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Monday, January 25, 2010
Spoon brings out a crowd at Waterloo Records
If there’s any way to describe Spoon’s afternoon performance in the parking lot of Waterloo Records on Monday, it’d probably have to be “victory lap.”
After all, the days when the quasi-local quartet (“It’s been two months since I’ve been to Portland,” said Daniel in a rare moment of stage banter, referring to his current town of residence. “I’ve been hanging around here too much.”) had anything at all to prove to anybody are long behind them. So Monday’s hour-plus set unfolded with a loose, unhurried, self-assured confidence as the band road-tested six songs from “Transference” and a smattering of older hits and, in grand Spoon tradition, made the entire performance look rather effortless.
It was a show light on transcendent moments, admittedly, but the band’s low-key, seemingly effortless playing paired nicely with the mellow audience at Waterloo Records, where the crowd was sizable but not unwieldy — in fact, props are due to Waterloo for managing things so well.
The band kicked things off with “I Saw The Light,” a welcome opportunity for all involved to cut loose on the song’s lengthy instrumental jam. Other cuts from “Transference” sounded as peppy and enjoyable live as they do on record — “Got Nuffin” has been in circulation for a while, but less familiar songs like “The Mystery Zone” and “Nobody Gets Me But You” seemed every bit as polished. First encore song “Is Love Forever?” with its driving energy, was a particular highlight.
Plenty of bones were thrown to the band’s long-time fans, though, with the other half of the set taken up by highlights from “Girls Can Tell,” “Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga” and “Kill The Moonlight.” (If you’re a fan of “Gimme Fiction,” well, too bad.) Britt Daniel belted out past gems with gusto and even gave a shoutout to “Me And The Bean” writer John Clayton of the Sidehackers.
By the time the band departed after a punchy three-song encore a throng of fans had happily queued up for the customary Waterloo autograph line. It was a lengthy, single-file assemblage of Spoon buffs reaching around the parking lot. After a show like that, it was easy to understand why aficionados of the band were willing to brave the increasingly cold hours of the early evening. And, of course, it was all for free. All in all, not a bad deal.
Set list
“I Saw The Light”
“The Mystery Zone”
“Got Nuffin’”
“Don’t Make Me A Target”
“Me And The Bean”
“Written In Reverse”
“Black Like Me”
“Someone Something”
“Nobody Gets Me But You”
“Rhythm And Soul”
“Don’t You Evah”
Encore
“Is Love Forever?”
“You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb”
“Jonathan Fisk”
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Video: Spoon at Waterloo
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CD review: Various artists ‘Casual Victim Pile’
Various artists
‘Casual Victim Pile: Austin 2010’
(Matador)
Grade: A
With “Casual Victim Pile” so dominated by the furious sounds of rock ‘n’ roll — from Follow That Bird’s righteous, Joan Jett-evoking “The Ghosts That Wake You” to the closing midtempo New Wave shuffle of Lost Controls’ “Entirely Wired For Sound” — it might come as a surprise that the best word to describe it would be “love.”
Of course, it’s a sappy way to sum up a record so decidedly unsappy, so loaded with kicks and thrashes and even a one-minute, four-second song — “Nazis On Film” by the Teeners — that’s one of the best bits of driving gutter punk that will ever assault your eardrums. But Matador Records co-owner Gerard Cosloy’s highly personal snapshot of the Red River scene circa 2009 is an obvious labor of love from the first track to the last, carefully curated and misfire-free.
Whether on the low-key jangle of Harlem’s catchy “Beautiful and Very Smart” or the psychedelic drawl of Elvis’ “Mommy’s Little Soldiers,” “Casual Victim Pile” manages to feel cohesive without ever limiting itself, bounding across 19 tracks of headbang-worthy rock.
Even if it is just a glorified mixtape — albeit a mixtape from Matador Records that we hope will bring needed exposure to a bushel of great Austin bands — it’s just about the most lovingly assembled collection of fiendishly addictive tunes you’re likely to find anywhere. Way to make the Beerland faithful proud, Matador.
Read more about ‘Casual Victim Pile’ in Sunday’s Life & Arts section. Bands featured on the release will play three nights — Feb. 4-6 — at Beerland to celebrate the record.
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CD review: Patty Griffin ‘Downtown Church’
Patty Griffin
‘Downtown Church’
(Credential)
Grade: B+
Before she became the undisputed Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin was a mediocre gospel singer. Really. A magnificent voice always, but Aretha lacked the purity of purpose possessed by such less talented, but better Christian blues singers as Sallie Martin, Dorothy Love Coates and Bessie Griffin.
Patty Griffin is an amazingly athletic singer and her fans will love her attempt to get next to God on “Downtown Church,” recorded at a Presbyterian one in Nashville. But there’s no growl in the gal. Praising a higher power who can’t get the electricity turned back on takes an innate quiver or twist that, like Lady Soul, Griffin just doesn’t have. Don’t know why she thought she could bring something fresh to “If I Had My Way” and “Wade In the Water.” When the Staple Singers did those songs in the ’60s, they were done. Produced by Buddy Miller as if he has too many albums and loves them all, “Downtown Church” is often divinely stirring but lacks a deep spiritual core.
And when the Lark of Hyde Park throws in “Virgen de Guadalupe,” it comes off as the most awkward border crossing since Vallejo tried to pass as Rock en Español.
Griffin’s seventh studio album works better when she covers country gospel, such as Hank Williams’ “House of Gold” and “We Shall All Be Reunited” by Doc Watson, and adds hue with gentle new originals “Little Fire” and “Coming Home To Me.” But what really makes the record is a solemn, yet soaring, version of “All Creatures of Our God and King,” written in 1225 by St. Francis of Assisi. A hymn made for her, it’s like being in church and the top of a mountain at the same time.
Listen, I’m a snob of black gospel music, so it was predetermined that I wouldn’t accept this. I was going to list all the gospel records you should buy instead of “Downtown Church.” But over a few listens, I was converted.
But if you pick this up, you also have to get “Freedom Highway” by the Staple Singers. Patty wants you to.
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Charlie Mars kicks off Unplugged at the Grove
Mississippi-raised SMU graduate Charlie Mars (who’s dating “Weeds” star Mary-Louise Parker) will get this season of KGSR’s “Unplugged at the Grove” started April 15 at the Shady Grove. Also playing the popular free series will be Betty Soo, Bruce Robison, Band of Heathens, Warren Hood, James McMurtry, Carolyn Wonderland and more.
Although KGSR has put more pop and new wave music on its playlist since moving to 93.3 on the FM dial, the “Unplugged” acts seem to be a holdover from the Jody era. Besides, such new KGSR faves as Goo Goo Dolls, Weezer and Stone Temple Pilots are out of “Unplugged” booker Marsha Milam’s price range.
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Blue October returns to Austin in May
When Blue October singer Justin Furstenfeld suffered a mental breakdown in October of last year, the Texas platinum-selling alternative rock band was forced to cancel the entirety of its “Pick Up the Phone” tour — that is, aside, from two sold-out, rain-drenched nights at Stubb’s. Furstenfeld put on a passionate show for the band’s loyal fans, many of whom traveled far for their only chance to catch Blue October live.
Furstenfeld will reprise that evening under far happier circumstances Saturday, May 8, as the band closes out its rescheduled “Pick Up the Phone” tour — kicking off April 7 in Atlanta, Ga., after a springtime jaunt through Germany — at Stubb’s. Pre-sale tickets, $35, are available now.
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Rodeo lineup is set
The Eli Young Band will kick off musical entertainment at the Star of Texas Fair and Rodeo, which also features a rare Austin appearance from country legend Charley Pride.
The unfortunately named Lady Antebellum, whose “Need You Now” CD comes out tomorrow, are another highlight at the Travis County Expo Center. Their March 17 show is on the opening day of SXSW music, so you have to wonder if Scarlett and the O’Haras will participate in any promotional activities.
Tickets range from $15- $37, but that includes the rodeo. Here’s the schedule:
March 13 Eli Young Band
March 14 Joe Nichols
March 15 Gary Allan
March 16 Jordin Sparks
March 17 Lady Antebellum
March 18 Boys Like Girls
March 19 Randy Rogers Band
March 20 Wade Bowen
March 21 Charley Pride
March 22 Neal McCoy
March 23 Doobie Brothers
March 24 Billy Currington
March 25 Shinedown
March 26 Steve Wariner
March 27 Kevin Fowler
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Charlie Sexton backs JT on “Hallelujah” at Haiti benefit
Perhaps the most impressive performance at Friday night’s Hope For Haiti telethon was when Justin Timberlake and Matt Morris (the son of country/ pop singer Gary Morris) did a haunting cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.” Those two have come a long way since they were on “The Mickey Mouse Club” together.
The song was the most-downloaded from the telethon, which raised $58 million, with more coming from corporations.
He’s only featured on the screen for a few seconds, but that’s Charlie Sexton on guitar. Sexton and Timberlake co-produced Morris’s “When Everything Breaks Open” in Austin last year. The trio also performed together on the Ellen Degeneres show last week.
Morris will play SXSW in March.
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More from Sunday’s Help Austin Help Haiti concert
(Kelly West AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
The marathon “Help Austin Help Haiti” benefit on Sunday at the Austin Music Hall began with Asleep At the Wheel’s lilting version of Townes Van Zandt’s “If I Needed You” and drew toward a close almost 10 hours later with Charlie Sexton romping through a muscular version of the Beatles’ “Help.”
In between, the cream of Austin’s Americana/singer-songwriter community came together, as it has so often in the past, for those in need. Although no exact figures were available Monday morning, the concert and accompanying silent auction seemed certain to have raised many tens of thousands of dollars for Haitian earthquake relief.
The event came together with breathtaking rapidity. Visiting with Tim O’Connor and Doug Moyes of Direct Events, who manage the Music Hall, on an unrelated matter a week and a half ago, Joe Ely asked offhandedly if anyone was planning a local effort to aid Haitian earthquake victims. “You are,” the pair told Ely in essence, and basically tossed him the keys to the building.
With lots of behind-the-scenes sweat and tenacity, Ely and his cohorts assembled a cast of musicians that also included Shawn Colvin, Bob Schneider, the Gourds, Bruce Robison and Kelly Willis, the Flatlanders, Robert Earl Keen, Marcia Ball (filling in for an ailing Billy Joe Shaver), Band of Heathens, Patricia Vonne, Reckless Kelly, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Guy Forsyth, Band of Heathens and Paula Nelson.
Many of the participants were parents themselves and the televised images of children wandering lost through the wreckage of Port Au Prince weighed on them.
“The big thing was being a dad,” said Bob Schneider, discussing his participation as his son, Luc hovered nearby. “All those people will have a hard time looking after the kids in all the devastation.”
“No matter how big this town gets or how much it changes, it’s still a music town and this is how we grieve and celebrate,” said Kelly Willis as her own kids romped around her dressing room.
Husband Bruce Robison added, “I’m proud to be part of this. It’s wonderful to try to help, and to find people that give you a way to help.” “Musicians are like family,” said Shawn Colvin, “and when someone like Joe makes this happen, how can you say no?”
Inevitably, with such a cast, musical highlights were plentiful. The Flatlanders (Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock), augmented by guitarist David Holt and steel maestro Lloyd Maines, lit up the room with a scorching version of Gilmore’s “Midnight Train.”
Colvin did a meltingly lovely solo take on the Lefty Frizzell/Merle Haggard hit “That’s the Way Love Goes.” Marcia Ball, sitting in with Ely and band, rocked the 88s on Ely’s keyboard anthem “Fingernails.” The Gourds mashed up an epic rendition of “Gin and Juice” with samples of Sam Cooke’s “Cupid” and Cheap Trick’s “Surrender.” Ely dug deep into his song bag for a moving acoustic version of “Dig All Night.” Robert Earl Keen put an anthemic spin on Townes Van Zandt’s “Flying Shoes.” Robison and Willis sat in on one another’s sets between backstage babysitting duties.
“You feel helpless looking at the TV,” said Ely during the course of the evening. “But then I thought about Willie Nelson doing the benefit for the tsunami victims and Clifford Antone putting together a fundraiser after Hurricane Katrina … And I thought, it’s my turn.”
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The new Backyard begins to take shape
Late one night in early 2008, parking lot attendants from a nearby shopping center towed the car of Lana Nelson, daughter of Willie Nelson, as she attended a show at Bee Cave music venue the Backyard. For Tim O’Connor, owner of the legendary venue as well as owner and president of music booking agency Direct Events, that was the final sign that the Backyard’s original location — once isolated and serene but now surrounded by suburban shopping centers and an attendant crisis in parking — had grown untenable.
“That was the last straw for me,” recalls O’Connor. “At some point trying to deliver the right environment for both the musicians and the fans, both of which deserve the highest regard and treatment … if you can’t do that you step into a zone where all that matters is greed, and I couldn’t do that.”
With that realization, he closed the venue after an October 2008 show featuring longtime Backyard favorite Willie Nelson, with plans to relocate. More than a year later, the new venue, located on Bee Cave Parkway off Highway 620, less than half a mile from the original, is finally beginning to take shape, with plans to open in the spring and host Willie Nelson’s Fourth of July Picnic.
For those wondering just why it’s taken so long, O’Connor says the grim economic forecast of the last 18 months played a central role.
“It killed us. It’s been arduous,” says O’Connor. “Every financial scenario that we put together we had to wad up and throw in the trash can and start over. We had to persevere. It’s been real tough.”
After scouting locations as far afield as Round Rock, he eventually settled on a hillside patch of 38 acres just west of 620. Much work remains to be done on the new location — construction on the stage, VIP area and many other key facilities has yet to begin. But the artist’s area — comprised primarily of buildings shipped over from the original Backyard — is beginning to take shape.
The new Backyard will ultimately include 2500 spaces for on-site parking, with the ability to accommodate as many as 7,500 concertgoers, who will be able to access the venue both from Highway 620 and Texas 71. Plans are also under way to include a South Austin-inspired trailer food court. Direct Events has worked with the City of Bee Cave to keep disruptions from the venue to a minimum, and anticipates that, because the stage faces a hillside, sound issues should be kept to a minimum.
But it’s the venue’s green features that O’Connor, a longtime resident of Austin and clear fan of the Hill Country, is most proud of. The new venue will be pavement-free, featuring grass pavers, and sports retention ponds and other environmentally friendly measures. The construction crew is even moving two 75-year-old trees currently in the line of needed roads to other locations on the property to avoid cutting them down.
For O’Connor, who was deeply invested in the original Backyard — which opened its doors in 1993 and hosted shows from Willie Nelson to David Bowie — the new venue is a point of pride that, while exciting on its own terms, is no attempt to replace the original.
“It’s a lot like the place you were born, the home you were born in. At some point you get a new home and you move in and you look forward to those memories you’ll build,” says O’Connor. “But you never forget your backyard that you played in and grew up in and threw your first baseball.”
