March 27, 2009 - The Austin Chronicle

MUSIC SXSW 09 LIVE SHOTS CONTINUED FROM P.57 THE BAR-KAYSPRIMAL SCREAMCedar Street Courtyard, March 19By now it’s obvious: Scottish rockers PrimalScream are the true inheritors of the Stones’battered, jagged, yet ultimately glorious Britrock& roll crown. Both Keith Richards andScream frontman Bobby Gillespie have prieda few jewels off that tarnished old topper, thebetter to barter for illicit consumables overthe years, but the eminence fronted by thenewly sober Gillespie and backed by guitaristAndrew Innes, former Stone Roses bassistMani Mounfield, keyboardist Martin Duffy,and new guitar recruit and snappy dresserBarry Cadogan proved yet again why the formertrain-spotters continue to be the mostSANDY CARSONexhilarating UK rockers 25-plus years on.Their Cedar Street gig ranged from 1990’sclassic Screamadelica (“Loaded”) to a thunderingversion of new single “Can’t Go Back.”Gillespie looked and sounded a full decadeyounger than the shorn, scrawny blowhardthat staggered through his last Austin incarnationin 2000. With demon-green laser beamsshooting over the sardine-tinned audience’ssea of raised hands, the Scream’s skintightrenditions of classic hyper-rockers “SwastikaEyes” and “Miss Lucifer” twice resulted in astage-front scrum that brought security intothe crush. Encoring the 50-minute set with anelectrifying version of “Rocks,” Gillespie andcompany exited slapping front-row flesh, grinning,laughing, and looking altogether pleasedwith their own beautiful future. – Marc SavlovLADY SOVEREIGNClub de Ville, March 20Beginning 20 minutes late, LadySovereign’s set initially reigned chaos. Theshowcase MC tried to keep the crowd energizedwhile Sov’s DJ Annalyze spun andscratched, and seven or eight entouragerswandered onstage sipping beers and impatientlysigned orders to the sound booth.Suddenly the trademark “S-o-veee” motif burstfrom the speakers, and the diminutive Ladybounced onstage. Sov seems to have lessof a shell than most rappers, which probablyincreases the risk of nervous breakdownsbut also makes for uncommonly emotionalperformances; witness the explosive energyof the set’s second song, “Love Me or HateMe.” Starting out by demanding to see “everysingle middle finger in the house,” Sov roaredthe song at the top of her lungs, and yet,when she accidentally kicked an audiencemember, she had the presence of mind toapologize midchorus. Following “Love Me”with two lackluster new tracks, including theCure-biting “So Human,” Sov ramped thingsup at the close with “Public Warning,” whichshe delivered with ferocious precision. Aftercommanding the audience to mosh, she finishedthe song, tossed a beer on the crowd,spiked the mic, and exited, leaving it allonstage after only five songs. – Daniel MeeAUBREY EDWARDSDirty Dog Bar, March 19Call it the Beale Street Invasion. Memphis Music Foundation’s Thursday night showcasewas a reminder that the resilient Tennessee town is forever a haven for Americanmusic. After hip-hoppers Free Sol filled in for 8Ball & MJG, who missed their flight, androckers Lucero drenched the crowd in bourbon-inspired grit, the Bar-Kays headlined witha Delta soul/funk party they’ve pumped for the past 40 years. The faces have changed– only bassist James Alexander plays on from the original lineup that lost four of itssix members in the plane crash that also killed Otis Redding – but the groove’s just astight; the spirit’s just as high. The 10-piece roared through a 20-minute funk odysseybefore howler Larry Dodson called for 1967 classic “Soul Finger.” Caught up in classicStax fervor, Dodson and Alexander moved into a five-song Redding medley – “Can’t TurnYou Loose,” “Try a Little Tenderness,” “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” “(Sittin’ on) TheDock of the Bay,” “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” – which kick-started a “Freakshow onthe Dance Floor” and proved that time-tested vets shake intergalactic 1980s funk justas well as they blast 1960s soul. The Bar-Kays were a thrill. – Chase HoffbergerDEVOAustin Music Hall, March 20Given Devo’s emblematic role in shapingcontemporary 1980s nostalgia, thequestion was whether the Akron, Ohiobredquintet would scare up a 21st centuryversion of Ricky Nelson’s “GardenParty.” A competent running of the hitswould’ve sent the crowd home happy,but the group performed as if it wereJOHN ANDERSONWOVENHANDSpiros, March 20“Weave together anger and grief, bow down, bow down, and sing,” growled DavidEugene Edwards during a rare South by Southwest Music Fest encore of his former band16 Horsepower’s “Horse Head Fiddle,” his blues moan scouring atop droning guitar. Fewphrases better capture the preceding 40 minutes of Wovenhand’s set, Edwards unleashingthe ferocity of a Pentecostal firebrand. With only bass and drums backing his scorched,raw guitar, the band powered through opener “Kicking Bird” and a rumbling “Beautiful Ax”from latest Ten Stones, though live, the songs were rent with an intensity matched by theseated Edwards’ relentlessly twitching right leg, convulsing in the air as his left shuffledthe beat against the floor. The jackknife rhythm of “Tin Finger” serrated into a wail of distortion,while “Your Russia (Dance Without Hands)” was bone-rattling, Wovenhand unravelinga deep Southern Gothic through spoken verses and dark-holler tales that summonedprog proportions in their mythic scale and conceits. The drama of Edwards’ delivery attimes overwhelmed the songs, but the Colorado dweller seemed possessed beyond hissweat-drenched frame, quivering and intently staring down the front-row fans with wild-eyedabandon. Edwards captivates a room, like a fire and brimstone revival that unleashes arapturous spirit coursing through the waves of dark sound, terrifying and redeeming like asummoned apocalypse.– Doug FreemanAUBREY EDWARDSstill trying to seal the deal. As the house lightsdimmed shortly after midnight, Devo openedwith “Don’t Shoot, I’m a Man” from its forthcoming(and still untitled) first new album in nearlytwo decades. Video made this and two othernew songs, “Fresh” and “What We Do,” seemmore familiar than they had a right to be. “Peeka-Boo!”was accompanied by scenes of dollsodomy that were too hot for MTV circa 1982,while “That’s Good” recalled Muffy Tepperman’sbat mitzvah on Square Pegs. After “Whip It” midset,Devo focused on its first two LPs, couplingits deconstructed version of “(I Can’t Get No)Satisfaction” with “Secret Agent Man” and following“Uncontrollable Urge” with fan-pleasingdeeper cuts like “Mongoloid” and “Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA.” Finally, Mark Mothersbaugh appearedin full Booji Boy attire to squeal his way through“Beautiful World,” solidifying the notion thatDevo’s joke-theory of humanity in reverse hasaged frighteningly well.– Greg Beets58 T H E A U S T I N C H R O N I C L E MARCH 27, 2009 a u s t i n c h r o n i c l e . c o m