Wino is scheduled to do an acoustic set!

If anyone makes it to town shoot me an email: detuned@ymail.com

oh wow what a great line up!!! Year Long Disaster put on a KILLER show and Priestess... that will wail fully!!!

There is a showcase for both Southern Lord and Small Stone records tonight. I'm going to try and catch the following bands:

Wino
Wolves In The Throne Room
Pelican
Solace

WELL....



Impatiently awaits report on how those performances were (particularly Wino's)...

Here's the full list of bands I saw at SXSW in the past week:

Earthless (3x)
Annihilation Time (2x)
Black Math Horseman (2x)
Radio Moscow (2x)
Kylesa
Skeletonwitch
Black Cobra
Wolves In The Throne Room
Wino (acoustic)
Pelican
Night Horse
Graveyard BBQ
Blower (local Austin band)
Spindrift
Bang Camaro
Year Long Disaster
Age Ov Reason
Priestess

Needless to say it was a great week of music.

Wino - I got to see him on Friday night for the "Southern Lord" showcase, despite a not so great sound mix he put on a great short set. The highlight was a rousing version of "Iron Horse". Then I was lucky enough to meet him the following day at the High Times party, we talked for about 10 minutes and it was a great time. He's very humble and soft spoken.

Unfortunately, he did not perform that day...there were 2 stages (1 inside, 1 outside) and there's very little sound dampening between them...Wino got up on stage to start his sound check, tried to sing a few lines...then stood up, shook his head and said "I can't hear myself think, I was promised I wouldn't have to perform over another band, f*ck this...I'm outta here". He packed up his acoustic and walked out. It was of course disappointing, but I don't blame him for being angry. It's one thing to perform with a band and a wall of amplifiers behind you...it's another to try and do an intimate acoustic set when you can't even hear yourself on stage.

Bummer on that second Wino set... sounds like the stage setup was not very well thought out. I would imagine that seeing him do acoustic stuff live would be awesome...


...How were the other acts? Anyone in particular really stand out live?

Some favorites:

Earthless - these guys have become the jam band/psychedelic version of Rush. They reach a synergy in their improvisations that most bands can only hope for. Being that all of their music is instrumental and the average song length in performance is 40 minutes...it takes truly gifted performers to keep it interesting, these guys make it riveting.

Black Math Horseman - Very interesting L.A. band whose debut album comes out on Tee Pee in April. Female bassist/vocalist, very much a "mood" band, they create a great atmosphere live. They are on myspace: http://www.myspace.com/blackmathhorseman

Pelican were just as impressive as I expected. I need to get more of their catalog.

Black Cobra was really good live, they're a duo of guitar & drums, no bass player.

Radio Moscow are a bunch of young kids from Iowa (oldest member is 24) who have a good thing going, they are closer in vein to the retro bands like Dead Man and Witchcraft. They are impressive for their age.

YLD is a great band. Featuring the son of Ray Davies of the KINKS on lead guitar and vox!