Trunk Road @ SXSW: Django Django, Father John Misty, Tea Leaf Green, Plants & Animals, Prince Rama, Glen Hansard

SXSW – Friday, March 16

Ominous tones suffuse the corner of Red River and Sixth this afternoon. At the no-longer-named Emo’s Annex, the New England Metal and Hardcore Festival is in full swing. The guttural primal screams, pounding bass and speed guitar licks complemented the nearby Green Zone with its motto of “Free Range Against The Machine.” For the first time in a couple years, I had an old-fashioned SXSW day, bouncing from venue to venue without encountering any lines. Not that they didn’t exist, my plans for the day just seemed to avoid the queues. It is surely healthier to be outdoors in the sunshine then spending the day skulking in bars. Catching as many of the bands instead of mastering your queuing skills simply feels for productive. It’s also one of the true joys of SXSW.

The Under The Radar showcase at the Flamingo Cantina kicks off with a noontime set from Django Django. Despite what their name might suggest, they are neither purveyors of African beats or masters of gypsy acoustic guitar jazz. Mixing Talking Heads like beats and propulsive drumbeats, the East Londoners concocted a heady brew of old-school new wave and modern rock.

[Django Django]

The dynamic of Lost In The Trees, the North Carolina troupe that followed, tends to be kinetic with their lush studio compositions susceptible to a fluctuating number of musicians. At the Cantina, LitT consisted of a modest string section comprised of an adorably cute violinist and a cellist that could serve as a stand in for one the skater-punk metal bands playing down the road. Offering lilting melodies that have symphonic scope, lead singer Ari Picker caused double takes with his preternaturally high voice. Extraordinarily engaging, they offered selections from A Church That Meets Our Needs, which will be released this Tuesday or, as the kids say drops on March 20th. At least that’s how the kids talked five years ago.

At Red Eyed Fly for the Noise Pop showcase, Janka Nabay and the Bubu Gang from Sierra Leone offered up authentic African rhythms to start the event. Out on the rocky patio, Trampled By Turtles trotted out music from a wholly different kind of cultural heritage, hosting an early afternoon hoedown. Bracketing finely rendered country ballads with fiery rambles out of a raucous saloon, the bluegrass outfit roiled the crowd into a fine early afternoon frenzy. All that was missing was a campfire and a jug of moonshine as Lone Stars and Shiner Bocks might lack the proper authenticity.

[Trampled By Turtles]

Moving things another 180 degrees but not back full circle, Black Ryder, a primarily female outfit domineered the indoor stage. Relying on heavy bass, they sound like a darker, more troubled version of Warpaint. Back outside, The Trophy Fire, substituting for Bare Wires on short notice, played a set of straightforward radio rock. The least interesting of the Noise Pop showcase bands, they likely have the greatest chance of widespread appeal.

Back out on Sixth Street, there are now block-long lines leading from Flamingo Cantina, where of Montreal will be playing one of their albums in its entirety, The Stage at 6th for Day 2 of the Paste party featuring Glen Hansard and the Jackalope, where Tommy Stinson and Alejandro Escovedo will be playing separate sets. Odd to have left Flamingo Cantina earlier and seeing the momentous line of people with little chance of getting inside. Of Montreal must have more allure than I’m imagining.

At Peckerheads, where My Old Kentucky Blog and others are sponsoring their annual Vaya Con Tacos party, comes the first acknowledgement of the outside world with televisions turned to the NCAA tournament. Despite the available diversion, no one bats and eye or reacts as Creighton ousts Alabama; everyone are rapt with Santa Barbara’s Gardens and Villas. Although equipped with a pair of synthesizers, G&V were far from your typical electro-dance band. In what appeared to be a strange Legolas homage, lead singer Christopher Lynch played most of the set with a quiver on his back. Instead of arrows though, he whipped out a variety of flutes and showed that Ian Anderson is not the only one that can thrive in the flute folk world.

If J. Tillman left Fleet Foxes in the belief that he could make a go of it as a solo artist, he made an incredibly shrewd and wise decision. Under the nom de plume of Father John Misty, Tillman unleashed a verifiable jeremiad in song with the force of his personality infusing and enhancing the already superbly written material. Due to technical problems, Tillman’s Peckerheads’ set turned into one of those special SXSW moments. With no amplification, Tillman hushed the bar letting the power of the music draw the crowd in. Moving to the top of a speaker, Tillman sat cross-legged as if at home in his living room, rising to his feet when he needed to deliver the stronger notes. If this took place on a larger stage, this would have been a starmaking turn. The fun of SXSW is that it happens at a dive bar before a crowd of a dozens at three in the afternoon. Unplanned stage theatrics aside, Tillman’s Father John Misty material was nothing short of revelatory. Reaching inside with gripping intensity, his proclamation of how he used to be Joshua and used to be J echoes John Lennon’s proclamation that he didn’t believe in Beatles but just believed in himself. As hard as it is to believe, Father John Misty will rival and even surpass Fleet Foxes.

[Father John Misty]

Around the corner at Lovejoys, Midgetmen’s 5th Annual Texas Jumpstart is in full swing. As a prelude to The Henry Clay People, Montreal’s Plants & Animals showcases songs from their recently released The End Of That. When Plants & Animals came to the forefront of everyone’s attention with Parc Avenue, they captivated the imagination with flowing, meticulously crafted suites. Bolstered by a second guitarist that may be neither Plant or Animal (metaphorically, he was clearly human), the Canadians’ Lovejoys set was a more straightforward rock and roll set. Even Faerie Dance, their signature piece from Parc Avenue, had a harder-tinged, prog rock feel. In losing some the bookish qualities, they’ve gained a more serious mein.

In the two years since Free Energy vaulted into the collective consciousness as a result of being tabbed one of Rolling Stones Bands to Watch in 2009 along with the likes of Titus Andronicus and Grace Potter & The Nocturnals, they’ve grown from playing a poppier style of Faces-style rock to a more rock-based style of Faces-style rock. Even though there’s always been a distinct sense that they’re being pushed by the unknowable forces that push things in the music business, Free Energy has always been undeniably appealling. It’s nice to see that they may have their legs under them.

A full horn section, usually portends good things. Until a large, bald, bearded man starts rapping over them. Sorry Brother Ali. Moving on.

Back at Red Eyed Fly, Sleepy Sun closed out the patio stage. Since Rachel Fannan left the band in late 2010, the band’s stage centerpiece has been lead singer/guitarist Bret Constantino, who is cut from the mold of great psych-rock frontmen. Without Fannan’s voice, Sleepy Sun no longer has the Black Mountain feel to them. If anything, they’ve mastered the subtleties of their craft. The retain all the elements that make psychedlic rock a joy and lnow how to draw out its finer points, using delicate bells to counterpunctuate the tumultuous underpinnings. Plus, they’ve got a song about cops on LSD that Oliver Stone surely licensed to adapt as his new picture.

[Sleepy Sun]

Each year, there is usually one set that’s simply a head-scratcher. It’s either genius or total garbage and impossible to tell. David St. Hubbins uttered very sage wisdom when he pontificated on the thin line between stupid and clever. For SXSW 2012: Prince Rama. A keyboard and drums sister act, Nimai Larson dances and wails away at her half-electronic/half traditional drum kit while her sister Taraka Larson cajoles ambient Indian club rhythms out her keyboards, singing over them in wordless (or perhaps simply foreign) vocals. It sounds like DJ Logic being set loose in an ashram with a legal-sized blotter of acid. To close their set, they set the music on autoplay, came into the crowd and engaged in an interpretive dance that incorporated ballroom spins, Bollywood moves and ballet jetes. Unreal . . . and utterly transfixing.

To close out the Vaya Con Tacos showcase, Bass Drum Of Death rifled off furious doses of hard rock with elements of punk and hardcore. That sentence could possibly be written about two hundred bands working here this week.

For as great as the new ACL Live at the Moody Theater looks on Austin City Limits, it is even more gorgeous in person. Set inside the luxurious W Hotel, the exterior is constructed similar to a baseball stadium. When you walk out the back of the theater, you are outside on big stone mezzanines that overlook downtown Austin.

The War On Drugs open the evening but we’ll discuss them later, The feature attraction this evening is The Magnetic Fields, the austere, hyperliterate Stephin Merritt project. Foregoing any pretense of a rock and roll songs, the delightfully precise band assembled across the stage as if performing at a chamber recital. For close to ninety minues – an eternity in SXSW time, they covered much of Love At The Bottom Of The Sea and selected material from 69 Love Songs, including the charming The Book Of Love, recently covered by Peter Gabriel. With a catalog of delicate songs that never cross the line into pretentiousness, Merritt and Claudia Gonson demanded the audience’s attention. Merritt made his demand with extraordinarily deft subtlety (possibly admitting that he suffered a beating from Patti Lupone) and Gonson a bit more forcefully when the audience didn’t take Merritt’s hint. The quiet respite of The Magnetic Fields’ set was one of this year’s true joys: Merritt is a marvelous songwriter and his deep, calm delivery finds comparison only in Leonard Cohen’s bohemian cool.

[The Magnetic Fields]

Fans of the boss crying blasphemy aside, Glen Hansard could easily be described as the Irish Springsteen. Honing his skills as a street busker in his younger days, Hansard needs only moments to engage and win over an audience with nothing more than his guitar and Gaelic charm. For those unfamilar, Hansard has anchored The Frames and The Swell Season and won an Oscar with Marketa Irglova for Falling Slowly from Once. If you look below, you can see him from his role in The Commitments as Outspan Foster. Hansard’s acoustic set condensed many of the best elements of The Swell Season’s live show into a wildly entertaining half hour set. At the Billions showcase at Antones, Hansard welcomed Jake Clemons, currently of The E Street Band and formerly with The Swell Season, for a cover heavy set that included Springsteen’s Drive All Night and a mighty rendition of Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks. In a nod to the upcoming St. Patricks Day, Hansard hushed the crowd with an invigorating, though heartwrenching, version of The Parting Glass, a traditional Irish ballad most associated with The Clancy Brothers.

Working the same fields tilled by the Drive-By Truckers, fewer bands seem as aptly suited for a rowdy Texas evening than Lucero and their brand of raucous cow-punk. At the Fender showcase, Lucero worked over the jam-packed crowd that piled into Bar 96’s makeshift backyard stage. Working horns into their earthy growl and inserting the closest thing that comes as a ballad for them, Lucero’s set concluded right about the time they seemed to be catching a groove. It would be one of the many sets that would inspire a new set fans if the crowd didn’t already seem to be filled with the converted.

Far from Red River Street where Tom Morello did in fact take to the streets and Occupy SXSW, The Tap Room at Six played host to the JamBase party. Along with the Relix showcase, Andy Gadiel’s event essentially served as the bulwark of the jam band representation at SXSW. (Let’s plant this idea in everyone’s head now: Glide Magazine/Hidden Track showcase at SXSW 2013!!!) Tea Leaf Green, the San Franciscoans that prowl the stomping grounds of the JamBase west coast home base, appropriately headlined the event. Much like their rooftop set from the day before, Tea Leaf hewed to the SXSW philosophy and drew their set list from their recently released Radio Tragedy. With an enthusiastic crowd dancing celebratorially (oddly, a rarity at many SXSW shows), Trevor Garrod finished off the night with a steamy rendition of Devil’s Pay. South By generally doesn’t jam – it did for one night.

[via @AndyGadiel]

On the day, nineteen bands, fourteen hours on my feet, eight venues, seven miles walked, ??? Lone Stars imbibed, four times cursing the Jesus & Mary Chain for what they did to my ears and one Win Butler and Regine Chassagne sighting. If I had met him during the hour or so I was a member of his extended SXSW entourage, Ice Cube would surely say it was a good day.

Related Content

One Response

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Posts

New to Glide

Keep up-to-date with Glide

Twitter