From Jason:
My name is Jason, and I am a Birdmonster supporter.
I didn’t think this was a significant statement until recently. I pretty much chalked up the tiny audience (in number, not stature) to a sub-par venue location for the Wednesday night showcase — namely in Austin’s very own “Crack Alley.” There is no excuse for Saturday’s day show at the Hot Freaks! Blog Party at Mohawk, however. They played their first song to a fairly crowded room. Then, everyone just left. I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s not as if their music isn’t fun (it is), or they weren’t playing with a lot of energy (they were). The audience just gave a collective YAWN and walked out. There weren’t any scheduling conflicts with other music options, either. Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s did not start their set at the outside stage until well after Birdmonster had finished. People basically said, “If it’s between this and nothing, we’ll take nothing.” I felt so bad I stayed to give some sympathy applause with their parents and girlfriends.
Other shows we saw at the party were The Ponys (who were good), Menomena (who played surprisingly well live), Asobi Seksu, and Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s. Allow me to take a moment to heap some praises on Asobi Seksu. They are a fantastic band! If you are not familiar with them, they can be described (from their website) as “guitar-swirling, sweet-and-sour, bilingual dream pop.” The bilingual part comes from the influence of Yuki, their lead singer / keyboardist (who, btw, could fit in my pocket). Her singing transitions beautifully and effortlessly from Japanese to English, and her keyboard meshes well with the other members of the band. As an added bonus, and as a stated response to the beautiful day, they passed some drumsticks to the audience and invited them onstage during the conclusion of the last song to bang on shit and cause a general ruckus.
Later that evening we attended a shockingly good show by The Lovely Sparrows. I say “shocking” due to the fact that when I saw them at the Parish about 2 months ago, the sound was off and they sounded, well, shitty. Not this time! This sound guy seemed to know more about what he was doing, and they were fantastic. A big and pleasant surprise!
Next on the agenda was Zykos (sorry for the Austin theme, but it just kinda worked out that way). Zykos was extremely medium. I’m not sure how a band can manage to be both extreme and medium, but they seem to pull it off nicely. Go and see their show and let me know if you disagree. About half their stuff is really good.
We finished the night at Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter. This band is a Melissa Etheridge clone, and not at all what we expected. It sounded good, but was not really our bag, and kinda ended our SXSW on a down note. I was much too pooped from many days and nights of hard rockin’ to drag myself to see GitoGito Hustler as was my original plan. Oh, well — there’s always next year.
