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Thursday, May 29, 2008
Weekend Picks
Friday: Grupo Fantasma CD release party at The Mohawk. The cumbia funk masters who have grown to national fame opening for Prince celebrate the release of their new CD, ‘Sonidos Gold,’ with the home crowd. Expect a full-on dance party outside at The Mohawk. — M.O.
Friday: Dirty Wormz at Antone’s. These hip-hop veterans mix beats with a metal edge. — M.O.
Friday: The Black Angels CD release party at Emo’s. The psychedelic rock stylings of the throwback Angels should have folks in a sweaty tizzy outside at Emo’s with songs from their new album, “Directions to See a Ghost.” (Read Michael Hoinski’s recent profile of the Angels here.) — M.O.
Saturday: Centro-Matic at The Parish. The band’s newest release, “Dual Hawk,” is a split double-album. Centro-matic takes one disc; their chiller alter ego South San Gabriel takes the other. That’s a lot of Centro/Gabriel singer-songwriter Will Johnston. — Joe Gross
Saturday: Pachanga Latino Music Festival at Waterloo Park. It’s the first (let’s hope annual) Pachanga Fest, with Latin music’s best regional and local bands, including Grupo Fantasma, Nortec Collective Presents Bostich & Fussible, Vallejo, Maneja Beto, Pistolera and Charanga Cakewalk. — J.G.
Sunday: The Dresden Dolls at Stubb’s. Take a trip in time back to lovely old East Germany courtesy of the quirky ‘punk cabaret’ duo from Boston. — M.O.
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Outdoor shows at the Mohawk, other Transmission venues to end by 11 p.m. weekdays, midnight weekends; elderly fans like myself rejoice
Oh, man. Long have I waited for this day.
Starting June 1, outdoor shows at Club DeVille and Mohawk will start at 8 or 9 p.m. and finish by 11 p.m. on weekdays (Sunday to Wednesday) and midnight on weekends (Thursday to Saturday).
Indoor shows at Mohawk will likely stay on the typical everything starts at 10 p.m. and ends at 2 a.m. schedule.
“Technically, on Red River past Seventh, from about Elysium down, outdoor shows have always had to end at this time,” Transmission talent buyer Graham Williams said Thursday. (Stubb’s, for example, has always followed this policy.)
“With the Ready Ice building across the street, it never seemed like a big deal (to go later),” Williams said. “But with people starting to move into the apartments across the street in the fall, now seems a good time to start moving to earlier times.”
Earlier show times have long been debated in the Austin music scene.
Will Johnson is the leader of the Denton-based Centro-matic. He hates playing late shows. “The older I get, the less I really like playing those late shows,” he says. “I’ve always thought that 10:30 or 11 is optimum start time. As a show-goer I feel exactly the same way. The real late night do start to take a toll.”
An aging rock fanbase with day jobs and kids have quietly longed for it (at the expense of seeming lame), while bartenders have long objected to it, noting that if shows end by midnight and fans leave, that’s two hours of drinking time that goes un-tipped for.
“Frankly, I don’t think bartenders should be setting those sorts of policies,” Williams says, “but honestly, we’re gaining a few hours on the other end. If our shows are starting at 8 and everyone else’s are starting at 10, not only do we not lose those customers, but the competition between us and other clubs decreases.”
Williams also says they may start booking local bands to play indoors from midnight to 2 a.m. on nights that feature outdoor shows.
Some think the shift in last call to 2 a.m. in 1974 permanently changed the way live music worked in Austin.
“I didn’t live here then,” Texas Music Office director Casey Monahan says. “But from the long-timers I’ve spoken with, the change in time from midnight to 2 a.m. really altered how people enjoyed music in Austin. It changed the club clientele because people who had to wake up early for work couldn’t stay up late, leaving the clubs filled with either students or people who didn’t have regular 8-to-5 jobs.”
Drinking ages in Texas have also wobbled over the years.
In 1973, the drinking age dropped from 21 to 18, just in time for the cosmic cowboy explosion. In 1981, it moved from 18 to 19. In 1986, it moved back to 21.
“Those two changes (the midnight to 2 switch and the 21-drinking age) are highly underrated in affecting the health of the Austin live music industry,” Monahan said.
Monahan also thinks the changes might have made the music scene a little less collegial. “If club-goers wanted to stay up, they went to go play at people’s houses,” he says. “It wasn’t so centered around venues.”
Williams says the change has been popular with national booking agents. “They’re ecstatic,” he says. “For my entire life of booking, agents have been pushing us to do shows earlier, but Austin is so stuck in the idea that it has to be a late town.”
Dead Oceans Records owner Phil Waldorf, who also spent time booking Emo’s with Williams, agrees with this assessment. Most booking agents subscribe to the idea that the earlier a headliner goes on, the more people will be at the show.
“Booking agents always complained about late start times in Austin,” Waldorf said. “We always had to sell them on the fact that it’s a late town. Austin might be the latest market in the country.”
In New York, for example, shows of the type the Mohawk books are typically over by midnight. The house turns over and a D.J. plays for those who want to drink until 4 a.m. at the latest.
Williams acknowledges the transition period may be tough: “There are going to be shows in the beginning that people show up late for. The first show under the new policy is the Bellrays (who play Monday, June 2) and I know people are going to show up late for that one. But the show starts at 8 and the Bellrays go on at 10.” (An opening act will play between 8 and 10 p.m.)
Williams says the policy will also apply to Bourbon Rocks, the Sixth Street bar Transmission is currently renovating and turning into a 1,000 capacity outdoor venue, which is the same size as Emo’s big room and La Zona Rosa. Transmission also books shows at Red 7 and occasionally at Lambert’s.
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Candye Kane needs our help!
Back in the ’70s, African American comedian Franklin Ajaye had a joke about the power of a growling stomach. “Hunger will make a black man eat at Sambo’s at three in the morning,” he said of the 24-hour restaurant which soon after wised up and changed it’s name to Sam’s.
To paraphrase, Candye Kane is such a great blues singer she’d make a music critic go to Dick’s Last Resort in Dallas in the ’90s. Although Candye’s from San Diego, she sure made Big D feel like Austin whenever I caught her act up there.
Sadly, Ms. Kane has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and recently went through some ambitious, and expensive surgery. There’s a benefit for her tonight at Antone’s starring the Fabulous T-Birds with Kim Wilson, Billy Joe Shaver, Rosie Flores, Paula Nelson and many more. There’s no better cause. I’d be there even if the headliner was an Amish reggae band called Babylon by Buggy. Hang in there, Lady Blues. We love you.
Show starts at 7 p.m. Suggested donation is $12.
