Monday, March 12, 2007

Concert Review: North by Southwest, Day 1

By Erin Rice

I felt pretty bad on Saturday, because I had all the intentions of getting to ellum:ONSTAGE as soon as the first band was set to go on, but flat tires, and procrastination, and getting lost (no clue how I got lost), delayed that arrival until about 5:30 p.m. The first thing I noticed missing from North by Southwest on day one, after the festival was supposed to be under way for more than five hours, were people. When I got to the venue, there were probably 50 people milling between the indoor and outdoor stages, and that included mostly badge-wearers, a.k.a other press, radio-types, and friends of the bands. Not quite enough heads to warrant the "festival" atmosphere I was expecting. It seemed a little sad at points, as some of the acts definitely deserved a larger audience (i.e. Johnny Lloyd Rollins and Salim Nourallah and the Noise) but eventually fans showed up, and the evening ended on a high note, with mostly great music throughout.

The first band I saw was The Upstairs Divine from Ruston, Louisiana. They have a slow but pretty, melodic indie sound, something you might expect as background music on an episode of Grey's Anatomy. A few songs peaked my interests, as they welled up into this intense wall of sound, but it became clear that was the case for several of their songs, and in the end it all seemed a little too formulaic and rehashed for me to listen to when not forced. Unless it does show up on Grey's Anatomy, in which case, kudos, their songs are perfect.

Homer Hiccolm and the Rocket Boys, the next band on the indoor stage, seemed like they might adopt the same formula as The Upstairs Divine, but luckily diverged some. This Abilene group just seemed to put a little more passion into their music, and when the end of the songs would swell into that proverbial wall of sound, it was more complete and didn't seem as forced. Not to mention, Brandon Kinder, lead vocalist, has the kind of singing voice you can get lost in. Not exactly my taste in music, but I enjoyed them.

Johnny Lloyd Rollins

Meanwhile, back outside Johnny Lloyd Rollins took the stage with his band, The All-Nighters, featuring newest member Chris Holt. Again, this was a big deal, new big-time band member, and it was a downright travesty that so few people got to witness this performance, but enough of that. Chris Holt clearly strengthens any band he's in (which is about 60% of all bands in DFW), he's just a musical genius, and added another dimension to Rollins' already highly praised material from Let's Be Poor Together. In general, Johnny Lloyd Rollins gave a great performance, and was probably one of the most original, authentic artists on the lineup for the entire festival. A welcome change of pace.

After Rollins came Salim Nourallah and the Noise. Salim is always a great performer and he didn't disappoint here. Though the crowd was small, it did include his little boy, Gavin, running in circles around the parking lot, occasionally yelling up to his dad on stage... so freaking cute. The Noise, Salim's band following the Polaroids, was on point, as usual.

The Dark Romantics

The surprise of the night for me was the next indoor band, The Dark Romantics. This aptly named group's sound is a slightly darker and sexier, somewhat scaled down, version of the Strokes. In fact the lead singers' voices are almost interchangeable at points. Very catchy stuff. Even though The Dark Romantics are from Florida, I'm keeping an eye, and ears, on this group. They recently released an album entitled Some Midnight Kissin on Lujo Records. Definitely worth a listen if you get the chance.

I only got to catch the end of Hendrick's set, unfortunately, but if you take that formula I was talking about from the first two bands, and do it better, with an even more charismatic and interesting lead singer, you get Hendrick. Good, fun indie/pop music from what I could tell. I look forward to actually seeing a full set from them in the future.

Back inside (back and forth, back and forth, all day) was This Will Destroy You from San Marcos. Very interesting band, different, no vocals. Powerful, ambient rock, a very epic sound throughout. Going without vocals is always a bold move for a contemporary band, as you can't hide bad instrumentation behind song lyrics. These guys do it well, as evidenced by what is clearly a strong fan base around Austin. Another group to look into more in the future.

Finally, Polyphonic Spree. What can I say that people in DFW don't already know. Another killer performance? Duh, yeah. Having seen them once before at the MLS Cup Final in Frisco, where they only played one or two songs, I knew I liked them, but I didn't know to what extent. Now I do. I love Polyphonic Spree. Just so damn happy, a visual spectacle, it's hard to dislike them, though I know there are people out there who do. Saturday's performance came with a nice little announcement too about their upcoming CD, The Fragile Army. By the time this array of militia-suited musicians took the stage a crowd of a couple hundred people flooded the ellum:ONSTAGE parking lot, with rooftop onlookers, as well. Playing some old and some new material, PS had the crowd at their most energetic all evening. I mean, you just can't help it. They're good, we like them, enough said.

Now, probably shouldn't have said "finally" too soon. Because the final band of the evening actually came after Polyphonic's hour and a half set. Discover America had the unfair task of closing the evening. And in a town that pretty much only turned out for one band on Saturday, most people had no intentions on sticking around any longer. And neither did I, my back was screaming from standing for nearly 6 hours straight. Seriously, a couple more chairs wouldn't have hurt anybody, now would they? Tylenol? Advil? Coors? Oops, wrong venue for that.

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Comments

Bill Holston Verified

I volunteered for this event. It was really well organized. They were prepared for big crowds that didn't show. Because of teh small crowd, they really didn't need volunteers, so I bought a ticket and watched Salim, Hendrick, and Polyphonic Spree. I was working at the front table, so I could hear but not see Johnny. His show was rocking. It always is. It struck me that the price was fair, for the quality and amount of music, but for a first time event, I think the price kept people away. Dallasites are not that into music, sad to say, to pay 25.00 for a day of music, (what would that be per band watched, right, nothing really) I would have enjoyed a cold beer (judging from teh empties I picked up after the show, several people did just that), but I can also enjoy music w/o it. I don't know if they can pull this off w/o beer. It would be nice to think people in this town enjoy music enough, to be willing to go to an alcohol free event, but perhaps not. There are plenty of empty venues, that do serve beer. I think there's something about our current culture, that people don't put a premium on paying to see live music. I spent 25 bucks yesterday at the Angelika for 2 admissions, a tea and a cookie. Given that, isn't 25.00 to see two stages of good music a bargain. I think it is.

I hope they don't give up and they learn some more about promotion next year.

bill

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