Home > Austin Music Source > Archives > 2009 > November > 05 > Entry
Weekend picks: New Age jazz, a folk patriarch and rock perfection
FRIDAY
AC/DC at the Erwin Center. When people say their band sounds like AC/DC, it just isn’t true. Oh, they might think they sound like this crew of Australians’ patented hard rock, but they don’t. Very little sounds quite like AC/DC. The chunky riffs, the drumming’s beyond-basic feel, Brian Johnson’s ancient tomcat screech pretty much embody the idea of deceptive simplicity. Like the Ramones and Motörhead, the band struck upon a perfect song and just kind of kept playing it again and again. And like the Ramones and Motörhead, you can tell an AC/DC song about three seconds into it. This is, of course, where bands fail in their quests to become yet more AC/DC-like: They attempt to add to AC/DC, to combine it with something else. This is a mistake — you cannot improve upon rock perfection. 7:40 p.m. $89.50. Erwin Center. 1701 Red River St. uterwincenter.com. — Joe Gross
Also recommended:
- Eyehategod at Emo’s
- Mojo Nixon and the Toadliquors at the Continental Club
- Gary Newcomb Trio at Lovejoy’s
- Galactic at Stubb’s
SATURDAY
Loudon Wainwright III and Richard Thompson at the Texas Union Ballroom. The Wainwrights — Rufus, Martha, Sloan and Lucy — are probably the closest thing American folk has to the Kennedys, with the talented, prolific and good-humored Loudon as the patriarch. Richard Thompson is a British folk legend whose compositions have been recorded by everyone from R.E.M. to Elvis Costello. Both are touring behind new releases — Wainwright a double-CD tribute to legendary hard-living banjo picker Charlie Poole and Thompson an exhaustive 4-CD retrospective. 8 p.m. $40. 2247 Guadalupe St., utexas.edu/txunion — Patrick Caldwell
Also recommended:
SUNDAY
George Winston at One World Theatre. The capo de tutti capi of New Age-slotted piano players. There was a time when Winston’s music was considered progressive — he first recorded for John Fahey’s Takoma label and his sales practically built Windham Hill Records. Winston also has a long history with Austin — Waterloo Records was an early booster and he once sold out the Paramount. He also plays Friday and Saturday. 7 p.m. $20, $45, $60. One World Theatre. 7701 Bee Cave Road. oneworldtheatre.org — J.G.
Also recommended:
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