Black Swan Songs

Saturday evening – just two nights ago – I had the pleasure of attending a sold-out Grizzly Bear and Beach House show at Emo’s. I only caught the last Beach House song…and I’m glad because what I saw of their last song did not sound very good.

I like the Beach House mp3s I’ve heard, but whoa, was the bit I heard of their live show shaky.

Now Grizzly Bear on the other hand, were really amazing. I’m not surprised Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood called them his favorite band.

I wrote a review of their show which was published in the Austin American-Statesman here.

If you are familiar with Death Cab for Cutie’s music, then you will understand how ironic and poetically, pathetically apropos it would have been for me to attend their Friday evening concert by myself.

But gentle reader, check the backwards-in-time rub: I’ve seen Death Cab play so many times over the years that I’ve lost count, and the majority of those times I’ve seen them play, I did go by myself. I seem to have a hard time finding a date to go see perhaps  the greatest indie pop date band of the late 20th/early 21st century.

It’s always weird watching a band, a band that you really love, go from playing to a handful of people in a dingy indie rock club to playing before 70,000 people at an outdoor festival. You reach a point where you admit to yourself that the band is not yours anymore…and just like the old adage goes, you set them free. Every band wants to be super-popular, so you have to be happy for your favorite band when they win the rock ‘n’ roll lottery.

I’m still trying to recall all the times I’ve seen them…not for you gentle reader, but for my own self…just so I’ll know:

• Lawrence, Kansas at the Bottleneck (Shiner opened)
• Austin at Emo’s (during a SXSW day party…I videotaped this one)
• Ben Gibbard solo at what is now called The Mohawk
• Two nights at Stubb’s during Transatlanticism tour
• A very hot (temperature-wise) show at ACL Fest
• A show at the Backyard (went with my ex-girl)
• Austin Music Hall show on May 1, 2009

My review of their Friday evening concert ran in today’s Austin American-Statesman. It’s very hard for me to write a comprehensive review within a 150 words capsule review. My review today was almost twice as long. I stoped counting at 400 words.

As you read – if you read it – know that I wanted to write twice as much more. I had twice as much more outlined in my head.

Here is a link to my original American-Statesman article; it appears in an altered version below.

(Note: The versions of my articles that appear in this blog are different than versions published in the newspaper as I prefer to avoid copyright issues, even though I would think that my re-publishing of my own articles on my blog would fall under “fair use.” I also sometimes add things that might have been edited out by my editor…or additional words and thoughts that I wish I had added…a la Walt Whitman’s life-long editing of “Leaves of Grass.”)

By V.M. Black | Monday, May 4, 2009, 12:01 PM

Seattle, Wash.’s venerable indie-ethos rock band Death Cab for Cutie messed around and busted out their best Austin show in years Friday night at Austin Music Hall.

Between South by Southwest, Austin City Limits Festival and regular album support tour stops, Death Cab has always put on perfunctory performances, but rarely have they been “one of the best shows I’ve ever seen in my life.” Seemed it always took them at least half their set to get warmed up. Once during a two-night-stand at Stubb’s on their “Transatlanticism” tour, they didn’t really begin to gel until their final song.

This time it appeared Death Cab had stepped up all elements of their tour production into a multi-bus, multi-semi-trailer truck affair. The PA’s sound engineering was on point (except in the far back) and the stage lighting was choreographed to accentuate the mood and tenor of the songs, creating displays that highlighted crescendos and emotions.

Another noticeable difference in the band’s performance was the depth of their catalog, allowing them to perform a crushingly emotional song-cycle. Frontman Ben Gibbard has always been a songwriter’s songwriter, and more than 10 years of crafting some of the most beloved melancholy indie-pop in the genre has built the band’s song collection into something deep and overwhelmingly powerful. All those years of touring (with basically the same lineup) has also allowed the band to become tighter than many of their peers. The members of Death Cab for Cutie have matured into consummate rock ‘n’ roll professionals.

Gibbard appeared more svelte than in past shows, performing with a relaxed air of assuredness. Highlights included the Los Angeles send-up “Why’d You Want to Live Here” and the dusted-off gem “Photobooth.” The coup de grace encore was delivered with two of their best songs, “A Movie Script Ending” and “Transatlanticism,” Gibbard’s mellifluous voice pulling at heartstrings like a blustery winter break-up.

Setlist:
The Employment Pages
Your Heart Is An Empty Room
The New Year
Why’d You Want to Live Here
President of What?
Crooked Teeth
Photobooth
Company Calls
Grapevine Fires
I Will Possess Your Heart
I Will Follow You Into The Dark
Title and Registration
Cath
Long Division
The Sound of Settling
Soul Meets Body
Scientist Studies

Encore:
A Diamond and A Tether
A Movie Script Ending
Transatlanticism

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Reggae Fest was another assignment where my editor asked if I’d pick it up; I jumped at the chance to earn some additional greenbacks. I kept my scene report for the Austin American-Statesman as family-friendly as I could, but truth be told, you would have thought that smoking pot had been legalized – or at least decriminalized – if you were walking around at that festival, taking in all the sights and the smells.

I cut out a paragraph from the article wherein I compared the scene to a hippie version of Hamsterdam in The Wire. The comparison ultimately felt too strong. I also cut a part wherein I described what a great job of police work the Austin Police Department did that day. I really wanted to give them props, but I’d written that paragraph in the first person and it just felt a little lazy (and I really don’t like first person newspaper journalism).

Oddly, I was sober as a judge as the Reggae Fest. I was working after all. I’m glad that I didn’t get too much of a contact high because I was really happy with the way I was able to put the article together. I really enjoyed writing the last line about the mother-to-be caressing the Earth on her pregnant belly. Writing that whole section made me really happy (except for the part where I used “likewise” twice in the same paragraph).

The original version appeared in the Austin American-Statesman here.

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The Austin Reggae Festival benefiting the Capital Area Food Bank of Texas received a little divine intervention from the heavens on Saturday and Sunday as the week-ending thunderstorm clouds dissipated, leaving only clouds of smoke billowing from ornate glass “tobacco” pipes and carefully constructed “blunt” cigars as reggae music chimed through the air.

With the city skyline and Lady Bird Lake posing as a picturesque backdrop, thousands of souls basked in the sun and soaked up the irie, good vibrations music. Despite the $15 entrance fee, the festival appeared recession proof, drawing the same numbers as it did in the previous year according to Kerri Qunell of Capital Area Food Bank of Texas (Qunell says around 20,000).

“People still bring canned food as donations — this is the 16th year — and people are used to doing that. But people are also being really generous with the cash donations,” Qunell said. “The festival just gets more and more popular.”

For one weekend a year, Auditorium Shores resembles Jamaica’s Sunsplash Festival, complete with a family-friendly inflatable romper room, a climbing wall and numerous vendors selling sundry wares. Fest-goers chomped on Henry VIII-sized turkey legs and sipped on beer and other fruity beverages severed in plastic, non-traditional yard glasses.

On Sunday afternoon, Houston’s Los Skarnales combined Latin rhythms and Spanish language with reggae roots, ska and dub music inducing a surreal scene when about 20 people danced with oversized hula hoops that appeared to be lying on the ground for anyone to use. Los Skarnales’ frontman Felipe Galvan rocked steady for nearly an hour, using his overflowing charisma to get the majority of the crowd dancing.

Dancing in front of stage left was soon-to-be mother Jennifer Adair and husband Mitch Adair. Jennifer stood out in the crowd of thousands, her 7-months pregnant belly artfully painted by artist/Fest vendor Joshua Davies with a picture of the Earth and a message for her child: “2009 Welcome to Earth.”

“I’ve done face paint, body paint, back panels and murals, but that was my first pregnant belly,” Davies said as he painted the chubby cheek of a college student. Davies enjoyed his experience at the Reggae Fest last year — and this year — so much that he’ll be moving from Dallas to Austin soon to study art at Austin Community College. “I probably painted 20-25 people yesterday and about the same number today.”

The majority of the vendors appeared to be enjoying brisk business. Davies received a $40 tip for his work on the Adair’s pregnant belly. Likewise people were walking around with 4-foot-tall waterpipes they’d purchased from one vendor that was promoting a half-price sale. Likewise, the funnel cake stand closest to the stage had a line 50 people deep for most of Sunday afternoon.

Daniel Bermea of First Medical Response said that the fest had been free of major incidents outside of heat exhaustion and dehydration. “We treated about 100 people yesterday and about 50 today,” Bermea said. “People just need to remember to drink water … and eat.”

As the planet spun and the sun appeared to sink below the horizon, Austin’s notorious Mexican bats poured out from under the Congress Avenue Bridge in steady waves, undulating to the music while people screamed and hollered them on in encouragement. Many people began to head home with the setting sun while the diehard reggae-heads stayed for Jamaica’s now-legendary Wailing Souls.

“We moved from Florida to San Antonio about a year ago and now we come up (to Austin) every year,” Mitch Adair said. “They had Earth Day festivals in Florida, but nothing exactly like this. This is one of a kind! We wouldn’t miss this for the world.”

“Next year we’ll bring the baby,” Jennifer said, smiling as she caressed the Earth painted on her pregnant belly.

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