Show Recap: Bonnaroo 365 Tour with White Denim and Maps & Atlases at Antone's, 11/10/12

This year Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival curated a promotional east coast and central US tour called Bonnaroo 365 Tour showcasing Austin-based psych rock/blues band White Denim and Chicago formed math rockers Maps & Atlases. I absolutely love White Denim, however I've missed them every single time they've come to Austin over the last year either due to work or the fact that they love to play secret shows in teeny, 150 capacity local venues and by the time I get there, it is of course already sold out. My best friend Emily, a Chicagoan herself, adores Maps & Atlases, so you can imagine our excitement when we saw that they were playing a joint tour! Not only that, but they were scheduled to play at legendary blues club Antone's where the likes of BB King and Muddy Waters have graced the stage. 

I really like Antone's; it's got great sound and a cool vibe. The only thing that kills me about it is the sight line - it's awful! It is a long skinny room with the stage in the middle so if you don't fight your way to the middle center, you won't have that great of a view. Regardless, White Denim was playing so at that point I could've really cared less. 

Maps & Atlases came on first, and brought a great energy to the stage. I'd seen them once before during their showcase at Red Eyed Fly during SXSW 2012. The sound was a bit off there so it was nice seeing them in a venue where their music could really resonate. Dave Davison has a very unique, calming voice and his frontman role was very hypnotizing. Not to mention the fact his bushy beard and long hair make him look like Father Earth. They played a lot of their newer stuff off of their 2012 LP Beware and Be Grateful, as well as from their 2011 EP release, Living Decorations. About halfway through the set they turned on a huge sitting drum that was illuminated from the inside with a soft light that changed colors. Bassist Shiraz Dada gave his bass a break to pound the drum and they were putting off almost a tribal, grass-roots vibe. Here they began playing tunes off of their older releases such as Trees, Swallows, Houses and You and Me and the Mountain. All together their set was consistent and highly entertaining.

After their set, White Denim came out to rock the house down. My theory is that bands always play their best and hardest when they're back on their home turf, and this was no exception. I absolutely love James Petralli's weird, gruff voice and I also thoroughly enjoy watching Steve Terebecki playing the bass because I think he looks like a young Rick Moranis, which always cracks me up. One interesting thing that White Denim does during their performance is that they basically don't take any breaks in between songs. Their set is like one long jam session where song after song just flows into each other. It's pretty impressive when you're playing an hour and half long show. They played tracks off 2008's Exposion and 2009 released Fits, followed by some EP numbers from Workout Holiday and Let's Talk About It. I am super into one of their latest albums; the '11 release Last Day of Summer. That whole record is so happy-go-lucky and positive. I was happy to hear several songs from that too. 

The combination of these two bands was killer and it was probably one of my more favorite rock shows I’ve seen in a while. I look forward to seeing either one of them the next time they roll through town.

Fun Fun Fun Fest 2012 at Auditorium Shores, November 2, 3, 4

Fun Fun Fun Fest is an annual music and comedy festival put on by Transmission Events and is held in Austin, Texas at Auditorium Shores. It began in 2006 and celebrated its sixth year this past 2012 festival. FFF showcases genre specific entertainment including metal, hip-hop, indie rock, electronic, punk rock and comedy. They have also become known for the large-scale skateboard and BMX ramp, as well as this year's new addition: The Taco Cannon. Yep, that's right. A cannon that shoots warmly wrapped tacos to patrons in the crowd. 

Last year when I first moved to Austin I was working for Transmission Events and was unable to fully enjoy the festival. This year my old boss provided me with two "homie" wristbands and I couldn't have been happier; the lineup was insane. We started off attending two of the FFF Nite shows, the first being Texas psych bands Holy Wave and Fungi Girls at The ND. I'm always a sucker for some psychedelic music and a trippy light show. We then went to Mohawk to see one of my favorite Texas bands, Mind Spiders, who as usual, totally rocked the stage. 

Friday rolled around and I snuck out of my office early to go enjoy the festivities (I wasn't the only one, hah!). We got to Auditorium Shores around 2:30pm, just in time for the Air Sex Championship at the Yellow Stage. I am still having nightmares about it, so I won't inflict the same pain on my readers. We then headed over to the Blue Stage to see Canadian electro-pop singer, Diamond Rings. I had seen Diamond Rings when I was a junior in college in a little hole-in-the-wall venue in east Atlanta called 529. He was playing solo with just a keyboard and pre-recorded beats. I think maybe 1/4 of the venue was full. To see him with a full band at FFF Fest was truly exciting; I love seeing musicians’ careers blossom when I had once seen them when hardly anyone knew who they were. Next was indie hip-hopper Astronautalis on the same stage. As I have mentioned before, I hate white rappers, however he is one of the handful that I actually do respect. He blew me away during his performance when he asked the audience to shout out random words and he then turned it into a legitimate freestyle. With words like chopsticks, time and possum, I thought that was pretty impressive! We then headed to the Orange Stage to see 90s alt-rocker Bob Mould who truly proved he's still got it. Closing your eyes, you would've thought you were listening to a twenty-something musician. Next we headed back to the Blue Stage to see a "special performance" by the Black Lips. Little did we know that the performance was actually a filming for a scene in the new Terrence Malick flick with the band, Rooney Mara and an overweight Val Kilmer. He was clearly playing the role of the burnt-out, drug-induced musician as he screamed incessantly at the band and the crowd. He threw a blow-up doll and a bucket of sand into the crowd before chainsawing an amp in half and then sawing off his own hair with a pocketknife. It was one of the oddest things I have ever witnessed. 

After this wrapped up we stuck around Blue to see hip-hop duo Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. It was honestly one of the most fun shows I'd attended in ages. They played all the hits from their great new album The Heist and kept the crowd amped up throughout the duration of their set. Their trumpet player was one of my favorite additions to the show. Next we ran to Orange to see alternative reggae electro singer Santigold who also put on a highly entertaining show. However the highlight of the night by far was seeing Run DMC, a group I never thought in a million years that I would ever get to see. This being their first show in ten years, FFF really capitalized on their reunion. While Rev Run seemed to be struggling slightly, DMC was going nuts and they played all the well-known hits from the 80s and 90s. They even had Jam-Master Jay's son, "Jam-Master Jason" (yes, his real name is Jason, go figure) DJing in his late father's place. 

We arrived on Saturday around 3:30pm just in time to catch the tail end of DMC's solo set on the Blue Stage. Next on was white-girl rapper Kreayshawn... Let's just say that's 15 minutes of my life that I'll never get back. We swiftly ran from her show to catch indie rockers Surfer Blood. I really enjoy their music and was glad to finally be seeing them live. They have such a happy, airy sound to them. Next we were back to Blue to get our dance on at Tanlines' indie electro-pop infused set. We stuck around afterward to catch LA rapper Schoolboy Q, who most people know from the hip-hop supergroup, Black Hippy. After his set we traveled to Orange to see New Jersey indie rock group, Real Estate followed by folk-pop band The Head and the Heart. Following that we finally traveled to the Black Stage to catch lo-fi punk band Wavves. Along with Surfer Blood, I'd been waiting to catch a live set from them so that was enjoyable. We ran back to Blue to catch Portland electronic group STRFKR, who unfortunately was having some problems with their sound. So we traveled back to Black to headbang to Austin natives, The Sword, one of my all-time favorite metal bands. We then shuffled over to the Blue Stage to catch some New York rapper A$AP Rocky and then I drug my friends to the Yellow Stage to see rock supergroup, Diamond Rugs. This is a collaboration between Deer Tick members John McCauley and Robbie Crowell, Ian Saint Pe of The Black Lips, Steve Berlin of Los Lobos, Dead Confederate's Hardy Morris and Six Finger Satellite's Bryan Dufresne. Post-festival we journeyed downtown to Austin venue staple Mohawk to check out psychedelic, experimental group Black Moth Super Rainbow. I love their new album Cobra Juicy but I was disappointed by how lackluster their performance was. Next we ventured to Red 7 to check out my friend's punk band Turf War and garage rockers King Tuff. 

I was determined to arrive early on Sunday to see one of my favorite bands, Fang Island. We were actually early enough to catch half of Austin band Balmorhea. Arriving early proved fruitful, as I was able to get a front row spot for Fang Island. They have a lot of lyric-less guitar driven songs, but I also thoroughly enjoy their lyrically-full tracks from their newest album, Major. We stuck around to catch girl indie punk band Bleached (former members of Mika Miko) and Brooklyn based psych noise rockers A Place to Bury Strangers. Next we walked to Black to check out metal rockers Valient Thorr and Canadian rock duo Japandroids. We then went back to Orange to catch folk-pop band Givers and over to Blue to see Austin psych-instrumentalists The Octopus Project. That was my first time seeing someone play the Theremin, which I thought was very cool! Next we went back to Orange to see Austin psych rock band The Black Angels who personally, are one of my favorite bands and one who I've seen several times. Surprisingly, the highlight of my night again was a hip-hop act, legendary rappers De La Soul. Their set was intense and enthralling, and they were another group I never thought I'd have the chance to say I've seen live! That set took it out of me so I watched a couple of songs indie folk group Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros then called it a night. 

Overall Fun Fun Fun Fest was an amazing festival experience, and may very well be my favorite festival I've attended thus far. I only see this festival continuing to grow in size in years to come. Although I'm sort of crossing my fingers that doesn't happen because it would be a shame for it to turn into an over-sold event such as ACL. It is a really great scene for underground and up-and-coming music and the one festival it seems that local Austinites can actually enjoy. I encourage anyone with similar taste in music to make the journey next year.

SXSW: "Fostering Creative & Professional Growth Alike"

Nearly one year ago today I began as an Advancement Team intern in the Music Festival Department at South by Southwest conferences and festivals in Austin, Texas. Three months into my internship one of the directors hired me on seasonally as his assistant and I held that position until the end of this past April. I went into a month long evaluation period and was then contacted by my previous boss and was offered a full-time position as a Music Festival Assistant Coordinator. My main duty is to program nighttime shows with some of our showcase presenting entities, such as the performing rights organization ASCAP and booking labels such as the Danny Rose Agency based in Los Angeles. In a sense I am a “booker,” but I use this term loosely because we do not actually talent buy as a booker would for a concert venue or typical fan-based festival. SXSW is an industry driven event where individuals come to share their ideas and their talents with others in hopes of gaining interest and support. For all intents and purposes, people come to SXSW to discover and to be discovered.

When I first started at SXSW I honestly wasn’t sure as to where my career would be going because the festival circuit was one I had never worked in; I have the majority of my experience in venue operations and smaller-scale event planning. But it soon became clear to me that I was utilizing many of those skills, just on a much larger scale. I had always dreamed of becoming a booker for a music venue, and now, not too far off from that, I am a programmer for a music festival.

Where this really differs is that I am working directly with presenters, and indirectly with talent and venues. To explain that a bit further, we have two types of official music showcases at SXSW: presented or unattached. SXSW offers showcases to entertainment entities that we believe well represent current trends in music. The types of companies we work with include booking agencies, record labels, management and/or PR groups, other festival brands, and world-renowned venues. Presenters are able to host showcases because of their strong relationships with artists who could potentially play their show at our festival.

Presented showcases are most ideal because they are mutually beneficial to the presenter, our festival, and the performers on the show. If SXSW sees potential in a company to become an official presenter, we work with that entity to curate a show that positively represents both the company and our event, all the while promoting the artists. It is in everyone’s best interest to have a specific company name on a showcase (besides SXSW) because it can generate interest from attendees and get them to a show that they may have otherwise not even considered. Our presenters also work especially hard to promote their showcases and the artists on their bill, which helps SXSW out immensely considering we showcase thousands of acts on over a hundred different stages in five days.

This is not to say that our unattached showcases do not do well; but overall we strive to attach as many artists as we can to a presenting entity that we know will promote them so that they have the best possible outcome from showcasing their talents at one of our events. Considering it is their responsibility to get themselves to Austin for the festival, we always want to make sure that it is truly worth their while.  

TED Speaker: Michael Tilson Thomas, "Music & Emotion Through Time"

I viewed a very interesting speech on TED.com by famous American conductor, Michael Tilson Thomas. The speech is entitled "Music and Emotion Through Time" and discusses how emotion in music has changed over time and also how music can affect people during different scenarios over their lifetime.

Thomas' deep love for music shines through during his speech and he admits that has a strong desire to continue to spread the musical word to others. He describes his father as his biggest teacher despite overcoming the adversity of needing a hearing aid and being a completely self-taught musician. Throughout his career Thomas's fascination has grown with how particular pieces of music enter people's lives and what meaning it carries from that point forward. He describes several instances during which he witnessed individuals recalling music that so clearly impacted them the first time they heard it. With this notion he explains that the tradition of music has made it something that is carried down through generations since the beginning of time. Thomas states that music has virtually become its own language through which we as human beings can express who we are. He says it is a language that consistently evolves.

Thomas moves on to discuss man's need to notate or "encode" music throughout time and how that has changed music's priority. He describes how classical music has changed through different centuries and how distinct genres of music have come to exist due to these changes. He also explains how the individual chords in music express different emotions and how their placement together can conjure evident changes in human emotion. He goes on to recognize how much technology played a part in these changes in music due to more expectations from composers and music. He questions, "Now that we have unlimited access to music, what does stick with us?"

For me, Thomas' speech was very inspiring and informative. I was aware of who Thomas was before viewing this speech, but I was not all that familiar with his research of music so listening to some of his findings was very insightful. I was interested in this speech in particular because I understand how much emotion is involved in music and how easily emotion can be provoked in individuals while they are listening to certain types of music. Thinking of how music is in present day while being reminded by Thomas of the highly important changes of classical music centuries ago, really made me ponder how much of a driving force emotion is in this art form.

Comedy Central Live Tapings: Owen Benjamin & Kumail Nanjiani at The Moody Theater, 10/22/12 & 10/24/12

Comedy Central invaded Austin this week to host four live tapings for their television channel and DVD release. The four well-known comedians included Owen Benjamin, Pete Holmes, Kumail Nanjiani and Al Madrigal. All tapings were free shows with only a RSVP to The Black List needed in order to attend. The Moody Theater is also one of the most outstanding venues in Austin, the famous home of ACL Live. I chose to go to the Monday and Wednesday tapings of Owen Benjamin and Kumail Nanjiani. 

Monday night we arrived and had floor seating just a little left to the center, last row. The opener was none other than Austin's own Chris Cubas who has performed at the likes of SXSW, Fun Fun Fun Fest and Moontower Comedy and Oddity Festival. The headlining comedian, Owen Benjamin, was once an actor and coordinator on MTV's Punk'd and is also known for his time on The Jay Leno Show. He was absolutely hilarious, touching on topics including driving signs, dog owners and pop music. Here's a skit he also performed during his Monday night taping, poking fun at hip-hop star, Eminem. 

Owen Benjamin "What's Wrong with Pop Music?"

Wednesday night we sat in the third row back from the stage. Bryan Guttman who is also known from Comedy Central, as well as the Montreal Comedy Festival, opened the show. Pakistani comedian Kumail Nanjiani headlined who is known best for his regular appearances on late night talk shows such as Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and Conan. He has also made appearances on the IFC show, Portlandia with Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein. He announced at the taping that he will be reappearing in Portlandia season three. This funny-man covered birthday parties with dancing monkeys, new popular drugs and hobos in the attic. Check out the link below for Kumail's take on video games.

Kumail Nanjiani "Video Games"

I absolutely love stand-up comedy but this was my first time attending live tapings. Just a few words to the wise:
1) Use the bathroom beforehand - they will not let you up to go in the middle of the taping!
2) Get ready for a camera to sit four inches from your face while the camera man awkwardly films you laughing for what feel like long periods of time.
3) Prepare yourself to laugh and cheer like a psychopath for television aesthetic purposes.
4) Don't attend with someone you don't want to be seen with.
5) Cross your fingers you're not the poor sucker the comedian uses for his own jokes throughout the entire taping. 

Austin City Limits Music Festival 2012 at Zilker Park, October 12, 13, 14

The Austin City Limits Music Festival is a three day annual festival held in Austin, Texas at Zilker Park. This year was the festival's ten year anniversary and it most certainly lived up to its years past. ACL Fest is put on by the Austin-based entertainment group, C3 Presents, who also curate Lollapalooza in Grant Park, Chicago. Over 70,000 attendees fly in from all over the world to enjoy this weekend of music, food and arts. There are eight different sponsored stages by well-known companies such as Bud Light, Honda, and the performing rights organization, BMI. ACL Fest was just recently approved to add a second weekend for 2013.

Austin City Council Approves Second Weekend for ACL

Prior to ACL the city of Austin is overtaken by those wanting to participate in all that the festival has to offer leading up to the fun-filled weekend. Clothing companies, magazines, non-profit organizations, etc. pour into town to host weekday shows and parties, building hype around the main event. Many official ACL acts choose to perform at these pre-events in order to create anticipation for their set during the festival.

This was my first time experiencing ACL and it was quite the busy week. The first event I attended was Gary Clark Jr.'s performance at Stubb's to benefit the Waller Creek Conservancy on Wednesday, October 10th. This environmental organization preserves and maintains Waller Creek and its surrounding parks. Gary Clark Jr. is an Austin native and was the perfect candidate to perform in order to bring attention to this important local cause. This was the second time I had seen GCJ in concert, and once again, he did not disappoint. He is one of the few true musicians of our time; an amazing songwriter, guitar player and singer... A modern day Jimi Hendrix if you will.

Gary Clark Inaugural Benefit Concert

The following night I attended my second event which was the TOMS Shoes World Sight Day Awareness Party at Symphony Square featuring Kishi Bashi, Vacationer and Tennis. This event was to benefit those suffering from a cataract. The artist who created the cover of The Beatles Yellow Submarine created the promotional poster for the event and was there signing; of course with my luck I had two people in front of me in line when they ran out of posters. But the event was very nicely done and all three performances were stellar with a completely amazing light show on the building behind them as they sang. I had never been inside Symphony Square before and it is by far one of my new most favorite spaces in Austin. Hopefully we will get it as an official venue for SXSW this year!

Following this event I went straight to the longtime established blues venue Antone's to catch Atlanta based psych punk band, The Black Lips. I moved to Austin from Atlanta a little over a year ago so it was great to get a taste of home. The Black Lips always put on a highly energetic show, but watch yourself or you're sure to get an elbow to the face!

Friday rolled around and the festival had finally begun with the first performance at 11:15am. People filled the streets making their way to Zilker Park from all over the city. My office at SXSW shut its doors at 3pm so that employees could enjoy the festival. Unfortunately I encountered several issues getting to the festival, so I was only able to catch a few songs from French electronic duo M83 and about half of The Black Keys show before I bailed to get food. Half of the Keys duo, Patrick Carney, was actually at the TOMS event I'd been at the night before. You can imagine my shock when I turned around and he was standing right behind me sipping on a drink! For all that you (and I) missed, here's a recap:

ACL Friday Highlights

As disappointed as I was at missing most of Friday, I attended an ACL Night Show at Emo's featuring the electro-inspired band Polica and indie alternative group Metric. I had seen Polica once before at the Belmont for their performance at the Dell party during Interactive Week at SXSW 2012. Lead singer Channy Leaneagh has one of the most haunting voices I have ever heard. I became obsessed with their self-titled debut album but previously questioned as to whether or not she would sound live as she does on the record. She has officially proved to me twice that answer is an absolute yes. They are by far one of the best new bands out there right now. I was equally excited to finally see Metric, a band that very rarely tours. They mainly focused on performing songs from their most recent release, Synthetica, but also performed tracks off their past albums such as "Gold Guns Girls" and "Dead Disco." Their energy was palpable and it was one of the best combo shows I have seen in quite some time.

I was down at Zilker Park Saturday by 1pm to catch goth rocker Zola Jesus and English indie alters Bombay Bicycle Club. I kept the UK fever alive by catching half of Dry the River's performance then I moved on to the synth-pop group, Gardens & Villa. One of my favorite performances of the day by far was Father John Misty, better known as Joshua Tillman, the previous drummer of Fleet Foxes. If you do not yet have his latest album, Fear Fun, download it immediately. I looped around to catch a few Metric songs for the second time, then got caught in the rain at Michael Kiwanuka, putting me under a tent that was right next to the Big Gigantic performance. The rain prevented me from catching much of Band of Skulls, which was a disappointment, but I did get there in time to hear their growly single, "The Devil Takes Care Of His Own." The rain finally cleared at this point and I traveled over to the Bud Light stage to catch The Roots. Much to my surprise, just when I thought I wasn't going to see this instrument twice in one month, they were showcasing a sousaphone player! I have to say all and all that this show was one of my top three performances of the weekend. They absolutely killed it. I am happy to say that I can now cross this band off my list of must-sees. Anyone who doubted this late 80s hip-hop fusion group, I'm here to tell you that they've still got it! I then moved on to Bassnectar, something I was reluctant to attend in the first place. And my opinion still stands; I really don't understand this dubstep DJ phenomenon. I respect it, but I don't understand it. Thankfully it wasn't long till the wildly talented Jack White took the stage, ripping it up with songs from his new solo album, Blunderbuss, as well as tunes from his White Stripes days. Here's a recap of Saturday night:

ACL Saturday Highlights


Post festival I ventured to the American Legion House for the Maxim after party featuring Bombay Bicycle Club and white girl rapper, Dev. BBC was great, again, but Dev... Hmmm... Have I mentioned that I HATE white rappers? She was awful. I'll leave it at that.

Sunday was actually the lineup I was looking most forward to, but unfortunately homework and errands did not allow me to enjoy as much of it as I would have liked. I arrived at Zilker around 2:30pm and headed straight to see three-piece folk rock band The Devil Makes Three. I grew up playing the standup bass so Lucia Turino is a little bit of a musical hero to me. After their performance I went to see Polica again and was pleasantly surprised to hear new material during their ACL set, as they only played songs from their debut album Friday night. I left Polica early to get a front row spot for indie alternative supergroup, Bad Books, which is comprised of Brooklyn based solo artist Kevin Devine and members from Manchester Orchestra. They had just released their second album, II, days earlier so I was totally stoked to hear the new material live. Almost tied with The Roots, that was one of my top shows of the weekend. I traveled over to see Irish indie pop-rockers Two Door Cinema Club then caught a few songs off of The Lumineers set before calling it a day. Recapping of Sunday:

ACL Sunday Highlights

I have to say there were several acts that I was very sad to have missed this weekend including Wild Belle, Florence + The Machine, Neil Young & Crazy Horse, The Boxer Rebellion, alt-J, Crystal Castles and most of all, Iggy & the Stooges. There's just not enough hours in the day! But overall my first ACL was definitely something to be remembered and I look forward to attending next year as an experienced veteran.