"A Bar Is Just a Church Where They Serve Beer"
My Friday evening's festivities commenced with Jim White, a playfully eccentric singer-songwriter with a gift for both unsettling murder ballads and hilarious between-song chitchat. Among his standout lines, "A bar is just a church where they serve beer" set the stage for a night strafed with spiritually uplifting highlights.
For one thing, a bar may well be a church where they serve beer, but every SXSW, the Central Presbyterian Church turns into a bar where people actually shut up and stop networking long enough to listen to shows. The awed hush and ample seating more than compensate for the lack of alcohol; I guess they didn't want the sound of clinking bottles to detract from the music, huh? Anyway, NPR station KCRW sponsored an appealing lineup inside what emcee Chris Douridas appropriately called "a sanctuary," leading off with Norwegian singer-songwriter Thomas Dybdahl. The oft-wonderful Dybdahl -- for evidence, here's "A Lovestory" (audio) -- even took questions from the audience without fear of Norwegian-accented heckling.
From there, the agonizing choice between Clem Snide and Adem -- two acts I'd happily drive at least an hour to see on any given night -- was decided in part by a chance encounter with friends heading to the former. As I've noted in a previous post, Clem Snide's new songs sound amazing, though my long-running fandom could theoretically qualify as bias at this point. And skipping Adem was probably a wise move anyway: Superb singer-songwriter Laura Gibson played the same little tent/patio stage an hour later, and she spent the entire set fighting to be heard over what sounded like five nearby metal bands. (Which would probably have put a damper on my traditional Adem-viewing ritual of snorfling like a little girl.)
After Gibson, the night turned into an epic grudge match between two overpowering impulses -- soaking in more bands vs. soaking my aching feet -- and believe it or not, the former more or less won out. The Swedish power-pop band The Faintest Ideas proved as charming onstage as it does on "You're Beautiful" (audio), though I ultimately regretted skipping a big chunk of its show to see Chad VanGaalen: After walking for what seemed like a mile, I arrived to discover that the Canadian had been denied entry to the U.S. for SXSW. Which makes sense, because nothing says "grave national-security risk" quite like reclusive singer/songwriters from Calgary. A grateful nation breathed a sign of relief, but asked nicely for me to post the sweet-but-unnerving "Build a Home Like a Bee" (audio), from VanGaalen's Infiniheart.
Midnight's slot belonged to an old favorite, the Milwaukee band Maritime, which combines two of my favorite things: sweetly infectious power-pop and being from Wisconsin. "Tearing Up the Oxygen" (audio) sums up the group's appeal nicely, but I'll post more on Maritime after taking a shower -- speaking of a grateful nation -- and recommending a moment with the lovely Beach House. The Baltimore band closed the long night with some dreamy and inscrutable atmospherics; here's "Saltwater" (audio).
10:47 AM ET | 03-17-2007 | permalink
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