SXSW Day 8

With all due respect to my female readers, are we not men? The answer in a bit!

Another excellent day at South by Southwest. I can easily imagine this becoming an annual trek for me. I continue to be delighted by most everything I see and hear. Actually, I'm relieved to say that my hearing seems fine, despite the pounding my ears took tonight.

I got up at a reasonable hour and took care of some personal errands, before going to the Austin Convention Center. Two rooms there have been set up as large TV studios, for some live broadcasts on DirecTV. I attended Ben Harper & RELENTLESS7, who put on a very strong show. Anti-photography rules were being strictly enforced, so I have no photos or videos to show you, but I should have a nice HD recording of it at home so I can enjoy it again, and try to pick my face out of the crowd.

Next I headed to the Hilton Gardens Hotel to see The Miserable Rich. But before they came on, I saw a performed named Denis Jones. A remarkable experimental performer from Manchester in the UK, he uses electronic looping devices to record bits of vocals, guitar and odd percussion, creating rich textures against which he performs. At one point he was using his thumb against the tip of a guitar cable, to make 60 hertz buzzing noises to add to the mix. It's difficult to describe. I suggest heading over to his MySpace page (linked above) and giving him a listen.

Then came the act I was there to hear, The Miserable Rich, from Brighton, UK. Their web site indicates a five piece band, but there were only four at this performance. The singer has a lovely voice, and the instrumentation includes a cello and a violin. An excellent group. Here's a bit of video.

The Miserable Rich from David Fell on Vimeo.

After that, I walked over to the Velveeta Room, a comedy club on 6th street, to see Janeane Garofalo. In fact, I got there early enough to see several of the preceding comedy geniuses, and had a great deal of fun. Eric Krug did some hilarious rap, and 18 year old Natasha Leggero of Rockford Illinois was also very funny. Garofalo began by squirting hand sanitizer into the hands of many audience members, including myself. She joked about an Austin mayoral candidate's name (think Bart Simpson phoning Moe), Twitter, aging and anti-depressants. She was rapid-fire and hilarious. Jack Bauer was nowhere in sight.

Because it was so short, I had some time on my hands. I enjoyed a hot dog topped with pulled pork, cheese and pickles from a street vendor. Delicious. And I went to Aces Lounge to hear a bit of Cut Off Your Hands, a hard rocking group from New Zealand. Very crowded bar.

After that, it was off to the Austin Music Hall for the answer to the question with which I began this entry: Are we not men? We are DEVO. Arrival was a bit of a pain. My camera bag was not permitted in, so I took one of Austin's pedicabs back to the hotel to drop the camera off, and then returned to the Music Hall. But once inside, I managed to find a place to stand off to the left, close to the stage, to see the end of the previous act, Tricky, a rapper/singer from Bristol, England. I didn't hear enough of him to get a real feel for the music.

Then came DEVO. I should tell you that this was the loudest music I think I've ever heard. Not that I'm complaining, mind you. But with every beat, my vision vibrated. It seemed like wind was going through my hair. Only half-way through the show, when I got to the very front of the stage, did I realize: I was about two feet from the biggest subwoofers I have ever seen. As for the performance, for a bunch of guys even older than myself, there was one hell of a lot of energy. A constant barrage of video played behind them, and members of the crowd were jumping up and down, one landing hard on my left big toe. I also found people rubbing against me uncomfortably. When I noticed they were female and cute, it became far more comfortable. Since I was forced to leave the decent photo gear back at the hotel, I only managed to capture a few snaps with my iPhone, including one in which Mark Mothersbaugh, just 6 feet from me, was working some pom-poms. The slow exposure made by the iPhone came out psychedelic. I like it.

That's all I have for now, dear readers. I shall be back again with more tales from Austin Texas in another day. Don't do anything I wouldn't do, which should give you plenty of leeway.