SXSW 2000 Death March

Day Five: Sunday 19 March 2000


Almost over. One last night.

Exhaustion and need to do laundry kept me from the in-stores on Sunday. I did get out to a couple of SXSA (South By South Austin) Semi-Anti-SXSW gigs, though.

Rocket 69 (?) on the concrete slab next to the dumpster, behind Out of this World, the weird little vintage shop two doors south of The Continental Club (1900) Pretty good hep cat guitar, bass, sax & drums playing a mix of old-style rock and swing tunes. They were joined for some songs by Heather Lee, a woman who just screamed the wrong side of the tracks, on vocals. Some poor 4-year old kept creeping ever closer to the stage, staring with rapt fascination at her cleavage and at the super-high slit in her skirt as she sang of riding a rocket 69. Years of therapy will surely follow.

Red Elvises (Los Angeles, CA) Jovita's Cafe & Cantina (2030) Absolutely impossible to not enjoy the hell out of these guy's shows, and dance until you're ready to fall down. One of the best live bands I have ever seen. Outrageous commie-pinko, disco and Russian folk-music-infused surfabilly by a trio of the nicest insane Russians you can find, and a Austinite drummer. More fun than Sex. (Or so their slogan says...)

And for you locals reading this, they're also playing the Continental Club Monday night. And yeah, it's late (11:30) on a school night, but when's your next chance to see a 6'4" Russian with red hair, play a Bass Balalaika? I know I didn't get enough, with only 2 1/2 hours of them last night! I am a rocket man, be-bop-a-lu-la...

Orgasm Addicts (Austin, TX) Emo's Main Room (2300) Really cool Buzzcocks, Vibrators, X-Ray Spex and other old-school new wave, nuvo wavo, ska-punk covers by a side project of most (all?) the members of Stretford. Damn good fun.

Glamourpuss (Austin, TX) Emo's Main Room (0000) Some highly unfortunate combination of Gary Glitter, David Bowie, Power Station and Guns-n-Roses. Fucking awful shit. Even the extremely cheap drinks won't keep me in Emo's for this one.

Solid Gold 40 (Austin, TX) Red Eyed Fly (0000) Iffy pop-punk junk. But better than over at Emo's

The Diamond Smugglers (Long Island, TX) Emo's Main Room (0100) Absolutely perverse, sordid and ugly take on Neil Diamond. Pretty damn funny.

But I could only take so much. So it finally came time to say Fuck Emos, and head over to see ...

Th' Fuckemos (Austin, TX) Red Eyed Fly (0100) The single dumbest, drunkest, punk band I have seen in years. Unbelievable, stumbling and incoherent. A very fitting end, considering that's how I felt as well.

Time for bed, at last.

Sunday's Score:
7 Interesting-sounding bands
7 Actually seen/heard for more than 60 seconds
2 Outstanding, _really want to see 'em again, get the CD, etc., shows
2 Really good, entertaining shows
2 Not worth the bother
1 Fucking Awful


The rest of the fest: