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AUSTIN, TEXAS — There were more bands from Japan — 12 — than from Cincinnati at this year’s South By Southwest (SXSW) Music Conference and Festival. Heck, at least four bands came from Brazil alone.
Cincinnati’s contingent at SXSW might have been small, but it was experienced. Two of the bands came here last year, one has played Austin outside of SXSW, and the other is preparing to hit the road full-time this summer.
Garage rockers The Greenhornes attracted the biggest buzz this year. They were the only local group to have their show picked as a should-see by one of alt-weekly Austin Chronicle‘s music writers. That’s big, considering about 40 other bands played at that same slot.
This, no doubt, helped them pack the all-ages Punk Rock club Emo’s to capacity on March 14, even before the festival hit full swing. I couldn’t even get in to tell you exactly how crowded it was, press badge or not. Fire marshals kept a close watch on SXSW venues all week, judging by the one-goes-out, one-goes-in rule at any venue with a sizable crowd.
Thee Shams, Freekbass and Ray’s Music Exchange also drew respectable crowds at small- to mid-sized venues along Sixth Street in downtown Austin, each connecting with fans of their kinds of music in a way only possible at festivals like SXSW.
Four-piece garage rockers, Thee Shams — with new guitarist Andy Robertson (and a new “Thee,” changed for legal reasons) — squeezed in two shows on March 15, both with fellow Orange Recordings artists, Cash Audio, and The Cells, from Chicago, and Geraldine, from Athens, Ohio, among others. Geraldine bass player Scott Winland arranged the first one at Beerland, an appropriately-named hole-in-the-wall club with a cement floor and cinder block walls. Yet it still had a wood bar. Go figure.
Monitor problems necessitated some impromptu rigging at Beerland. Maybe that prevented a jinx during their 35-minute set at 11 p.m. that night at the Drink on 6th, a slightly larger venue that allows passersby to watch and interact with the band from the back through two huge picture windows.
Moments before the show began, singer/guitarist Zach Gabbard noticed a busker outside. The middle-aged man wore an attention-getting sparkly green bodysuit and a flag converted into shorts and a cape. Gabbard, finding him amusing, traded a few words, and the man apparently said something about performing, either inside or out.
“It’s our time to shine,” Gabbard said with just a trace of seriousness, effectively shooing him away.
Thee Shams mostly straight-out rocked, but did toss in a couple of new songs and slower numbers. The crowd didn’t dance, but did fill up almost all the available space — except for the sonic no-man’s land about 10 feet from the stage, where the seven-foot-tall PA stacks were pointed.
After Austin, Thee Shams have a few dates leading to their seasonal visit to New York. A Shams single is forthcoming on Deary Me Records, according to Gabbard; they also plan to do their next album for Telstar Records, also home to the Greenhornes, later this year.
The Bootsy Collins-produced Freekbass drew a couple of hundred people to The Vibe, a medium-sized open-air venue known for hosting Jam and Funk bands, on March 14. Freekbass’ set was, as always, full of sweat, songs that flowed into one another, and attention to detail. For example, singer/bassist Chris “Freekbass” Sherman began the show wearing a white jacket with the band’s red FB logo. When he got sweaty, he took it off and revealed a sleeveless shirt with the same logo on the back.
Sherman said on the road, sometimes odd patterns emerge. Sometimes they involve clowns.
“For real, we have been in so many cities driving in the van and someone will say ‘Hey, check it out’ and there is a full-costumed clown driving a car around. I guess it could be coincidence, but it’s happened a bunch of times in a bunch of cities,” Sherman said later.
Sherman noted there were some label reps and talent bookers at the show, but he wasn’t optimistic or pessimistic about it. The fans seemed pleased, however.
“We sold a ton of CDs and T-shirts that night at the Vibe … if you believe in what you are doing and can convey that onstage, there is an audience out there for anybody,” Sherman wrote.
By June the jazzy, funky, bluesy Ray’s Music Exchange plans to hit the road full-time to the tune of 200 shows a year, according trumpet/keyboard player Mike Mavridoglou.
Their March 16 show at the Vibe was a kind of get-acquainted party for Ray’s Music. The event, coordinated by JamBase — the Jam band online guide and promotional company — allowed Ray’s Music to connect to others in the Jam band scene in general. The show also marked the first appearance of older brother Nick Mavridoglou on percussion.
Their hour-long set, like Freekbass, flowed from one number to another, easily crossing genres such as Jazz, R&B and Funk. A couple of hundred people showed up, and about 30 of them danced to their own vibes near the stage.
Mike said the event was nothing but good for the band, despite the hassle of unloading and loading a 15-passenger van on chaotic Sixth Street on Saturday night.
“You want to tell your whole story in an hour, and that’s a very hard thing to do,” Mike said, quickly realizing that nearly every other band in town only had 30-minute sets. “Actually, we lucked out getting as much as we did,” he said.
The Greenhornes recently replaced guitarist/singer Brian Olive “about 11 hours” after he quit, said drummer Patrick Keeler, and began a 31-day, 28-show tour of the East and Midwest with their Austin gig. Eric Stein, formerly of The Griefs and a friend of Greenhornes’ lead singer/guitarist Craig Fox, took over guitar duties. Tensions between Olive and other band members was high, Keeler said by phone from Asheville, N.C.
“It was just not really working out,’ Keeler said. “I think it had been in the works for a while.”
The band’s main goal is making a living, Keeler said. Their current tour with Holly Golightly reaches the Southgate House in Newport on April 4, before ending in where it began — in Austin at Emo’s. ©
This article appears in Mar 20-26, 2002.
