My SXSW 2014: Another Low Key Year, But Barrence Whitfield and Radkey Rocked

Better get this posted before South by Southwest 2014 becomes a memory and people start tweeting about SXSW 2015.  Well, it's only 50 weeks away!  I'm probably already too late.

But anyhow, like last year, my 2014 SouthBy experience was pretty limited in scope, but I still had a great time.  At first, I doubted I would make a single event.  Busy at work, busy at life.  Meanwhile, hundreds and hundreds of talented musicians were gigging in Austin this week.  (Even the buskers were great -- I guess they figure thousands of industry VIPs are in town, and just one of them needs to dig their stuff.)  So finally, at the end of the week I decided I had to take Friday afternoon off work to see a little live music.

Knowing that the areas where the clubs are thickly clustered like Red River St. would be packed, my friend Jeff and I decided to check out a few free unofficial side parties on South Congress Avenue. I got to South Congress early afternoon, and things were indeed mellow by SouthBy standards.  Still, several parties were underway over a stretch of about ten blocks.  Enough people were milling around to make people-watching interesting.  I grabbed a great bowl of veggie chili at a food trailer called Fat Cactus on Gibson St. and a cup of coffee and the buzzy Toms, which had just opened its Austin store two days earlier.  Then to kill a bit of time while waiting for my friend to arrive, I ducked into a couple of small parties happening in parking lots right on Sought Congress to survey the scene.

I didn't bring my camera but just my small handheld HD video recorder.  It was a practical decision, since the camcorder is a quarter the size and weight.  I just got the thing and thought it would be fun to shoot a few scenes and maybe a band or two.

Sorry for the barely-audible narration.  Obviously have some kinks to work out.

Jeff arrived mid-afternoon.  We had an hour or two to kill before hitting our target shows: Lydia Loveless followed by Barrence Whitfield & the Savages at the Bloodshot Records party in the alley behind the buildings on the west side of South Congress.  I was particularly excited to see Barrence, an old Boston garage rock legend who used to play regularly around where I went to college, and I first (and last) saw live almost 25 years ago.

Back page of the Sept. 6, 1990 issue of the Tufts Daily

We ducked into a half dozen or so small parties up and down South Congress.  We saw a few decent bands we'd never heard of, and one or two clunkers.  These guys, the Soft White Sixties from the Bay Area, were pretty good I thought:

Finally, a bit before Lydia Loveless hit the stage, we worked our way to the Bloodshot party.  Lydia played a solid set of American rock music, veering from pure power pop a la Fleetwood Mac to more country and bluesy material.  But Barrence really stole the day.  He might be a bit older than he was back in the 80s, but the lungs are still there.  The Savages, especially the impressive Peter Greenberg on guitar, flashed more than a bit of punk snarl as they tore through a set of mostly blues rock romps with a ballad or two thrown in.  And Barrence himself?  I love this portion of his website bio, which is an apt description of his performance at the Bloodshot party: "Whitfield is a performer so consumed with satisfying his audiences that he has been called ‘crazed, frenetic and completely unhinged.’ Barrence, the singer made up of equal parts Arthur Alexander, Nolan Porter and James Carr this mofo burns."

And of course, the battery on my camcorder died when I left the thing shooting without knowing it for, well, long enough the kill the battery.  So I snapped a quick, meh shot on my phone.

Barrence Whitfield satisfying his audience at the Bloodshot Records party, SXSW 2014

Inspired by the fun day on South Congress, I checked some of the schedules for the many Saturday parties and decided to run down to Waterloo Records in the early afternoon to check out Radkey.  This band of three young brothers from Missouri caught my attention recently when a local DJ played a tune and talked them up.  I saw a few videos of the band and had a hunch they'd be a fun act.  Turns out I was right.  Lead guitarist and singer Dee has an impressive voice that I've heard more than one critic say evokes Glenn Danzig, and shreds on guitar (if you're into that).  Isaiah on bass plays hard throughout and provides strong backing vocals, plus he acts as the emcee during shows and is rather amusing.  Solomon, the youngest brother, holds his own on drums.  I filmed 20 minutes of the show, and its been getting a fair number of views since I uploaded it.

That's it.  Told you my SouthBy wasn't epic.  But I think quality beat quantity any day, and I'm more than satisfied with the music I got to see this year, free no less.  As long as the festival is back next year, I suspect I'll be dipping in the waters at some point to catch a concert, film or some other event.