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Category: Music
After cruising seven hours through the Texas desert, Austin appears like an oasis on the skyline. The city is actually green! Trees, like broccoli florets, form cotton candy tufts on the side of the interstate. We can breathe again.
We are guided by the pink line on our GPS system, Garman (aka "Garmy"), to our friend Steph's little cottage. She's out, but it's a place to rest near the venue we're playing soon. During SXSW every conceivable parking lot or shop-front seems to become a hot spot for a showcase. Ours is at a pizza joint and bar called the Parlor on the North Loop, and while its far from the craziness of downtown, it's just the kind of spot that draws locals who don't want to deal with the traffic jam.
Lone Stars are cheap, the vibe is good, and so is the pizza. I talk to Randy of Leatherbag about his music and the New Sincerity movement, a concept that's been floating around Texas for some time. I don't know about the "new" part, but you can't argue that a lot of bands down here, like Leatherbag and RTB2, make music that puts feeling before style, and there is a refreshing sincerity to the music, especially now, with so many purposefully ironic bands out there, afraid to make something they might care about. Or maybe just to try.
The attitude difference was clear from the show's opening when the first musician began playing. I'm not sure what his name was; he filled in for a band that couldn't make it last minute. I'm told his veteran group was called Orange Mothers. A cross between Daniel Johnston, Townes van Zandt, and maybe a little Jonathan Richman. "Do you want a serious one or a silly one?" he asked the audience. After two minutes of a song about aliens, he said, "OK, now I'll give you a serious one."
Magic Leaves from San Francisco played with the free-spiritedness that makes SXSW wonderful, switching bands in the middle of the set by trading instruments and vocalists around. RTB2 followed with a wholly formed, explosive sound that makes you shocked they are just a two-piece. Guitarist Ryan Thomas Becker knows exactly how to work sound out of his instrument, casting it through the air like a sail catching wind.
You'll have to ask someone else about our set...it felt like a whirlwind, more than any other on the tour so far. I got a little delirious from the heat. Everyone loved our closer, All Signs Point To Yes. As Spoon says, "That's the way to my heart."
The night closed with the raucous, glorious rock n' roll of Leatherbag. These dudes know how to pound it out. The crowd ate from their hand. And when the bar said to play one or two more, they must have done four. Not because they were rude (they actually had very good manners), but because the audience wouldn't have it any other way. Here was the true spirit of Texas. Maybe one day we'll find ourselves as at home as this on the road.
- Ian Apple
![]() | Currently listening:
Love & Harm
By Leatherbag
Release date: 2008-04-29 |
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2:22 PM
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