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Free Week: cold air and hangovers
David Weaver FOR AMERICAN-STATESMAN
- A-List photos: Free Week 2010, night 2
With New Year’s Eve and its accompanying hangover behind them, Austin’s budget-conscious scenesters rallied on Saturday night, as crowds, venues and lineups all filled out. Music fans weighed cost savings and bitter chill and decided claiming the former was worth toughing through the latter as Riverboat Gamblers spinoff Ghost Knife — so new they don’t even yet have a MySpace — packed the inside room at Emo’s.
Just as impressive was an earlier set from Big Black-meets-Sonic Youth post-punk rockers Manikin, with guitarist Alfonso Rabago’s echo-loaded vocals jumpstarting a crowd already high on the gregarious garage of Serious Tracers. Outside, the spirited sludge rock of Woven Bones rang out over a sizable crowd. Even more popped in to catch certifiable buzz act and recent Matador Records signees Harlem — three guys who never fail to look giddy even at the most unfriendly hours and temperatures of the night.
Further down Red River, Stubb’s and Beerland joined the fray, with the former boasting an electric set from Black Bone Child and the latter hosting endlessly dependable rockabilly circus the Flametrick Subs. At the Mohawk, a substantial crowd crammed into the inside room to catch In Dudero, the Nirvana tribute act with members of the Sword and Those Peabodys — proof positive that, for all of Free Week’s great original acts, sometimes you just want to chug a beer and hear “Rape Me.”
Whether it was the biting cold or just the natural fallout of a hectic holiday weekend, crowds thinned out Sunday night. But those daring enough to stick around were clearly in it to win it — take, for instance, the swirling crowds at Emo’s inside during country rockers Crooks. It’s not often you see copious two-stepping on the floor of Emo’s, but the country western dance was an appropriate indulgence for a band with such a fetching honky tonk sound that you can practically hear the pedal steel — even though there isn’t one. It was something of a country-influenced night at the inside room of Emo’s, with a charming set from Frank Smith (note: the band doesn’t actually contain anyone named Frank Smith) and even a few tunes on the more acoustic, old-fashioned tip from What Made Milwaukee Famous front man Michael Kingcaid, who played a stripped-down show of solo material.
Outside, indie pop maestros Quiet Company put on their Sunday best for an appropriately joyous set containing a furious cover of the Pixies’ “Monkey Gone To Heaven.” Front man Taylor Muse praised the crowd’s persistence — “Some of us musicians have to get up at 6 a.m. for work, too” — and rewarded their loyalty with a closing rendition of the band’s crescendo-laden “On Modern Men” that pulled friends and acquaintances on-stage for a soaring sing-along. The perpetually underrated Corto Maltese fared just as well, toggling between Rush-esque guitar heroics and intellectual rock in the Radiohead style. Proggy electropoppers Many Birthdays — who, to go by their apparent youth, haven’t celebrated all that many birthdays — played the first of what will be a couple of Free Week shows with aplomb. Over at the Beauty Bar, One Hundred Flowers provided quiet, acoustic experimental pop perfectly suited for a more buttoned-down evening of relaxation and cocktails. Even on a quiet Sunday evening distinguished by its harsh chill, Red River looked surprisingly popping — and you were guaranteed to overhear substantially more conversations about Pitchfork than you would on most Sunday nights. Truly, the party has begun. Three nights down, seven to go.
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