Austin – Every year, this woman named Rachael Ray puts on a show at SXSW. Now I know who Rachael Ray is, but I have never seen her show nor did I know she had enough stroke to book Stubbs on an afternoon. This show was incredibly hard to get into and lineups were already around the block when I decided to leave my hotel at 1pm. Luckily, I was able to get into a show via some people and so here is a report on the acts I saw. Sorry as there are no pictures as all I had was my iphone with me.
Andrew WK – If there was anyone on Earth you would associate with partying, it would probably be Andrew WK. I think every single song he has contains the word party. His set was full of hard rock frenetic beat songs where Andrew WK yells into the microphone while banging his head up and down to the point where i felt my neck hurt from watching him. You have to give it to the guy though, he is committed to the cause of partying. He also has a lot of friends as I lost track of the amount of people who were on stage. You get the feeling that maybe even some people there he might not even know, probably just met them at the party last night. Even his in-between songs banter are about partying. I guess in the right mood (not say, 1pm on a freeeezing day), Andrew WK would be a fairly fun show.
Dr Dog – I was impressed with what I heard from Dr. Dog the previous day at Filter’s showdown at Cedar Courtyard. They have come a long way from the lo-fi sound of the early 2000s and look and sound like a good ole rock band. I wonder why they all wear sunglasses. What I was not impressed with, was the sound people at the North stage of Rachael Rays party, as the sound kept on cutting out halfway through the songs. We were completely deprived of vocals. Fortunately the group of hardcore Dr. Dog fans were there to singalong. There are a lot of hardcore Dr. Dog fans. I never knew that. The set ended off with the song Rabbit.
Jakob Dylan & Three Legs – Bob Dylan’s son teams up with Kelly Hogan (?) and the always awesome Neko Case in a country collaboration. How do I know this? Because Jakob Dylan was wearing one of those dorky country hats that people wear when they want to do more country songs. He was just missing having some wheat in his mouth. The music was very non-offending and probably has it’s place among Rachael Ray’s primary demographic – love deprieved stay at home moms wishing for a more lively, yet tender relationship. I thought he could of utilized Neko Case (wearing a winter jacket) better. He also DID NOT sing One Headlight or 6th Avenue Heartache. Seriously, even the most veteran of rockers know what got them there. How can they NOT sing that song.
Street Sweeper Social Club – Tom Morello has a new super group. Teaming up with Boots Riley, who looks like a Lenny Kravitz mixed with the Rock, if you threw him in the dryer for a few hours. They arrived on the North stage looking like a bunch of rock stars and were wearing pseudo-military garb with their logo embroidered on the front. Very RATMish if you ask me. They came on stage and layered some incoherent rap over some heavy rock music. I was unable and unimpressed with this band, seems a bit like a RATM ripoff and they did a horrible cover of MIA’s Paper Planes. There is no doubt they have the look of rock stars, the swagger of rock stars and the aspirations of rock stars, I just don’t think they have the music of rock stars, even if individually they might be. I left the set early to scope out a spot for She & Him
She & Him – Finally. I see an entire set of She & Him. What can I say? it was good. All their songs make you feel warm and happy inside and Zooey is cute. Hard to argue against that. Having said that, the background band was stellar and they all knew who the star vehicle was. Zooey’s vocals are rather strong and while she doesn’t really do anything on stage, it’s almost captivating enough. They played songs from both albums, including This is Not a Test and they new single In The Sun. M.Ward was also cool.
All in all, it was an okay lineup. I think most people go to Rachael Ray’s thing for all the free booze (there was A LOT) and free food. I have a good story about the lineup at RR’s for food, but it’ll make me sound like an asshole, so I’ll reserve that for another time.