SXSW 2006 Bonus Coverage: MaDM Plays With K-OS

03/20/06 9:00pm

by Karen Pace (CHARTattack)

With street signs and souvenir T-shirts proclaiming Austin, Texas to be the live music capital of the world, it's easy to believe during the annual South By Southwest Music Festival. Even without what is affectionately known as "South By," Austin plays host to more live music than most urban centres due to the sheer number of bars and venues to support it. My first foray to Austin was on a 40-hour bus ride south from Toronto in 1997 to cover the event for Chart Magazine, so it seems fitting to submit a report for my alma mater of publications after driving down to my seventh South By in nine years in a Thelma And Louise-style road trip.

Canadians were all over this year's SXSW showcases and plentiful BBQs like a hound dog on a T-bone (thanks to Tim Murray for that one).The first live music that wafted across a light breeze towards our travelling party came from The Golden Dogs, who helped kick things off on the Wednesday at the Canadian consulate outdoor BBQ. Guests were wearing red ribbons declaring "I talked to a Canadian." Next year I'm packing my own ribbons stating "I kissed a Canadian." I'll let you know how that goes. Sneaking off before the Swollen Members noticed (we knew we'd catch them the next night), we partook in a "when in Rome" adventure to watch 1.5 million world-famous Mexican Freetail bats fly out from under the Congress Street Bridge at dusk en masse up, up into the air to consume their nightly meal of thousands of pounds of insects. It was very cool.

Without telling the Swollen Members that we had skipped out early, we met up with them after their Canadian BBQ set to sit down for some authentic Texan BBQ at the Iron Works. While in line, Prevail deemed it more economical to purchase half a cow by the pound than for their posse to buy individual meals, and the result was eye-popping. A heaping pile of ribs was brought to the table and gobbled happily.

From there, a packed house for World Party afforded zero sightlines. But Karl Wallinger and his two acoustic accompanists sounded great, even if one couldn't see them. Beth Orton sounded angelic at Antone's, where K-OS then took far too long setting up for his hour-late show. But it was worth the wait. His songs were excellent, though the crowd was disappointingly small. Melissa Auf Der Maur guested on bass, as the band's touring bass player had quit last week, K-OS informed the crowd. Auf Der Maur was available and offered to help. K-OS introduced his last song by stating that it was also the last song he would ever play for Astralwerks Records. He said that they were parting ways and thanked them for all their work with him to date.

On the east side of town at the Guerrero Produce Warehouse, Blender Magazine presented an after-hours 2:30 a.m. SXSW 20th anniversary bash featuring Echo And The Bunnymen. Singer Ian McCulloch and original guitarist Will Sergeant have never lost the magic touch in more than 25 years of making music together. An enthralling set of hits (compared to all the new material they played the next night at their official showcase) made me realize how many acts owe their existence to the Bunnymen. The recent operatic tendencies of Bono, not to mention his addiction to wearing sunglasses on stage, seem inspired by the guy who did it first, McCulloch. He also has the swagger and singing delivery of Oasis' Liam Gallagher, the melodic sense and soaring vocals of Coldplay's Chris Martin and the song title-stealing of Muse ("Absolution"). McCulloch's inane stage banter and his badgering of the audience endeared him more than ever at this show, proving — to me at least — that nobody does it better.

Rumours started circulating among the cognoscenti that The Beastie Boys were going to play a secret show at 7 p.m. on Thursday at Stubb's, so after the Mint/Six Shooter Records afternoon party I walked across the street to find a lineup already formed. Rob Lanni and Devi Ekanand from Coalition Entertainment let me butt in line with them (thanks). However, as it turned out, almost everyone with a badge and most people wearing wristbands were admitted to fill the 2,500-person outdoor venue. Elliott Brood's Steve Pitkin and the boys from Matt Mays & El Torpedo thanked me for tipping them off about the show when I found them in the crowd at Stubb's. Beginning their set with a Rush sample certainly endeared the Beasties to the Canadians in the crowd. The fist-pumping masses ate up the free unscheduled show, and the talk in the crowd was how happy people were to see them on stage after stories of not seeing them live for several years.

This is what makes SXSW better than other festivals: besides the cornucopia of afternoon BBQs and after-party private showcases and constant music from noon 'til 4 a.m. daily, there are usually several surprise gigs that spring up throughout the week. The Flaming Lips played two "thank-you-SXSW" free shows, but rumours of a Perry Farrell appearance at the end of the Living Things set were unfounded, even though the Living Things maintain that they were instructed to learn two Porno For Pyros songs just in case Farrell did stop by.