After a long 10 hour flight from London and the
initial panic of having no phone, no money and no room, I quickly re-adjusted
to SXSW time. I realised that Austin does not allow you to rush; you have to leave
all your worries at the immigration desk.
I had managed to speak to John whilst changing flights
in Atlanta airport and arranged a rendezvous, so on arrival I hopped on the
downtown bus and headed for 6th street on Red River, where I was met
by John (the hairy one) and we went for a drink at the Beauty Bar a fitting
start to what turned into an amazing week.
The opening night began at the Austin Music Awards
where ‘the hairy one’, (also the music booker at the Half Moon) was designing the
on-stage lighting for the Black Angels. John was accompanied on the control desk
by an assistant going by the name of ‘Chopper’, I think John found this rather comforting.
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| The Black Angels SXSW 2009 |
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| John Lynch with Chopper on lighting desk for The Black Angels SXSW 2009 |
I found a spot at the front and plonked myself onto a
very noisy sub-base and began to soak up the evening. The proceedings started
rather like an annual golf club dinner with the inductees into the Austin Music
Hall of Fame being invited onto the stage to collect their awards. The most
notable being Alejandro Escovedo, with several accolades including best album
for ‘Real Animal’.
The legendary Austin punk band The Dicks kicked things
off and then Alejandro gave a performance with the one remaining member of his
band The True Believers. Finally The Black Angels took to the stage to end the
show accompanied by Austin wildman Roky Eric kson,
formerly of the 13th Floor Elevators.
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| Rocky Erickson with The Black Angels SXSW 2009 |
Thursday night I headed for the Elysium for a date
with Pete Murphy, ex Bauhaus man, he goes by ‘Peter’ these days and now lives
in Istanbul.
This was a raw performance from Murphy, who reeled the
audience in, with a quintessentially English performance, giving all he had,
until he was, in his own words ‘exhausted’.
He paused for breath and chatted with the audience to
cries of ‘Pete we love you’, to which Murphy replied ‘Why I’m a Moth’.
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| Peter Murphy at the Elysium SXSW 2009 |
Friday saw British band ‘Fanfarlo’ entertaining a
packed Presbyterian church, a surprising choice of venue for a band with the
audience seated in pews. They performed well and their horns and strings echoed
around a cavernous pulpit. Not staying for the full sermon, I dashed off
quickly to catch Graham Coxon perform some songs from his latest album. ’Sorrows
Army’ a catchy little number, going down well to an otherwise distracted crowd
of lounge bar drinkers.
Tricky headlined at the Austin Music Hall. Not knowing
too much about this man apart from his Massive Attack days, I did not know what
to expect. He gave a mesmerising performance through a cloud of thick smoke to a
somewhat daunted crowd, some of whom got it, others didn’t. I suppose that is
the whole point of Tricky.
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| Tricky SXSW 2009 |
Saturday afternoon was spent watching more bands in
the sunshine of Waterloo Park, one of the many events happening ‘outside’ the
official sxsw festival. There is much to do in this city and you don’t need to
buy the official entry badge to have fun, although it does help when you want
to get into a gig, as you get in first. At £695 dollars for a walk-up pass it’s
not a cheap option, although it does give you access to the many seminars being
held in the Austin convention centre.
We then made our way up to 39th street on Guadalupe
to The Spider House, a coffee house and bar with a beautiful garden, thrown
together with bits and pieces of old tat.
A stage in the garden provided the perfect platform
for the many bands that were playing there over the weekend. The Spider House is
right next to the campus and so attracts young students all busy working and
playing on their laptops, what a great place to study. It reminded me of the
time I moved to London and the best parties were in the back street arches and
you didn’t need a fistful of dollars to create the best hang out in town, Check
it out!
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| The Spider House Austin Texas |
Heading out south across the Colorado River we entered
the show ground at Lady Bird Lake for a free concert which seemed to attract
the whole of Austin. The Cannabinoids were performing with special guest Erykah
Badu. The local crowd were tucking into their enormous turkey drumsticks and
downing yards of Tequila in the strangest looking wine coolers I have ever
seen.
I left early and so I missed local Austin band ‘Explosions
in the Sky’; I will catch them another time. I had a far more pressing
engagement, along it transpired with two thousand others to see PJ Harvey and
John Parrish.
Polly Jean was due on stage at 10pm at Stubbs’ Barbeque
on an outdoor stage in the car park. Knowing
there would be a huge queue for this, I decided to be early for once in my
life. My punctuality was rewarded as I arrived just in time to catch Razorlight
on stage with Johnny Borrell pumping out the last few lines of that catchy
little number they do. I’m not a fan, but when you stumble across a band in
full throw, one can indulge oneself in a little foot tapping.
A couple of beers later and a quick set change and the
crowd rose to greet PJ and Parrish on stage. The audience were treated to a
taste of their new album.
With lyrics like ‘Chicken liver heart’ and ‘Stuff it
up your fucking ass’ PJ immediately got the crowd on-side. Harvey manages to
combine the crude with the melodic and the result is beautiful. ‘Black Hearted
Love’, the latest single capped off a stunning performance, this woman is truly
‘out there’ on her own.
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| PJ Harvey with John Parrish SXSW 2009 |
Just when I thought I’d reached a high I suddenly
realised the night was far from over, Echo and the Bunnymen were on at Rusty
Spurs at midnight. Rusty’s is a great little bar where they do line dancing
every Tuesday night. I had never seen Echo live but the ‘Cutter’ was my first
ever 12 inch remix on vinyl some 27 years ago, so this was a trip down memory
lane for me. Three hundred people packed into a ‘gay line dancing’ club to see
a scouse band from the eighties congers up some interesting images.
Sunday at sxsw had another lovely surprise in store,
we all headed off to South Congress to the San Jose Hotel car park to drink
coffee at Jo’s café and explore the many vintage clothes shops. It’s a great
spot for dog watching too, there’s even a rescue centre on the hill.
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| Jo's Cafe in San Jose SXSW 2009 |
Monday sees a mad dash for the airport as everything
winds down. We delayed our departure until Tuesday when things had quietened a
little; it’s also a good opportunity to see Austin return to normality and gave
us the unmissable experience of dining at East Side Pies, a small shack on Rosewood
Avenue that does the best Pizza in town.
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| Me with Shannon Sauter from KEXP Radio about to get a Pizza |
This was my first overseas festival and although not
easy on the pocket, it’s one to put in your diary soon.
Robert Harrison
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