Austin360 blogs > Out & About > Archives > 2008 > March > 14
Friday, March 14, 2008
Again with a near-death experience, this time at SXSW
Loyal readers of this blog will remember that, two years ago, attending the Austin City Limits festival by day, despite shade, water and rest, I felt so overcome by heat-related nausea, headache and fatigue, I sat down on the curb of Barton Springs Road and called my partner Kip to pick me up. Before the best bands had even warmed up.
Humiliating. But safe in that African heat. Especially for someone past the half-century mark.
Today, my midday walk to the newsroom, as temperatures rose to the 80s, was pleasant, uneventful. Then XL editor Sharon Chapman and I strolled over to Stubb’s, mid-afternoon, for the climactic Spin day party. Having heard from correspondents already on the scene that it was stifling hot at the outdoor stage, we stopped for bottled water and sunscreen. (Redheads by birth.)
Luckily, publicity goddess Elaine Garza surprised us upon arrival with wristbands for the upper balcony stage left, at least 20 degrees cooler than the sun-scorched yard below. We squeezed onto the deck with various other familiar-looking folks from the industry — oh, a security director pointed vigorously at the floor of the deck, meaning I should not put a foot on the stairs at the same time, but I didn’t understand her “Dog Whisperer’ sign language — and we felt lucky to hear the bands right next to the action.
(More on the Ravonettes and Vampire Weekend later, when my strength returns. Foreshadowing: only one of the two hype bands made their mark.)
I think: “Pffff. I’m a Texan. It’s only March. I can take temperatures in the 90s.” Well, after a brief respite at Champions Sports Bar — my new favorites non-hip, therefore convenient and available SXSW refuge — I wander back onto the streets, only to feel that ACL complaint again — nausea, headache, dizziness. Of course, I foolishly sat in the sun in order to net more crunchy sidewalk quotes for my column, and I ate some heavy chicken tenders. Still, I’m hydrating, resting, seeking shade and cool in hotel lobbies.
By the time I reach Congress Avenue, however, it’s bad. Bad bad. All the taxis are taken and I wouldn’t put a pedicab to the trouble, so I head home on foot for a rest. That’s another mile and a half to the south, into the sun, and I notice more SXSW guests melting on the streets. Clearly, I’m not the only one.
Happy ending: I catch the Dillo at Barton Springs and, for a few blocks at least, soak up the AC and the bliss of local and guests helping each other survive the March Heat Wave of 2008. So Austin.
Permalink | | Categories: City, Out, SXSW
SXSW Spin Party
VW, on the other hand, seemed swallowed by the outdoor space. Among the Columbia University students with the preppy weeds, only front man Ezra Koenig has established a comfortable profile onstage — popping up to the mike on tip-toes, snapping his head and singing in that boyish voice that appeals to so many female fans.
What’s most interesting about VW is the playful rhythms, borrowing from all sorts of traditions: polka, march, stop-start. The instrumentals are well-bound, but not sensational, so it all boils down to Koenig’s charisma and those catchy rhythms. Would love to hear them in a more intimate space, where their sound would stretch its finite limitations.
Permalink | | Categories: Music, Out, SXSW
SXSW music showcase: Tremor at Ninety Proof
So far, the American-Statesman music critics have not steered me wrong. Michael Corcoran recommended, the Black and White Years; two scribes hailed Daniel Lanois and Deborah Sengupta headed me to Tremor, one of the Argentinian bands that played Ninety Proof Lounge on Thursday.
It was one of those showcases that make you cringe because most of the audience were clearly already friends of the artists. But it was one that makes you tremble with excitement because nobody else knows about this discovery: Tremor combines Leonardo Martinelli’s extravagant instrumentals with Gerardo Farez’s work on the synthesizers. It was magical. I purchased the CD “Viajante,” which streams all sorts of musical traditions into one rhythm-driven score.
Permalink | | Categories: Music, SXSW
SXSW street report No. 2: Trinity at Fourth
Overheard while relaxing outside Champions Sports Bar as hundreds of SXSW participants streamed by.
“I don’t see any bands.”
“We should get dinner. It’s dinnertime.”
“I’m never parking here again.”
(Fleeting Portuguese)
“Yeah, we saw some lame bands.”
“Music, music, music.”
(Into cell phone) “Why are you in Paris? We’re in Austin.”
(Fleeting Slavic)
“You’re walking all the way to Ninth?”
“Japanese hot chicks? Free beer? We’re there!”
(Fleeting French)
“Look at that pop star.”
“We should take some acid.”
“It’s all about Emo movement body parts.”
(Fleeting Spanish)
“The man totally captures the ’60s aesthetic.”
(Into cell phone) “I’m in a T-shirt. It’s so warm and windy.”
“It could be we just make out. Remember when it was that we could just make out?”
More from the following day at the same location.
“My mom and my dad don’t know I’m here.”
“You missed us losing our minds”
“It’s not science fiction. It’s based on real people.”
(Fleeting Scottish accents.)
“I’ll sue you for everything you own.”
“And the place we’re going to has bats. Yeah. Bats.”
“Hey, I’m 21, if it’s not going to happen now…”
(Fleeting Scandinavian.)
“A coffee. A bagel. Anything.”
“I have a cousin, she’s a good singer, but in that ‘American Idol’ way.”
:”That (expletive) band at the Beauty Bar was the worst I’ve ever heard. Ever.”
Permalink | | Categories: City, SXSW
SXSW Japan Bash party
The music was piercing, the patter (from the stage) amusing, the sushi filling and the crowd suitably heterogeneous.
All I could get out of these forcibly attired artists was the band name: Your Favorite Enemies.
Shanta Thake, Michael Arthur, formerly of Austin, now with the Public Theatre in NYC
Visitor Chika Usami Iwaki and UT student Shinya Wakao Gifu
Permalink | | Categories: Music, Out, SXSW
SXSW Wente party at Moonshine
Beer, and to a lesser extent, spirits such as vodka and tequila, are the hard beverages of choice at SXSW. The former is often free at day parties, the spirits depend on promotions from numerous local, regional and national distributors (Southern Comfort is really pushing the pop-flavored SoCo and Lime). Energy drinks mixed with alcohol remain popular, but we don’t go there.
Joe Kara, Karl Wente
So it was with pleasure that we swung by the Wente winery party at Moonshine, which included those addictive scampi corn dogs and other spicy finger food. We talked with Karl Wente, a fifth-generation maker of fine California wines, but it was not until he said the winery was in Livermore that I recalled an ideal brunch on the glorious grounds of Wente back in October. If you are ever in that otherwise featureless suburban city, go out of your way to luxuriate in the winery and resort.
Ryan Carter, Wendi Burns
Bands abounded, nipping the reds and whites, or just hanging around for their next gig. This is Dirty Sweet from San Diego: Nathan Beale, Ryan Koontz, Mark Nutuni, Chris Mendez-Vanacore
Permalink | | Categories: Food, Out, SXSW
SXSW New West party
The New West gathering is traditionally among the most coveted day parties at SXSW. It took me several tries to secure a laminate for entry. (At what point will environmentalists protest the inherent waste in all this ID material? At least we should be issued only one lanyard a year for all events.)
Trish Wagner, Grant Alden Amy Kincheloe
No sooner than I’d plunged into the darkness of Club DeVille at 4 p.m., but what to my wondering eyes did appear but former Statesman music reporter and current Minneapolis Star-Tribune critic Chris Riemenschneider. We chatted about his 6-month old child, his fluctuating Minnesota/Texas accent and the demands of live blogging (I advised using scheduled blogs when on the road). We also caught up with music writer John T. Davis, who we spotted at the Daniel Lanois event on Wednesday.
Dan Kelly, Allison McGourty Lomax, Chris Shepperson (Mojo)
The folks from the recently deceased No Depression magazine were in none to elated spirits. Yet as we listened to the artists from the New West label in the fading heat, it felt like SXSW had settled into a comfortable groove.
Megan Moore, Colin Gardipee
Permalink | | Categories: Music, Out, SXSW
SXSW ‘Stop-Loss” review
‘Stop-Loss’
Two stars
Still green actor Ryan Phillippe has undermined yet another promising film. This time it’s the Austin shot “Stop-Loss,” which premiered at the Paramount Theatre on Thursday during the last days of the South by Southwest Film Festival. Phillippe plays an Iraq war veteran with post traumatic stress disorder who is pressed back into service after his expected discharge through a procedure known as “stop-loss.” In early combat scenes, Phillippe, focused by the action, plays a believable leader who helps his men through the mess of street fighting. His crucial scenes, however, transforming from a disciplined member of the armed forces into a rebellious fugitive from the law are unconvincing. His platoon mates fare no better: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, so hypnotizing last year in “The Lookout,” plays a generic depressive. Jar-headed Channing Tatum certainly looks the part of a soldier (actually built more like a U.S. Marine), but his range runs from threat of violence to confusion about the threat of violence. Although “The Deer Hunter” set a precedent, writer/director Kimberly Peirce does not convince us that these and other damaged vets all came from the tiny fictional Texas town of Brazos, and the 1978 film was helped by infinitely more talented actors.
