SXSW 2012: Day Two | Festival Review

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by Michael Todd

When the best part of your afternoon in Austin is a barbecue chicken enchilada at Magnolia, it's hard to escape the cynicism of too much at South by Southwest. For the better part of three hours, I roamed the streets in search of something, anything to catch my attention and hold it. But like a wily, old catfish, my mind would swim away to something else. It was a little ugly.

That's what you get for not having a plan for day shows, I suppose. I started everything off right, though, staying for a full set with The Love Language. With this syncopated, cheerful pop music with an ear toward your favorite '50s diner, it's hard to stop yourself from twisting.




East Side Dandies

What ruled the futile search for something creative that followed was spectacle. Sure, most of the street musicians had chops, but in order to catapult themselves to another stage, many tried to pull people in with a posse of soldiers, a man dressed in a boxy spacesuit, a shaking bosom. Yes, you see it all, and the East Side Dandies were no exception.

While they played true-to-history '30s jazz music, what people latched on to was their banjo player towering over everything, even the standup bass. I mean, just look at him.


Thus, with thousands vying for my attention, I checked out for a walk to the Austin Convention Center to recoup among the stragglers from the day's panels there. After a few minutes of hatching my game plan in hand, I set off again looking for our own buskers, Orion Walsh and Bolzen Beer Band.

At Orion's corner there was no Orion, and at the unspecified location of Bolzen Beer Band, no Nebraskan was to be found.

Eli Mardock

And so, I left on an extended trip across downtown to Uncorked for a Nebraskan on the schedule, Eli Mardock. Turns out it's a trait of ours to support each other. Justin Lamoureux and Ben Arunski of Midwest Dilemma showed up first. Then came Machete Archive's Saber Blazek and later on the Icky Blossoms crew.

Omaha's Neil Duffy was on sound, and Machete's Ian Francis was on drums for his first show. The band had a couple holdups with cueing recorded parts, but with each song came improvement. The band was best with Mardock on bass and Ian Aeillo on guitar, and by the last song, things were rocking. 



Aeillo has been video-blogging at the festival and among car wrecks and arrivals, he says he's just not hip enough for the crowd here:

Two Gallants

Up next was another Nebraska-related band, Saddle Creek's Two Gallants at The Parish. It was my first time, and it was raucous electrified storytelling. The majority of the crowd sang word-for-word to "Las Cruces Jail," easily the best of the three songs I stayed for before darting off toward Laura Gibson to no avail.


Patrick Watson

Although it was an off-day for my music consumption, all was saved by Patrick Watson at the altar. St. David's Historic Sanctuary has quickly become my favorite stop in Austin. It's an Episcopal church with greeters at the door, a great lineup and of course incredible acoustics.

One of the check-in crew members had told me last night she came mainly to see Arlo Guthrie, and he's who pulled me back to St. David's. Funny thing, though, is I showed up on time only to hear he'd already finished.

Serendipitously, the lack of Arlo allowed me to meet Robin Hilton of NPR's All Songs Considered, in his natural environment, he joked, by the trash can wolfing down food. I shared with him the good word of Hear Nebraska to the Kansas native, and he said, "Oh, Saddle Creek, right?" Perhaps the passing mention of others will help spread the news.

When we walked in to the chapel, lights like fireflies were strung up. They pulsed with the ethereal folk, and Watson's voice flew up and down like the insect, too. By far, the best part of the set was when the band came off the stage into the congregation. I received a shoutout of sorts when Watson warned his guitarist jokingly not to step on the photographer.

The crowd smiled and clapped along to the mic-less pair of songs, and other camera-wielding journalists lighted their photos with the fireflies. A couple times later on, the lights were tripped on and pulled across the floor. Although unplanned instances such as this are common at the festival, Watson's set seemed effortless.

He and the band even worked out disagreements in between songs, "band meetings" as Watson called them, but the music showed no lack of preparation. Hear a bit in the video just below:


I dropped by the Buca Lounge on my way to our car to see a couple songs from Natalia Lafourcade, a Mexican solo artist who looped her voice, jazzy guitar and piano, sometimes not-so successfully. She deflected some swooning from the men in the audience, and played a mostly lovely handful of tunes.

Here's hoping Friday turns out to lend more luck, and you can see for yourself tomorrow, same time, same place.

Michael Todd is Hear Nebraska's managing editor. He wishes he would have handed a business card to Robin, but he's still working on his real-world skills. Reach him at michaeltodd@hearnebraska.org.