Weekend Reviews
Three days of punk chaos proves heavenly
Punk: Chaos in Tejas
Folk: Kerrville Folk Festival
Classical: Handel in Georgetown
Theater: "Holes Before Bedtime"
Rock: Real Heroes
Musical: "Stall Graffiti ATX"
Web posted: June 6, 2005
Like last year's wildly successful Prankfest, the three-day hardcore festival Chaos in Tejas was an energetic, often thrilling confluence of blazing, hard-core punk, underground camaraderie and shopping. Last Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Emo's (and a few other places around town) was transformed into a slice of hard-core heaven. While bands played on the outdoor stage the first two nights and indoors on the third, bands, record labels and distributors from around the country set up shop in Emo's, and the club's bleacher area became the best-ever hard-core strip mall.
The shows started early, with music at around 8:30 p.m. Even by then, the club was filling up. After a flurry of opening bands and despite technical problems, local band Signal Lost's set shone. Scandinavian band Avskum was the headliner, but the highlight for some of us was the magnificent Tragedy, a dark and howling two-guitar outfit from Portland.
In fact, the weekend seemed dedicated to proving that Portland might have the most important hard-core scene in the country. Saturday afternoon, half a dozen bands played at Poke-E-Jo's during a birthday party for Signal Lost bassist Jasmine Mayberry. (Message to Poke-E-Jo's: You folks need to do punk/metal/heavy rock matinees more often; the sound in that shack out back is just fantastic.) The headliner for that set were the muscular Portland outfit Warcry (who shared members with Tragedy).
Speaking of afternoon shows, it was possible for the strong-willed to fill 12 hours at a stretch with punk, as ultra-late night shows took place on the Lamar Street pedestrian bridge and behind Slices and Ices. The organizers might be loath to agree, but in terms of the sheer volume of activity, the weekend felt a little bit like South by Southwest.
Saturday features sets from locals such as World Burns to Death and Army of Jesus, as well as a reunited Deathreat, which featured the guitarist from Signal Lost and yes, a bunch of guys from Portland. Sunday's set was moved indoors so that post-hard-core indie rocker Ted Leo could headline a separate show outdoors (plenty of punk ran back and forth.) Again, Portland muscled its way to front of the scene with a savage set from Hellshock. All in all, a magnificent festival. I'm sure the organizers just want to sleep, but I have to ask: When's the next one?
— Joe Gross
Folk
EVEN IN THE HEAT, FOLK FEST IS COOL
KERRVILLE — It may have looked like every mellow person in Texas was at Quiet Valley Ranch for the Kerrville Folk Festival this weekend, but instead of too much noodle-dancing and patchouli, Hippie Central turned out to have a nicely laid back, friendly and kinda cool vibe, despite the sultry heat and overabundance of tie-dye garb for sale.
Of course, after 34 years, operators of the festival — perhaps most famous as the site where Michelle Shocked was discovered — pretty much have it down to a science, which makes it easier for everyone to relax and have a good time. Musicians included.
On Saturday night, it sure looked and sounded like that was the case. Singer/songwriter Terri Hendrix and her fine band — guitarist/dobroist/singer Lloyd Maines, bassist Glenn Fukunaga and drummer/percussionist Paul Pearcy — delivered an upbeat set that included a whimsical sing-along about a hard-core cowboy who throws like a girl and loves quiche Lorraine ("Like A Girl"); her Clear Channel barb, "Monopoly"; a lovely unrecorded tune, "Acre of Land"; and another sing-along, "Wind Me Up," on which tuba player (and former Bonnie Raitt bassist) Freebo joined in. Later, Pearcy and Fukunaga performed as part of Ruthie Foster's band, with harp player Michael Rubin and dobro player Jeff Plankenhorn. Plankenhorn and Freebo also accompanied Willis Alan Ramsey, who closed the mercifully rain-free night with a low-key set.
Gospel-blues belter Foster, who followed the incongruously placed Trout Fishing in America (they belonged before Hendrix, not after), gave a knockout performance that earned her four standing ovations. She's got a huge voice, and when she opens it up, look out — she can hold a note forever. Each song she did — most of which came from her latest album, the recorded-live "Stages" — wound up sounding like a warmup for the next, even stronger tune. "Death Came a Knockin' " gave the band a chance to stretch out on a little groove, and after "Walk On," she was forced to perform a second encore — not that anyone had to twist her arm.
Foster and Hendrix repeatedly professed their love for the festival, which gave the latter a springboard as well. The crowd's reaction made it obvious why they keep getting invited back — and why they happily go. It almost seemed like a family affair, and after so many years, it probably is. Which explains why everyone's greeted with the words, "Welcome home."
— Lynne Margolis
Classical
HANDEL FESTIVAL PRESENTED CHALLENGES
GEORGETOWN — This city's first significant fine arts festival celebrated the music of George Frideric Handel, with concert performances as well as a conference presenting scholarly papers about Handel and his music. The big event of this Handel in Georgetown fest was Sunday afternoon's performance of the oratorio "Israel in Egypt," two hours of wilderness wanderings with Kenneth Sheppard leading soloists, orchestra and the combined forces of Sheppard's Austin Civic Chorus and the San Gabriel Chorale directed by Bruce Cain.
Any conductor taking on this composition has his or her hands mighty full. The first performances led by Handel were failures, in response to which Handel simply lopped off the original Part 1. What remains tends to sound incomplete and imperfect.
Despite any pictures in your head with Moses looking like Charlton Heston and the Red Sea swallowing an army of Egyptians whole, drama and excitement are hard to come by in Handel's early oratorio. There are parts for six soloists, but they have precious little to do. The chorus does the heavy lifting in this piece, with a preponderance of somber moods and lots and lots of fugues. To its credit, the chorus had control of most, though not all, of its many notes. The lack of dynamic variety and generally fuzzy vocal tone, though, made the succession of choruses sound redundant and led me to fear we were going in circles.
The free concert in San Gabriel Park on Saturday evening was a much better deal. Austin Symphony music director Peter Bay conducted about half of Handel's "Water Music" and the "Music for the Royal Fireworks" with remarkable instinct for what could be achieved in substandard performing conditions. The park's gazebo, lacking any reflecting surface to help project music to an audience, left the music vulnerable to competition from passing motor vehicles and an upwind baseball game across the river.
Bay tried nothing fancy or exotic with the music but asked for light, clean articulation at middle-of-the-road tempos. These two masterpieces — which need but little help to succeed in a performance — in these readings had all the sonic quality of an early transistor radio, but there was enjoyable music-making to be occasionally discerned beneath the static all the same.
— David Mead
Theater
YOU COULD LOSE SLEEP PONDERING 'BEDTIME'
Sometimes pairings are so obvious they need no explanation: a runner with a bottle of water, Meryl Streep with an Academy-Award nomination. Other times, the link is unclear, requiring deeper exploration to be understood: Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, a painting of a hairless anus hanging on a child's playroom wall. The Rubber and Vortex repertory companies' joint presentation of Dan Basila's "Holes Before Bedtime," which included the aforementioned rectum-on-canvas, took an unconventional approach in validating decidedly counterintuitive material. Intentionally bad singing and overly stylized elements aside, the production was both sincere and affecting.
"Holes" straddles the line between the most exciting kind of theater — where you leave scratching your head and sort out what you just saw for the next two days — and the worst — where you leave scratching your head because the material was so obtuse. Given its sticky premise of an impregnated young boy (he's carrying in his scrotum) who sleeps with at least two of his family members, you can see where the show could have so easily failed.
But it didn't, something that surely reflects a deep trust between directors Matt Hislope and Josh Meyer and the adult cast. As Sodomy in the Corner, the pregnant boy, Frank Benge portrayed a child whose shattered innocence ushers in fiery aggression. Although he looked closer to age 60, Benge played young without being precocious and, as a result, turned in the show's most authentic performance. Cole Wimpee, as Little Brother, cast vanity aside for his jockstrap-clad role. Wimpee and Benge maneuvered several difficult scenes together, creating a tangible, if not altogether comfortable bond on stage. The two female actors, Kristine Olson and Susie Williams, offered fine support. But there was a sharp disconnect between the motivations of these characters and the Doctor played by Anthony Megie. Megie's Doctor was always the hammiest person on stage, a caricature among characters.
"Holes Before Bedtime" continues 8 p.m. Thursdays-Sundays, 11 p.m. Saturdays through June 18. The Vortex, 2307 Manor Road, $5-$25, 478-LAVA, www.vortexrep.org
— Tommy O'Malley
Rock
REAL HEROES SET: REAL SHORT, REAL GOOD
If it's true that all it takes to play rock 'n' roll is three chords and an attitude, the Real Heroes can fly right to the head of the pack. They've got plenty more than three chords between ace guitarists Paul English and Kyle Crusham (who also plays keyboards), and as for attitude, singer/guitarist Benjamin Hotchkiss learned sass and moves from the masters: Mick Jagger and David Bowie. Other glam-rock comparisons abound, but Hotchkiss avoids over-the-top campiness (and, thankfully, capes), leaving most of the references in the music. The rest of the band is surprisingly nontheatrical, which is kind of odd, considering the music, which lends itself to a bit of posing. Not that avoiding it is a bad thing. Nothing wrong with concentrating on harmonies and musicianship; they've got depth and a willing frontman, so who needs extra distractions?
Friday night at Antone's, the band's ridiculously short, 50-minute headlining set — sans encore — was nonetheless tight and fun. Pulling tunes from their self-titled debut and "Greetings from Russia," they snuck in a little Rod Stewart (a line from "Every Picture Tells a Story"), recalled Frankie Goes to Hollywood and shamelessly stole from the Stones. They also did a fabulous, well-chosen cover of the Split Enz' "I Got You," but the Heroes don't need to rely on covers; their songs (borrowed "Miss You" riffs included) are as strong as their chops.
The band is all business — Hotchkiss said little more than "this is rather new" before performing "Making Me Sad" and didn't even introduce the band — but perhaps he's better at singing than talking. There's humor in their lyrics and delivery, the dance floor gets well-populated — groupies and all — and they rock. Even after repeated listenings, we still think the Heroes are — forgive us — super.
— Lynne Margolis
Musical
THEATER FROM THE WRITING ON THE WALL
Last year theater artist A. Skola handed 11 local playwrights two guidelines for a new work: The scripts had to be between two and 20 minutes in length and had to be based on bathroom graffiti found in Austin.
The result? "Stall Graffiti ATX," a very mixed bag of 11 mini-plays produced by A Chick and a Dude Productions. Not surprisingly, the more experienced playwrights among the roster turned in the best work. Sometime American-Statesman contributor Dan Dietz laced recordings from presidential press conferences into a strange encounter that had two punk rockers hanging out in a club bathroom shape-shifting into President Bush and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. More importantly, Dietz knitted together sharp criticism of contemporary politics and smart writing, which, while not diluting the message, saved the short drama from didacticism.
In "Tag It and Bag It," Lowell Bartholomee offered a rather sweet portrait of a precocious, sexually aware young girl grappling with her future. And Shanon Weaver took a familiar convention — God taking on a human form to conduct a heart-to-heart about the meaning of life with some unsuspecting mortal — and made it into a charming encounter between male and female party-goers. However, except for these standouts, "Stall Graffiti" comes off as more the end result of a playwright workshop than a polished evening of theater.
"Stall Graffiti ATX" continues 8 p.m. Thursdays-Sundays through June 25 at the Blue Theatre, 916 Springdale Road. $13-$15. 444-6920.
— Jeanne Claire van Ryzin
