Kleeman's Last Word

Thursday--Day 2, SXSW

It ocurred to me after waking up at 3:30 in the afternoon that a late night of music, two hours at Kerbey Lane and a fire two blocks from your apartment aren't kind to your circadian rhythm. I had a gaping to-do list and seemed Gung-Ho upon going to sleep about accomplishing every single one. I didn't completely strike out, at least I witnessed some great music, and as you'll read below, some of it was really fucking great. The kind of musical performance that can only be properly described by an adjective preceded by an expletive.
I had my heart set on seeing two bands Thursday evening, so I built my schedule around guaranteeing that I would get into the venues to see them. I only saw four bands, but the last nearly paid for the entire cost of my $160 wristband. Trust me and read on.

Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. (Stubbs BBQ)

Aqualung ( " ")

Rodrigo y Gabriela (did not perform)

Apostle of the Hustle (" ")

Cary Brothers (The Parish)

Aqualung (The Parish)

Tom Morello (The Nightwatchman) and "others...see below" ( " " )

DISSAPOINTMENT: Rodrigo y Gabriela not performing

In a sharp contrast to Wednesday night, when I flurried to nine different venues in a desperate attempt to make my wristband investment worth it, I stopped in only two on Thursday. It's hard to complain when so much music is at your fingertips, but not seeing the guitar virtuoso duo perform is worthy of a fussing session.
I endured the listenable, but uninspired and arid Aqualung all because I thought showing up to Stubbs a bit early would ensure that I wouldn't be unhappily waiting in line when Rodrigo y Gabriela took the stage. I truly thought seeing this group from Mexico might be on the shortlist for all time great SXSW performances. Unfortunately, after 45 minutes of listening to souless British pop, I got a nasty surprise. The boys in Aqualung didn't seem that enthusiastic about humming through their monotonous fare and I wasn't too ebullient about hearing it. The band executes its style perfectly, but I wouldn't pay to see it or request it on the radio. When the gracious, but stodgy band left the stage, I became curious when Apostle of the Hustle began setting up its gear. I found out five minues after the group began performing that R y G had some Visa issues and
The exact remark from singer Julian Brown was "Yeah, Rodrigo y Gabriela didn't fill out their immigration papers correctly. We wanted to come over here and see them, but we ended up stealing their gig. I Love it!"
I had wanted to see AOTH separately, but not in place of R y G. Luckily, there was heavy compensation on the back end of the evening.

TOP OF THE POPS: Tom Morello (performing with an acoustic guitar as the Nightwatchman) with special guests Nuno Bettencourt, Paul Geary, Perry Ferrell, Slash, Les Claypool, Alexi Murdoch and Wayne Kramer (guitarist for MC5) and others...

Picture all of the above musicians jammin' a fast rock version of Arlo Gunthrie's "This Land is Your Land" in front of a more than capacity crowd that obviously violated the fire code and you get the picture. It was just that kind of a set.
Right after calling a friend to tell him the pending show with Morello would probably be interesting, Ferrell, Slash, Bettencourt and others jumped on stage for a raucous, impromptu version of "Mountain Song." Morello strummed three tunes of his own under the guise, The Nightwatchman. Some of the lyrics included, "I hope that God drowns the president if the levies ever break again." His highly-political message was not for the faint-hearted. A few of his musician buddies suggested he examine a possible presidential bid, which he playfully shrugged off.

The real dynamite, though, was Morello assembling the cast of misfit rockers on stage for a rollicking cover of Arlo Gunthrie's "This Land is Your Land." Morello said he wanted the crowd to hear the words Gunthrie wrote that "your third grade teacher didn't want you to hear." He said the song is often miscontrued as overly patriotic, when it really questions this country's equality standard. Gunthrie had written the song as a response to Irving Berlin's "God Bless America," which he thought was ridiculous. I'm not making any political statement, nor would I cop to subscribing to any of the aforementioned ideas. However, the amped-up, extended version of the song was improvisational freneticism at its best (Ferrell was literally reading the verse he sang from a piece of paper).
At the set's close, Morello thanked the audience and wished us a great rest of the week, but added with an observant shrill, "you're not going to top this shit." My shocked, open mouth agrees. I'm still waiting to wake up somewhere, only to find the whole performance was a dream.

QUOTE OF THE NIGHT:

Guy (in front of Stubbs BBQ): Is there a line to get in?
Me: No, there's no line at the moment. Who are you here to see?
Guy: I'm playing

If the term 'blonde moment' can be used in a generalized sense, I certainly had one there. Even music gurus end up looking like idiots sometimes. The joke was not just on me, it was sticking its butt in my face, farting and suffocating me.
But hey, with 1000 bands over a week, it's easy to mistake a performing musician for a typical wristband schmuck like myself.

posted by Robert Kleeman @ 1:41 AM