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Fest music spins in every direction

Diversity at Austin attracts Coloradans

Steve Knopper, Special to the News

Published March 24, 2006 at midnight

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AUSTIN, Texas - During South by Southwest, the annual music-industry festival in which 10,000 attendees try to absorb 1,500 bands at 64 clubs over four days, I literally spun in circles last Thursday night in the middle of Sixth Street.

See the Fiery Furnaces at the big stage outside the barbecue restaurant Stubb's? Wait in line for the Flaming Lips party at Eternal downtown? Check out DeVotchKa, one of nine Colorado bands, at the Velvet Spade Patio? Watch the NCAA tournament? Take a desperately needed nap?

The festival, in its 20th year, is the perfect location for such crippling live-music decision-making. Everywhere you go, a voice inside declares you should be in one of 10 other locations instead.

Absorbing it all is impossible. Jello Biafra, the Boulder native who fronted the punk band Dead Kennedys and now pushes anti-war spoken-word performances, signed autographs at the Austin Convention Center. The Lips, a psychedelic band known for spectacle, tore up Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, complete with giant, floating, multicolored balloons, in a club so hot and packed I thought I'd leave flame broiled.

Neil Young sat for a good-humored keynote interview, along with filmmaker Jonathan Demme, in which he declared he would always try new things.

"I just turned down a promoter - they were gonna say 'Neil Young's Greatest Hits,' " he said wryly. "So that was it for them. They're done."

The seminal British punk band Gang of Four did a jittery version of Anthrax atop a parking garage Saturday night; buzz bands of the moment We Are Scientists, Metric and the Magic Numbers proved their worth; old-timers, from ex-Dream Syndicate frontman Steve Wynn to local psychedelic rock footnote Powell St. John to hard-rocking singer-songwriter Matthew Sweet, showed they were still alive.

And in the middle of it all were Colorado bands - death-metal shriekers Cephalic Carnage and The Great Redneck Hope, reunited rockers the Czars, the spacey folk-rock band Porlolo, the all-woman folk quintet Uncle Earl, and metallic-sounding headbangers Vaux. I caught up with four of them:

DeVotchKa

Musical style: Darkly soulful mix of Russian folk, German big band and American rock.

Previous SXSW appearances: Once, 2005.

Where they played: Velvet Spade Patio, a small club a few blocks from the main Sixth Street drag.

The scene: The image of Jeanie Schroder's tuba sitting next to the stage as the Colorado Springs death metal band The Great Redneck Hope shrieked incomprehensibly before DeVotchKa's set, sums up the diverse musical experience.

The band's rock drumming, Russian folk singing and fiddle and accordion solos packed the upstairs patio with about 150 people. "Is this real or is it a novelty?" a Scottish concertgoer asked me.

A little of both. The band seemed energized, as Schroder oom-pah-pahed, singer Nick Urata crooned in his rumpled tuxedo and all four members churned out a super-tight version of the Velvet Underground's Venus in Furs.

Quotable: "People will show up two minutes before you go on. It's a buzz mentality. They disappear right before you're done. We're just here for the friendship and hopefully to get a few drinking stories." Drummer Shawn King, describing Austin during festival weekend.

Next up: Nothing locally, but a European tour begins May 4 and the band plays Bonnaroo on June 15.

Richie Furay

Musical style: Old-school country-rock.

Previous SXSW appearances: None

Where he played: Antone's, the venerable downtown blues club.

The scene: Furay, who played with Neil Young for two years in Buffalo Springfield and helped pioneer country-rock with Poco, gave up mainstream music to become a pastor at Calvary Chapel of Broomfield/Boulder. But in July he will release Heartbeat of Love, his first secular album in 30 years.

Looking like the minister next door in large round spectacles, black suitcoat and jeans, Furay and his band played several new songs with familiar chiming guitars, catchy choruses and lyrics about love and faith.

They also tossed out a surprising number of classics, including Springfield's Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing, Kind Woman and a sturdy version of Poco's rocker A Good Feelin' to Know.

On stage Furay talked of his 39-year marriage and disinclination to sing anything but love songs. "I'm not political," he told the elbow-to-elbow crowd of at least 500. "That's not what I do."

Quotable: Why did Furay start recording non-religious songs again after 30 years? "I can't even tell you. There's no issue with me, and there's no issue with the Lord," he said with a smile. "And I have to answer to Him."

Next up: A sold-out show tonight at Nissi's in Lafayette

Dressy Bessy

Musical style: Catchy, fuzzy power pop

Previous SXSW appearances: Five, not counting their four shows this year.

Where they played: Habana Calle 6 Patio downtown.

The scene: Guitarist John Hill's snapping and crackling electric-guitar chords must have wafted down the street, because a huge line formed outside just a few songs into Dressy Bessy's set.

Flame-haired vocalist Tammy Ealom, wearing a broad-shouldered suitcoat and checkered tie, walked all over the corpses of similar-sounding '90s bands Veruca Salt and Letters to Cleo during the 45-minute set. During Stop Foolin', a stone-faced Ealom spat kiss-offs like "OK?" "Oh yeah" and "Don't say?"

Quotable: "We're usually on tour. This time it was just a trip. We just like to play our music." Ealom, adding that she once almost moved to Austin during a past South by Southwest before abruptly withdrawing her apartment deposit and returning to Denver.

Next up: April 8, Bluebird Theater, Denver.

Born in the Flood

Musical style: Passionate hard rock with sensitive, Coldplay-style piano.

Previous SXSW appearances: Once, for an "unofficial" show in 2005.

Where they played: Latitude 30, a block removed from 6th Street.

The scene: Wedged onto a stage so small that guitarist Matthew Fox had to play the electric piano on his knees, the four-man band opened in a brutal headbanging style, before downshifting into a sort of confessional mixture of pop and rock.

Perhaps owing to the band's lack of South by Southwest experience, the club was half-empty, just 60 people or so, but the band was undeterred. At the end of the set, they smashed their guitars.

But don't worry, the instruments in question were cheap. "That kind of stuff usually happens when we get worked up," says bassist Joseph Pope III.

Quotable: "I really wanted to be, like, crystal clear and powerful. But I can hardly talk." Singer Nathaniel Rateliff, who woke up the morning before the showcase with a sore throat.

Next up: Nothing announced; check for updates.

Go online Learn more about South by Southwest and the Colorado bands at:

• The festival: blogs, video, and podcasts at http://2006.sxsw.com

• Richie Furay: Learn more at

• Dressy Bessy: Shows, photos and more at

• Born in the Flood: Learn more, find upcoming shows

• DeVotchKa: Tour news and more at