Catching up

So why did I get into one of the most anticipated showcases of the festival and then up and leave?  It's complicated.  I got there before the first act of the night, Jennifer O'Connor, who is a country-tinged singer-songwriter; she was good and all, but I wasn't in the mood.  The next act was Brightback Morning Light, who describe their music as "narcotic jams full of expansive songs that feel like the still air before an electrical storm".  Sounds like something I definitely want to pick up on vinyl, for listening to on the couch with my eyes closed, but this was even further from my mood.

There were some shows happening on the other side of downtown; the Flaming Lips were supposed to be playing at the Fox and Hound, and Talib Kweli was down at La Zona Rosa, so I decided to take off.  I've seen the New Pornographers before, and while I hate to miss Belle and Sebastian, there is far too much stuff going on down here to spend any time listening to something you're not in the mood for.

I have to say, I made the right decision.

I walked right into the Fox and Hound, and the door guy confirmed that the Lips would come on at 11:00.  The Czars were on at the time; he (it's really one guy, with some guitar accent) does overwrought piano bar type stuff with one of the richest baritones I've heard lately.  I loved this.

Then the Lips came on.  Wayne (whose drawings are on the tote bag this year) gave a little speech about how much SXSW means to them.  Then the band broke into "Bohemian Rhapsody", as dozens of big orange and green balloons filled the tent over the crowd.

I have heard them do this song before, and they pull it off remarkably well for a four-piece, but tonight they were more like a 500-piece.  I mean, shit, who in this crowd isn't going to sing along to every single word at the top of their lungs?  Looking around at everyone transfixed by the balloons, it was all chill bumps and goofy grins.  It was like an enormous simultaneous music nerd orgasm.  In fifteen years of concertgoing and hundreds of memorable moments, I can't think of one to top this one.

The set went on with some tracks from their upcoming album ("Free Radical" and "Yeah Yeah Yeah Song") and some favorites like the title track from Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, which this crowd knew as well as they did "Bohemian Rhapsody".  It ended when they brought obscene electronic, uh, whatever Peaches up on stage with them to cover "War Pigs".  By that time, someone had opened the fence keeping out the hundreds of non-badgeholders who had been kibitzing the whole time, and the room was packed.

Rumors flew that the Beastie Boys were coming on at 1:00, when they had a second "Special Guest" listed, but that struck me as bullshit.  (I turned out to be right; whoever they had scheduled didn't show up, and they didn't say who it was, except it wasn't the Beasties.)  So I went down to La Zona Rosa to catch Cut Chemist spinning a set.  Holy shit, did he fuck up the decks.  I wish everyone out there who thinks turntablists aren't musicians could have been there to see the man work.

More later on the Neil Young/Jonathan Demme keynote, where everything that was wrong with the Beastie Boys interview was just right.  For now--lunch, then check out the rock poster show (where I hope they have on-site facilities for taking out a second mortgage), and maybe try to get a pass to the screening of Heart of Gold (Demme's new Neil Young concert film) at 4:30.  I need to pace myself on the music, and I think my plantar fasciitis will appreciate it if I do something sitting down for a few hours.