04.15.07

SXSW Day 3

Posted in Uncategorized at 8:00 pm by shawnz

Finally, the long anticipated day 3 of sxsw. Less photos, more time spent at the presbyterian church that wins the award for coolest indie rock venue. I’m going to try to post to this blasted blog twice a week. That will quadruple the posting frequency, but with the caveat that baseball season has started (go cards!), so be prepared to be bored.

I started off catching The Polyphonic Spree at the DirecTV Stage. DirecTV created this fancy stage in the main convention center and booked bigger acts all day. The huge stage was quite appropriate for the 15 + members of Polyphonic, who played a show filled with synchronized hair tossing from the 6 back-up singers and a tymphony percussionist who jumped up and down from a platform. The lyrics, “The trees! The trees are growing!”, were repetitive and banal. The performance had the feel of a musical, and in the end, I wasn’t sure if the whole thing was a parody.

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I scooted over to the Filter day stage for some sausage and beans, and Kave Havnevick. It was awkward seeing her in full daylight, and I don’t think the setting suited her style of music. Lately I’ve been hearing her “Unlike Me” single on the radio and have been enjoying it.

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At another day tent, sponsored by some web companies (who I don’t feel the need to link, though they booked a good show and even went so far as to buy more beer around 5 pm, which was totally unnecessary but totally appreciated), I found one of my true gems from SXSW: Apollo Sunshine. This quartet was comprised of very talented multi-instrumentalists who played complex rock songs with catchy hooks. Their lead singer, with a rainbow guitar strap, played a keyboard with one hand and switched to guitar mid-song. His guitarist played a 12 string guitar, playing bass and lead at the same time. Simply amazing. And the songs were emotional outbursts that were rootsy but hard rocking. They played a rocking Beethoven song, which made me wonder who these guys really were. Talking to the band members afterwards did not reveal any clues, but I did learn that Apollo doesn’t release CD’s, just LP’s. Later on wikipedia, I found out that all the members were Berklee school of music drop outs. Now I get it! They don’t seem to tour much, although I have seem them listed for Bonarroo this summer. Definitely check them out!
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Kenna played at this low-ceiling lounge about 10 blocks east of the strip on 6th. The dim lighting fit the show quite well - he almost reminded me of Tricky at the microphone.    He had good energy and stage presence, and the crowd was into this set.

Unfortunately the problem with procrastinating is that I’ve forgotten the many other acts I saw on this day. There were at least 10 others.  I’ll probably have one more wrap-up post, and will mostly mention the bands I have photos of.