SXSW

SXSW Review: Karen Elson, Temples, March 16, Cedar Street Courtyard

Posted on March 22, 2017 by Paul in South By Southwest | Leave a comment

Karen Elson
“The sun came out just for us. And for my pale skin. And I don’t have sunscreen so let’s do this.” Luckily for Karen Elson, her band wasn’t quite ready to go at that point and the false start gave someone in the audience a chance to offer some of her sunscreen, which was gladly accepted.

Elson offered to present us with her “sardonic English comedy show” while the band (which included a fantastic harpist) got things ready but that never materialised. What we got instead was a taste of the songs off of her upcoming sophomore album Double Roses, the title track of which was named for a Sam Shepard poem. “It’s all about the Texas landscape,” she explained, which made performing it in Texas quite appropriate.

Also quite appropriate for a sunny Texas afternoon was the sun-baked, hazy psychedelia of Temples, whose organ driven retro psych rock manages to somehow come across as both heavy and as light as air at the same time.

SXSW Review: Julie Byrne, March 16, Clive Bar

Posted on March 21, 2017 by Paul in South By Southwest | Leave a comment

IMG_20170316_210116

SXSW can sometimes be pretty unforgiving to the artists performing there. Whether it’s playing to a crowd that’s just there for free food and drink or one who’s just waiting for another act to come on stage later, it’s not always guaranteed that you’ll have the most energetic or attentive audience. Julie Byrne must have already had such an experience before her Thursday night show at Clive Bar as she seemed so genuinely appreciative of the audience. “Thanks so much for your attention. i can’t tell you what it means to us. We feel like big misfits sometimes. This next song utilises silence as an instrument. We’ll see how that goes.” As it turned out, it went quite well indeed.

This show was part of the Showtime network’s promotion for their upcoming revival of Twin Peaks and as such, the stage was decked out with the red curtain and zigzag black and white carpeting that was seen in that series’ bizarre, otherworldly Black Lodge. The otherworldly vibe seemed somewhat fitting as Byrne’s music had me feeling almost like I had entered another plane. At one point, I glanced at my watch and was surprised that only 14 minutes had passed since the beginning of her set. That’s not to say that her set was dragging in any way or that I was hoping for it to be over soon – it was more that I was so totally enveloped in the beautiful, haunting, mesmerising sounds that time itself seemed to slow down. It’s rare to find such a moment at the whirlwind that is SXSW.

SXSW Review: Robyn Hitchcock and Emma Swift, Modern English, March 15, Waterloo Records

Posted on March 20, 2017 by Paul in South By Southwest | Leave a comment

Emma Swift and Robyn Hitchcock
Taking advantage of the fact that he was playing a day show at a record store, Robyn Hitchcock took a moment to muse upon records, CDs, and the state of the music industry in general during his Wednesday afternoon slot at Waterloo Records. He mentioned the “frightening accuracy” of the CD (“Like a drone missile”) and went so far as to refer to the start of the CD era as the beginning of the end of the music industry. That said, he seems to still have a soft spot for actual records and took a moment to hype up his latest release, a 7 inch single with Emma Swift which was produced by Teenage Fanclub’s Norman Blake. “He’s a real sweetheart and I miss his glockenspiel,” Hitchcock said of Blake.

Aside from the two songs off of that record, other highlights of his set were “Madonna Of The Wasps” and a great version of Bob Dylan’s “Just Like A Woman,” which Hitchcock introduced by saying, “If there’s any songwriter who’s better than Emma and me, it’s this guy. Except when he’s not.”

Modern English
Following Hitchcock on that same stage were “80s new wave/post-punk band Modern English, promoting their latest release Take Me To The Trees, and of course playing songs from throughout their career, including the stone cold classic “I Melt With You.” They sounded fantastic and made it clear to any casual fans that there’s much more to them than just their big hit. Of course, the hit was still what everyone was most looking forward to and by the end of their set, everyone was singing along, much to the amusement of singer Robbie Grey when he caught the crowd imitating his accent. “You’re trying to sound English! That’s hilarious!”

SXSW Review: BNQT, March 15, Easy Tiger

Posted on March 20, 2017 by Paul in South By Southwest | Leave a comment

BNQT

BNQT are basically Eric Pulido’s dream team. The band is made up of members of Pulido’s band Midlake alongside Grandaddy’s Jason Lytle and Travis’ Fran Healy, as well as Franz Ferdinand’s Alex Kapranos and Band Of Horses Ben Bridwell (the latter two weren’t able to join the band for this occasion). With such a roster of talent, you could call them a supergroup (like a 2000s indie version of The Travelling Wilburys or Crosby, Stills and Nash) but more simply than that, it came across as a group of friends who are mutual fans of each other’s work coming together to make music for the sheer joy of it.

During their set at Easy Tiger as part of the Bella Union 20th anniversary showcase, Pulido told some stories about his new bandmates and how their music had an impact on him. He described his unsuccessful attempts to woo girls by playing acoustic versions of Travis’ “Why Does It Always Rain On Me” back in his younger days, and talked about seeing Grandaddy play SXSW many years before and slipping a Midlake album to them, though he didn’t know if the band actually listened to it. Lytle confirmed that they did in fact listen and that Midlake became one of his favourite bands. There was definitely a mutual love and respect going on between the bandmates.

With the three singers alternating between numbers (Healy appreciated the fact that with a band like this, the spotlight was only on him for some of the time), the band played songs from their upcoming debut album Vol. 1 as well as a selection of songs from each band’s career – Midlake’s “Roscoe,” Grandaddy’s “AM 180”, and the aforementioned Travis tune. it was great to hear those songs live in a slightly different configuration, with the addition of that trademark Midlake flute on “Why Does It Always Rain On Me” being a particular treat. This show was a highlight of SXSW and one of the most satisfying performances of the entire week. While the individual band members are obviously all busy with their other projects, here’s hoping they find some time to play a few more shows together in the future.

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