Here’s my most quintessential South by Southwest moment so far in the fest:

I’m walking up Red River St. toward Stubb’s to check in on Mason Jennings’ set, and out of the corner of my not-so-attuned-anymore ear I hear the sound of a band of college-age Minnesota kids getting off like they’re San Francisco acid-freaks circa 1968. That’s right, I had unknowingly run into First Communion Afterparty, who were playing a party on the patio of Jaimie’s Mexican restaurant for a U.K. psychedelic collective called Dream Machine.

So if you’re keeping score at home, I traveled 1,200 miles to see a band from my S. Mpls. hood play for a British party at a Mexican joint. The band had another SXSW party to play sometime on Fri., but the best info that singer/guitarist Liam Watkins could muster up was, “We’re playing somewhere, sometime” (I could relate to the blur).

I caught three other Twin Cities acts on Thu night:

*Young metalcore newcomers Four Letter Lie, who were one of the local bands I admitted not knowing anything about going into SXSW. That’s clearly my bad. The quintet looked young enough to be in high school but sounded tight enough to have been rocking out together since they were in diapers. They were the opening band on the Victory Records showcase, their new Chicago-based label, which also helped birth Atreyu and Hawthorne Heights. Their growling thrash/punk-infused metal songs like “Cowboys & Indians” were refreshingly emo-less and just plain banging.

*Mason Jennings. He went on after the all-star Body of War showcase, and only about half the capacity crowd stuck around. That was still a thousand or so watchers, many of whom cheered when he played “Be Here Now” and “Butterfly.” That made me wonder if Jennings really even needs SXSW-style exposure before his new album comes out. 

*The Pines. They were part of the Red House Records showcase, held in a surprisingly posh corner bar of the historic Driskill Hotel off Sixth Street. It was probably the only venue in town clean enough for fans to sit on the carpet while the Iowa transplants and their tight rhythm section (JT Bates and James Buckley) delved into their infectious rambling-groove sound and well-deep lyrics. The crowd included three well-known Minneapolis rockers, all Hopefuls present and past: Darren Jackson, John Hermanson and Erik Appelwick, the latter of whom swore his high school band from South Dakota played the same hotel bar the same night in the late ’90s when Iggy Pop played a giant outdoor stage just 100 feet away.

For complete SXSW coverage and photos, go here.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 14th, 2008 at 2:18 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.