Month: January 2019

Hamell on Trial and Beaver Nelson

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FRI. OCT. 4, 2002

If you go to the Continental Club Saturday night there is an excellent chance that Monday morning you will be using divine expletives with workday water cooler crowd – things like “Oh my God!” and “Holy shit!” You’ll be talking about Ed Hamell and Beaver Nelson, of course, two songwriters who have been lingering on the margins of commercial success for the better part of the last decade, and rightfully so. Both are too insightful, truthful, and talented to be homogenized in the corporate grist. Their styles are wildly divergent. Hamell is an upstate New Yorker who favors hard-driving, machine gun-like rock rhythms played solo on an abused acoustic guitar. His songs are lyrically dense with catchy hooks and verses that often lapse into outright spoken word. Sporting a shaved head that places him somewhere phrenologically between Uncle Lester and Howie Mandell, Hamell pounds through a frenetic, sweaty setlist that ranges from hilarious to horrifying and all points in-between. Nelson, in contrast, is the quintessential shaggy haired, soulful troubadour, half angst, half optimist, who has an uncanny ability to paint the big picture with small strokes. Nelson’s songs are patiently paced, cleanly arranged and roomy enough to nicely frame his high, nearly raspy vocals. Both songwriters got their fist big break here in Austin: Hamell, at the now-defunct Electric Lounge and Nelson at the equally defunct Chicago House. Both venues are legendary in their own right if only for the fact that these guys are their legacy. Luckily for you, the Continental Club is picking up where they left off.

Austin City Limits Festival

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SEPT. 28, 2002

It’s a lock. If you’re looking to rub elbows with thousands of music-loving, education TV watching types, a good many of whom could be potentially single, you’re going to want to wipe your weekend schedule clean and pop for some Austin City Limits Festival Tickets. Unquestionably there’s going to be a sizeable contingent of swarthy, shirtless, bandana-on-the-Labrador outdoor concert regulars and patchouli scented Phish dancers, but there should also be healthy mix of button-down suburban types and hip inner-loopers. Unless there’s a plague of locusts or a rain of amphibians, count on a huge, sprawling mass of humanity, and with good reason. The ACL Festival has scored some serious talent – and then there’s the musicians they’ve brought in from out of town! Here’s a sampling of Saturday’s lineup: Wilco, String Cheese Incident, Nickel Creek, Asleep at the Wheel, The Jayhawks, Los Lobos, Bob Schneider, and the Blind Boys of Alabama – and that still leaving out 20 great acts, give or take. Sunday’s list is impressive as well: Jack Ingram, Ryan Adams, Shawn Colvin, Emmylou Harris, Eric Johnson, Kelly Willis, and the Jayhawks. The lineup is so impressive that even Soupy Sales cancelled his big show over at the Steamboat on Sunday night. Crazy, right? Here’s an even crazier thing: Tickets for the two day event are only $45 and kids under ten get in free with a ticketed adult. That’s almost socialist, but then again, Austin is pretty much a pinko town. Regardless of your political bent, the ACL Fest promises to be one of the biggest events of the season, one well worth your time and money.

Cinematexas International Short Film Festival

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SEPT. 20, 2002

As if there weren’t enough strangely dressed people milling around UT on a Fall football weekend, this Saturday the 2002 Cinematexas International Film Festival brings German filmmaker/opera lover/shoe eater Werner Herzog to the Texas Union Theater for a lecture and screening of two of his non-fiction works: Lessons of Darkness, which centers around images of the Kuwaiti oil fires and the aftermath of the Gulf War, and Bells from the Deep, a film about faith and superstition in Russia. Herzog will also be holding forth Sunday at 1:30pm at Alamo Drafthouse with screenings of How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck, a film about livestock auctioneers, and The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner, about the Swiss wood carver and ski jumper Walter Steiner. To get into the screenings, you’ll need to purchase a Cinematexas Film Pass at Vulcan Video, 33 Degrees, or Waterloo Records ($25 for students, $35 for non) and then hie to The Hideout at 11:00am on Saturday and Sunday respectively to wait in line for passes to the actual screenings. While you’re in line, you can take the opportunity to hobnob with cinephiles from all over and maybe even get a few tips on where to go and what to see on the last two nights. If you can’t get tickets to Saturday or Sunday’s Herzog screenings, you can still catch a mind-numbing variety of shorts through the weekend from Texas and the rest of the planet. Films range from a couple of minutes to just under an hour and cover everything from William Wegman’s Dogs to Brazialian drag singers. If you pick up your film pass early, you can go to screenings throughout the day and night on Thursday and Friday as well. The Festival wraps up Sunday night with the 2002 Cinematexas Awards Ceremony at Club de Ville, a great place to meet some new filmic friends.

Lonely Highway

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SEPT. 13, 2002

Perhaps back when your parents laid down the Junior High curfew you heard your mother mutter “Nothing good ever happens after 10pm anyway.” Later, when you were sneaking out of the window for a rendezvous with Eddie in his primer-speckled, jacked up Camaro, you felt a twinge of guilt that she may have been right, but the lure of the forbidden was too much to resist. Age and experience now tell you that your mother wasn’t entirely wrong, nor was she entirely right. Fridays and Saturdays through the month of September something good is happening after 10:00pm: Lonely Highway, a performance piece at the Hyde Park Theatre penned by Hans Frank (the San Antonio based actor/musician, not the Nazi War Criminal). Winner of the 2002 FronteraFest “Best of the Fest” award, Lonely Highway is a white trash chautauqua of sorts featuring a simplteton/singer/sage named Sloppy Sean (Frank). Aided by Austin Critic’s Table nominated, “Best Actress” Rebecca Robinson and a bottom-of-the-line blow up doll named Yo Yo, Sean winds through 90 odd minutes of storytelling, music, trivia and current events – part improvised, part not. Of all the things happening on a weekend after 10pm, you could do a lot worse – especially for $10. Call Eddie. Tell him to warm up the Camaro.

David Baerwald and the New Folk Underground

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SAT. AUG. 31, 2002

Back when David Baerwald was topping the charts with “Welcome to the Boomtown,” Steamboat was still on Sixth Street and home to as many cover bands as not. A grueling 16 years later both Steamboat and Baerwald stand as living testament to both virtuosity and versatility. Steamboat’s maturation process follows closely that of Austin’s. As more and more original artists moved to Austin to take part in the live music scene, Steamboat began to book more and more live music, perhaps to its detriment on occasion. Today’s Steamboat makes it’s home South of the river and its weekly lineup is startling in quantity if not quality in comparison to its Eighties counterpart. Correspondingly, Baerwald has made steady progress through the last sixteen years in both the breadth and depth of his work. His post-David and David work has included an impressive list of soundtrack credits from movies like Hurlyburly, Kalifornia, and Echo Park and an Academy Award nomination for his single, “Come What May” from the Moulin Rouge soundtrack. His collaborative efforts are no less impressive: Seven Tracks on the Cheryl Crow’s Multi-Platinum Tuesday Night Music Club including the hit single “Leaving Las Vegas,” as well as work with artists as diverse as Fishbone and Olivia Newton John. Recently, Baerwald moved to Austin and staffed his band has with a crack squad of Austin musicians including Will Sexton, Bukka Allen, and Darwin Smith. This summer they’ve been busy promoting his new release, “Here Comes the New Folk Underground” (Lost Highway). You can catch them Saturday night when they return to Steamboat for a much-awaited follow-up to their July show. Gideon’s Press, Awake for Days and Pavlov’s Dog open.

Black Cat Lounge Benefit

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AUG. 9, 2002

On an early Saturday morning about a month ago the Black Cat Lounge was destroyed by fire, marking a rather dramatic end to one of the most impressive runs on Sixth Street. In dog years the Black Cat was well over the hill, but in club years – Sixth Street club years, it was positively ancient. The original Black Cat was opened in 1985 by Paul Sessums. It was a biker bar first and foremost, but the fact that Sessums booked original bands gave the club a larger appeal. In 1988, Sessums moved the bar to its current location where it continued to thrive even after his death in a car accident in 1998. An extension of Sessums himself, the Black Cat was a no-frills, no bullshit venue. There was no air-conditioning, no roof, and the bathrooms were only for the truly desperate. Nonetheless, the beer was cheap, there were free hotdogs, and the bands took 100 percent of the door. Sessums also took chances on bands that couldn’t get a break elsewhere. Sometimes he was dreadfully, painfully wrong but most times he was right. Among those who played the Black Cat are a veritable who’s-who list of Austin music: Two Hoots and a Holler, Kelly Willis, Bruce Robison, Charlie Robison, Chapparral, Chris Duarte, Ian Moore, Soulhat, Sister 7, Bob Schneider, Dale Watson, Pushmonkey and more recently, the Flametrick Subs. In fact, the Subs, along with several other bands lost a considerable amount of equipment when the Black Cat burned. This Sunday from Noon to 8:30, Emo’s is hosting a benefit for those bands that features an all star lineup: Shorty Long, Django Walker, The John Evans Band, Basin Street and the Flametrick Subs with Satan’s Cheerleaders. There will also be free food and happy hour drink specials, but you won’t want to miss this one because it may be your last chance to toast(?) the end of an era.

6th Annual Jerry Garcia Birthday Festival

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AUG. 2, 2002

Any event that brings hippie kids, Phish dancers and the Deadhead tie-dye set to the tony shores of Lake Austin deserves a big thumbs up. This weekend The Pier on Lake Austin and Flounders Without Eyes play host to the 6th Annual Jerry Garcia Birthday Festival. Needless to say, when all of those shaggy music lovers descend on the peaceful shores of Lake Austin, things should get interesting – nearly as interesting as a Dead concert. Over the next couple of days the inhabitants of those million dollar lakeside estates will likely learn that this Garcia fellow is more than just a name on the side of an ice cream tub. They’ll also get a chance to see some really great live music just a stone’s throw from their boat slips. Starting Thursday over 15 bands will be appearing on two live stages. Some of the acts scheduled for this year’s festival are: Peter Rowan and Reggaebilly, the David Nelson band, Flounders Without Eyes, Larry, Olospo, Moses Guest, the Two High String Band, Magpu, Mellowship, Groovin’ Ground, The Majestiks, The Hemphill Climbers and last Free Exit. Festival goers can camp at Emma Long Park, swim in the river and take a free Lake Shuttle to The Pier once the music starts. The whole three day shebang will run you just over thirty bucks if you buy your tickets in advance, but day passes are available for higher maintenance types. Don’t worry, if you’re fresh out of tie-dye there will be plenty of crafts vendors to hook you up. You also might want to try some hemp which also should be available in abundance.

The Austin Symphony’s Free Sunday Concert

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July 26, 2002

What’s the perfect follow-up to a hard-partying Saturday night of ear-splitting rock and roll in the “Live Music Capital of the World?” More live music, of course. Nothing can be more maddening than lying on the couch in your underwear on a quiet Sunday evening eating ramen and listening to your ears ring. Get out and live a little – mix with the locals. This Sunday night, July 28 you’ll want to pack a sandwich, some pickles and maybe an ice chest and head on down to Woolridge Park (you remember… that quaint little park with the bandstand across the street from the jail?) for the Austin Symphony’s final free summer concert. That’s right, no cover. Leave the earplugs at home too. This is live music of a subtler sort: mainly classics performed by an ensemble of generally respectable looking, decently groomed people who also happen to be skilled instrumentalists. You might want to show up a little early to stake out some blanket space and just to be safe, grease yourself up with the least offensive bug repellent available. Unlike the bloodsuckers across the street at the courthouse, the mosquitoes work 24/7. All in all, Sunday’s concert will be a nice way to soak up a little culture even if you’re not much into the symphonic scene, and it’s your last chance to do it this year.

Boom Town

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JULY 19, 2002

Just a stone’s throw from the corner of 43rd and Guadalupe is a small, one story brick building that houses the Hyde Park Theatre. If you burn around that corner like most people, you’ll probably miss the beautifully painted mural of the Austin skyline on the West side of the building. What will more likely catch your attention are the orange road cones placed on the edge of the street to keep motorists from mowing down the intermission crowd. Like the neighborhood in which it resides, the Hyde Park Theatre is old and a little funky, but the folks inside are usually up to something new and interesting. This Friday is the opening night for “Boom Town,” a play penned by actor Jeff Daniels, the same beloved Jeff from films like “Dumb and Dumber” and “Something Wild.” Over the last decade, Jeff has been cranking out original plays for his Purple Rose Theatre, located in his hometown of Chelsea, Michigan.. “Boom Town” isn’t exactly a comedy, nor is it the David and David hit song, although interestingly enough David Baerwald of the aforementioned has recently made Hyde Park his home. Boom Town the play is about love triangle gone bad in a small Midwestern town and has been hailed as one of Daniel’s finest. This production, directed by Don Bradley, stars Margaret Hoard, Ken Bradley, and J. Damian Gillen looks to be well worth the $10 advance admission. If you’re still waiting on that Pharmaco check, you can take advantage of Thursday night’s “Pay-What-You-Wish” preview ($5 minimum).

Alliance Française d’Austin Bastille Day Festival

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SAT. JULY 13, 2002

Since its very beginnings, Texas has had a peculiar love/hate relationship with France. Early Texans sought recognition and support for their new republic, and one of the first legitimate countries to come calling was France, who threw Texas a bone in the form a second class envoy named Jean Pierre Isidore Alphonse Dubois de Saligny. Jean Pierre’s mission was to push through the passage of the Franco-Texian bill, which would allow French colonization of parts of Texas under the protection of the French army. Instead of exercising diplomacy, Jean Pierre built an ostentatious hilltop manse (larger than the capitol) and ran afoul of a local innkeeper by ordering his servants to shoot the innkeeper’s pigs if they strayed onto his property. Not surprisingly, the deal went South and Jean Pierre went East. Today Jean Pierre’s hilltop manse, the French Legation, is the oldest documented structure still on its original site and a stalwart reminder of Texans’ conflicted feelings towards the French. French culture has always been viewed as something of an affront to Texans’ egalitarian sentiments while at the same time anything having remotely to do with the French seems to have almost mythic cultural cache’ (isn’t that a French word?) Even today in shopping malls across Texas the phrase “it’s Franch!” is the cultural equivalent of “‘nuff said.” Therefore, it is perhaps fitting that the 7th Annual Bastille Day Festival takes place Saturday night at the French Legation. This year’s festival looks to be bigger and better than ever and features the unbeatable triumvirate of wine, food and song, the latter courtesy of Ponty Bone and the Squeeze Tones and Rumbullion. If you’ve any doubts that this is the thing to do Saturday night, just remember, “It’s Franch!”