What a funny dichotomy of artists I lined up for myself on opening night of the festival. They were almost all either acts that I’ve been avid or at least dedicated fans of for years, or they were people I knew little to nothing about going in to see them. Honestly, I got a bigger kick out of the ones in the latter category.

But let’s start with the ones I knew all too well, since the night also started with Van Morrison’s early-evening set at La Zona Rosa. Van the Man might have gotten his acronyms mixed up and thought this was the AARP Music Fest, not SXSW. His set — culled from his April 1 album “Keep It Simple” — was a stylish and classy but mostly geriatric mix of big-band swing, blues and country. The title track was especially twangy, and the highlight was a slow, swaying cover of “There Stands the Glass.” At least Van seemed to be relatively invested in the new material vocally, which is a big thing for him. He did seem a little offput by the industry crowd, complaining at one point to someone down front, “As soon as you put away that mobile phone, we can get started.” Ah, Van!

A few hours later, R.E.M. took the outdoor stage at Stubb’s BBQ to a packed and adoring crowd. They too had new songs to play from an album due out April 1, “Accelerate.” As promised, the new material was punchy and feisty. Much of it harked back to the band’s ’80s stuff (think: “Document” and “Life’s Rich Pageant”), including the hard-driving title track and the dark and folky “Houston,” which Michael Stipe said was about Barbara Bush’s just plain tacky comments about New Orleans after Katrina (one of several new political tunes).

R.E.M. did spike their set with plenty of oldies, too, including “Second Guessing,” “Auctioneer,” “Drive,” “Fall on Me” and “Electrolite.” They sounded quite spotty and erratic in places but seemed to be having fun. Stipe too pointed out the influx of handheld gadgets among fest attendees: “Instead of clapping, people now start blogging immediately after each song.”

I left R.E.M. in time to catch the latter half of the Black Keys set at Austin’s punk palace, Emo’s. The Ohio blues-stomp duo tore through a couple favorites including “10 a.m. Automatic” before getting to the best of their new stuff, including “Strange Times,” built around a wicked blues riff gone Black Sabbath.

I actually got stuck in line for about 10 minutes outside the Keys show, and what luck: The Lemonheads were about three-quarters their way through their “It’s a Shame About Ray” set on an outdoor stage just across the street from Emo’s. I heard “Bit Part” and “Allison’s Starting to Happen” loud and clear. Only at SXSW can you be pulled by two bands you love from opposite ends of the street. 

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This entry was posted on Thursday, March 13th, 2008 at 3:55 am and is filed under SXSW. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.