentment, but I found The Blackheart Procession so boring I want to ban City Paper from ever writing about them ever again. (Okay not really.) This is what we were running all those music picks about over the years? The dude’s saying “I walk the city streets” and “diamonds in your eyes” — if these aren’t officially recognized songwriting clichés, they should be. Oh and then he’s singing about the devil, two songs in a row, which is definitely a cliché for blues rock snoozefests. They can really play and sing, but they don’t do much with all that talent. And SXSW goes out with a series of whimpers.
Good night, Austin.
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