My Saturday afternoon on the last full day of SXSW was taken up by a fair bit of aimless wandering and discovery as I didn’t have too much of a set agenda. As it turned out, just going with the flow led to several pleasant discoveries. Here’s how it all played out:
Casper Skulls
Starting things off early with an 11:30 set, we did our patriotic duty and caught one more Toronto act at SXSW after taking in sets from Greys, The Weather Station, and Yamantaka//Sonic Titan earlier in the week. Signed to Buzz Records (their latest, Mercy Works, came out late last year), Casper Skulls put on an impressive show despite it being before noon on the last day, starting the day off right with some Sonic Youth-inspired sounds.
Sloppy Jane
Playing intense art-rock that brought to mind everything from musical theatre to grindcore, Sloppy Jane delivered one of the most memorable and entertaining sets of the whole week. Frontwoman Haley Dahl (who spent much of the set wearing nothing but shoes, socks, and her guitar) was a commanding presence as she lead her nine piece band though their noontime performance.
High Waisted
Fun, surfy, poppy rock n’ roll out of New York City. I enjoyed this band’s set at Beerland (aka the most dimly lit bar in Austin) so much I went back and saw them again later that same afternoon. In fact, the band were playing 3 or 4 sets that afternoon, all of them around the same stretch of Red River Street. That’s SouthBy for you.
Sturle Dagsland
Sturle Dagsland caught my attention pretty quickly during an afternoon set at the stage on the corner of 7th and Neches – primal, wordless vocals, avant-garde sounds, a singer jumping off the stage, doing a front roll and attacking a folding chair that happened to be in front of that stage – and that was all just over the course of one song. I think I only caught about one and a half songs by Sturle and his brother Sjur, but the Norwegians definitely made an impression in that time. They get high points as well for some humorous stage banter, including making up titles like “Yiyiyiyiyi” (or something to that effect) for their songs and Sturle telling a story about a man he had seen earlier who spit on his own crotch while staring at a wall. “If you know this man … tell him he’s on the guest list for our next show.”
Dr. Pepper’s Jaded Hearts Club Band
A Beatles cover band fronted by Miles Kane and Muse’s Matt Bellamy and featuring members of Nine Inch Nails and Jet among others? Sure, why not? Playing the headlining slot at Stubb’s for Rachael Ray’s ever popular Feedback day party, the Jaded Hearts Club Band played a fun set packed with the familiar repertoire of the Fab Four. Decked out in all black garb and leather jackets, the band paid sartorial homage to The Beatles’ early days in Germany (because really, wearing stuff more reminiscent of their late ’60s period might have been a bit harder to pull off) as they inspired many mass singalongs. And then Rachael Ray came out to thank the crowd and it ended in a bunch of people chanting her name, which seemed a bit weird, but whatever.
… And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead
“We were going to play a new song, but we ran out of time,” announced Trail Of Dead’s Conrad Keely at the beginning of their afternoon slot at The Mohawk. Instead, the band ran through a bunch of classics from earlier in their career, including the very first song they ever played live, which apparently happened at a little coffee shop not too far from The Mohawk. I don’t think any of the die hard fans in attendance minded hearing the old stuff one bit, although a new track would have been cool to hear as well. It’s always good to see an Austin act at SXSW and with Trail Of Dead being an old favourite regardless, this was a no brainer. I’ve seen these guys live a few times now and they never disappoint.