Focused on the intricacies of the harder fare on Day Three.
We had a trio of correspondents covering South-by-Southwest in 2010: Robin Sinhababu, Ted Chase, and Abby Johnston. This is Robin’s recap of Day Three; Ted’s is here, and Abby’s is here.
Ecstatic Peace Records Showcase @ Red 7
Nancy Garcia
Nancy Garcia, a choreographer, was singular and inspired. Her first song was a monolithic, one-chord, one-drumbeat pounder accompanied by her Jon King vocals, which sounded great, as if I was being lectured to a soundtrack quite unusual to lectures. She’s got a weird presence on stage, too, slight but angry and somehow authoritarian.
Garcia sang for most of the set and played either those simple guitar parts or a synth rig. The electronics sounded like they might have some good tones on record, but live, especially when unaccompanied by singing, they were dull.
The drummer’s stoic, malleted playing suggested that he might be very skilled, and just happened to be playing neatly at a much more basic level than he was capable of. That’s one of my favorite modes to watch in any musician. First of all, they’re playing whatever simple beat they’re playing perfectly. Second, they’re playing a simple, complementary beat instead of overplaying. And third, it’s neat to see barely noticeable flashes of technical brilliance creep into the music, usually in accents or fills.
I don’t know how much material they had prepared, but the set felt short, partly because it just was and partly because there was a lot of dead air between some songs. Maybe the electronics could be used to at least occupy the gaps a-la (Ecstatic Peace Records founder) Sonic Youth (QRO live review).
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The Entrance Band
This was a fun show, especially because I saw it by chance. I just walked out to the patio after Nancy Garcia and took a place in the big crowd. They were waiting to see a power trio of Guy Blakeslee, Paz Lenchantin, and Derek James, who were above average.
Blakeslee, who cuts a Dean DeLeo-like figure on stage, was faced with a common problem of trio guitarists: how to solo and flip out without a rhythm guitar filling out the sound. Instead of playing a hybrid rhythm/melody style a-la Hendrix – the most obvious reference point for the Entrance Band – he mostly just soloed and 
note-riffed a lot and let the rhythm section try and hold it down.
They did, albeit sometimes just enough to keep things interesting. That’s more a knock on Blakeslee, or the songwriting, than on the rhythm section, because they were strong. Lenchantin was adept at rhythm, melody, and switching between them, and had great tone to boot. She seemed like she could be a good purely melodic player, but she tended to stick to her bass lines and play small melodic figures as accents. I had never heard of James before, and he was excellent. He hit hard, grooved, and made as good use of two floor toms as I have seen. There just wasn’t enough going on sometimes, especially during the sparser soloing, but that’s not really the rhythm section’s fault.
The one trick Blakeslee used to fill the palette was serious reverb, which when accompanied by fast bass and drums, gave the band a Comets on Fire sensibility. But there were two notable things about this: first of all, Blakeslee has a knack for the reverb pedal, switching suddenly between massive, spaced-out reverb and clean, sustain-less strumming. And second, the band sounded great, not always the case for reverb-heavy acts.
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20 Buck Spin/Profound Lore Showcase @ Headhunters
Yakuza
Although they don’t really sound like Neurosis, I found Chicago’s Yakuza occupying the same cognitive space. Bruce Lamont’s singing is more Sam Taylor tenor than Scott Kelly growl, and his saxophone has no metal reference point that I’ve heard, but the repetition, slow development, dynamics, and downtrodden feeling reminded me especially of Given to the Rising.
Although Yakuza was fast, furious, and competent in their conventional thrash moments, these were only interesting as a complement to what they do best: free-flowing rhythms under brooding sax and guitar parts. I haven’t ever been to a wasteland before, so maybe I shouldn’t write this, but they evoke wastelands.
One odd quality of Yakuza is that they don’t seem to put a whole lot of thought into when to stop brooding and when to start playing speed-metal, and vice versa. Overall, this is bad, although I’ve heard so much predictable, slow burn crescendo rock that their almost random approach to song structure is refreshing. However, it also sounds ham-handed and just confuses the music’s emotional effect.
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Liturgy
Liturgy of Brooklyn were the best band that I saw this week. Their concept is simple: a bassist and two guitarists, one of whom yells unintelligibly, play cascading minor chord riffs while drummer Greg Fox plays totally ridiculous blast-beats on a three-piece kit. The guy has his technique figured out such that he’s barely moving his snare hand, and he’s also adept at gradually changing the tempo in either direction.
The main weakness in their act is actually on Fox, even though he’s the high point overall. During breaks from flipping out, he tends to just hit the kick and crash simultaneously on the downbeats, with limited fills and accents. This has a rigidity that’s appropriate to their overall sound, but it’s dull compared to the speed-metal sections. I would have preferred a more free-flowing, improvised drumming approach for the breaks, although I get the sense that such playing is part of their agenda, which seems totally focused.
I was reminded of Blind Idiot God several times, but less because of the awesome drumming and tempo shifts than the inspired guitar parts. What did Andy Hawkins say about metal, "Great intensity, boring chords?" It’s easy to miss, what with the visual spectacle, but these guys write good songs with interesting chords and play them hard and tightly enough that they sound not like four separate musicians but like one constant volcanic eruption. Well, at least what a boom box that someone left beside an erupting volcano ought to be playing.
Liturgy is awesome, and I feel lucky to have seen them.
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Unfortunately missed:
Servile Sect @ Red 7, 10:00 PM – 11:00 PM
XYX & Acid Mothers Temple @ Club 1808 II, 10:00 PM – 11:00 PM & 1:00 AM – 2:00 AM
Teeth Mountain @ Hideout, 11:00 PM – 12:00 AM
Todd Barry @ Esther’s Follies, 12:15 AM – 12:35 AM
Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers @ BD Riley’s, 12:00 AM – 1:00 AM
White Ghost Shivers @ Amsterdam, 1:00 AM – 2:00 AM
