Got a tip? Send it our way
Share your music news — big or small — with the Austin360.com team by sending us an e-mail.
Home > Austin Music Source > Archives > 2009 > March > 21 > Entry
SXSW Review: Ben Nichols
(Maggie Mae’s, 8 p.m. Friday)
Ben Nichols carves lines as exacting as Raymond Carver. “In my hands I hold the ashes,” he sang Friday night at Maggie Mae’s. “In my veins black pitch runs.” Witness a novelist’s eye opening.
Fittingly, Nichols’ new solo EP deconstructs vibrant literature. “I read Cormac McCarthy’s ‘Blood Meridian’ in 1999 and again recently,” Nichols told us in an interview immediately before the show. “‘Last Pale Light in the West’ is mainly built around the general idea of each character. Each song is based on a different character’s perspective. There was a lot of great imagery and great characters I wanted to steal - or borrow. Let’s say it inspired me.”
Clearly. Encourage Nichols to continue paralleling his night job with equally pulsating solo projects. Forget rehearsal. The Lucero front man’s too-feverish delivery — he is, after all, paced like a locomotive — only heightens anticipation. “Sorry for the informality,” Nichols said, accepting his second whiskey from a fan. “Usually I’m a taskmaster, but tonight I decided to let myself go. Figured I’ve already played three times (at SXSW), so it’s all right.”
Nichols wildly derailed “Davy Brown,” later recovering and crashing once again. Trademark territory (wine, women) set the landscape. Nichols gladly honored Lucero requests (“The War,” “Hold Me Close”) and debuted oven-fresh material (“I’m 100 miles past lonesome, 100 miles past anything called fair,” he sang on one unrecorded track).
“Obviously, I wasn’t trying to encompass the entire novel or make any overall statement on the book,” Nichols continued earlier. “I’m definitely not an authority, but there was a lot in there that I thought would be cool in songs. It was suitable for an acoustic record, too, something a little more old-world.”
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: SXSW 2009
Comments
Click here to report comment abuse.