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I was pleased to be attending SXSW for the first time. I am grateful for Adobe Acrobat for enabling me to participate. While there I was impressed with the architecture of the city so here is the second two posts covering it. There are few scences thrownin.
I was pleased to be attending SXSW for the first time. I am grateful for Adobe Acrobat for enabling me to participate. While there I was impressed with the architecture of the city so here is the first of two posts covering it. There a few scences from the city thrown in.
Here is more on SXSW music. I was pleased to attend SXSW for the first time. Except for the long lines, it exceeded expectations for both the tech part and the music part. I am grateful for Adobe Acrobat for enabling me to attend. For the first four days and nights I focused on the Interactive part, both sessions during the day and the parties at night. Then I switched to the music on the evening of March 14. I realized then that maybe I should have gone to some of the Sixth Street music bars before then. Next year I will know better. I will do a few more posts on SXSW music in the upcoming days.
The day started with the BAMM.ty music cruise that I will write about on other posts. When it was over around 5 I walked back from the lake and into a concert in front of Austin City Hall with a good band of unknown name.
I learned that Leah Segal, who was on the first BAMM.tv music cruise and fronts for Firehorse, was also going to be in a very different music event at the French Litigation Museum across town at 7:30. It was a New York style cabernet in what turned to be a beautiful setting. So you will see below. But first I took a slow walk up Sixth Street to see the action as you can see directly below.
Here are pictures of The Citizen’s Band, performing at the French Litigation Museum. You can Leah in her new persona on the right.
I then tried another of the official bands for SXSW but they were not my taste so I went back to the Blue Moon for more blues with a different band but a few of the same players from the night before. It was once again great. And once again I had to leave at 2 to catch my shuttle bus while they were still going strong. They said that play 2 blues bands a night 365 days a year so I will be back.
I was pleased to attend SXSW for the first time. Except for the long lines, it exceeded expectations for both the tech part and the music part. I am grateful for Adobe Acrobat for enabling me to attend. For the first four days and nights I focused on the Interactive part, both sessions during the day and the parties at night. Then I switched to the music on the evening of March 13. I realized then that maybe I should have gone to some of the Sixth Street music bars before then. Next year I will know better. I will do a few more posts on SXSW music in the upcoming days.
I began the evening at Headhunters 720 Red River St. They did not have food but the door guy said I go get some good cue up the street (at the place to the left) and bring it back to eat at their bar with one if their beers. I took his advice and listened to a high energy rock band that I believe are called the Audics. There were not on the program but served as a good opener to go with the cue and beer.
At 8 the Bipolar Gentlemen were fronted by a high-energy female lead. AS the program describes them, “Better than years of therapy. More effective than expensive prescription medication. It's the band all the critics are calling a quartet.” There were two guitars and percussionist who included objects like large metal springs and an empty (I hope) propane tank. They kicked the energy up another notch.
Scorpio Rising took things up another level. Described as an “electro/dance/rock band from Austin, Texas, whose recordings and intense live performances have made them one of Austin’s premiere entertainment commodities. Hailed as one of Austin’s best Goth/Industrial bands and DJ bands by the Austin Chronicle Music Poll.” I think this is accurate form what I saw. The energy they brought to the stage makes me think they could do well in some Boston dance clubs. We talked afterwards and I may make some recommendations for them.
I then switched over across the street to Elysium 705 Red River Street to see the StepKids from Connecticut. These guys come out in all white with a white background and do some creative things with lights as you can see below. The music was solid rock and stood up the to the lights. They are described as a “futuristic electro soul recorded on a reel-to-reel; soaring harmonies sung by three singer/songwriters; Kandinsky-esque visuals that make for enigmatic live performances.” This is a good description. One of the guitarists, Jeff Gitelman, resigned from touring as Alicia Keys' guitarist to focus full time on the band. They all three write the songs and all three of sang.
Afterwards I wondered out to Sixth Street and walked into what was for me the treat of the night. Jo Hell from Montreal played some great blues standards with a group of local blues, they were mostly men but there was a female bass player as you can see. They did a lot of standards, including some Stevie Ray. I especially liked their cover of his cover of Hendryx. Voodoo Child. They got the audience moving and often jumped down off the stage and moved with it. I only left at 2AM to not miss my shuttle bus back to the hotel. They were still going strong, as was the rest of Sixth Street.
I recently went to a wonderful Mardi Gras Ball in Rhode Island ball on the Saturday before with three of the top Cajun/Zydeco bands in the country. We were lucky to have them so close to Boston. Here are few photos of the bands.
First, the Pine Leaf Boys played. They are a favorite of mine and I have a bunch of their CDs. I first saw then at the 2006 French Quarter Festival andthey played a role in the HBO series, Treme. See below for the 2006 New Orleans photo.
More recenlty I spent a very plesant Saturday morning at the Cajun jam and the store owed by Marc and Anne Savoy, the parents of Wilson Savoy, the Pine Leaf band leader. He was there. See my post - Taking in Cajun Music in the Lafayette Louisiana Area. I got a chance to talk briefly to Wilson after the show thanked him for both the band's performance and that saturday morning.
Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys played next. I saw Steve and his Cajun band at the Rock n Bowl in 2006 and I have “Bon Rêve,”, which was nominated for a Grammy in 2004 and few others. Here’s what Dr. Barry Ancelet, professor of folklore at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, has to say about Bon Rêve:
"It's the Sgt. Pepper's of Cajun music. It's so strong in so many areas: performance/musicianship, the poetry, the conception, the whole album working together as a sort of a thematic unit. It's an incredible effort. What's really remarkable is that they're sort of competing with themselves. They're competing with their own last effort, and that's got to be hard to do. And yet they keep pulling it off."
The closing group was C. J. Chenier, and The Red Hot Louisiana Band. I saw him in New Orleans in the late 80s. He is the son of zydeco legend Clifton Chenier. I have a lot of Clifton's music. He joined his father’s band in 1978 and inherited his father’s place in the band when his father passed in 1989. Then created his on sound with a stronger rock influence. He likes to keep his audiences happy and moving and that was the case on this occasion.
Here is a 16" x 20" acrylic painting of a red, orange, and yellow pepper on a white plate. You can see the early stages of this work in my last post, Three Peppers - Work in Progress
Here are the intial two stages of a 16' x 20" acrylic painting of three peppers on a white plate. Much remains to be done but this is how I start by first doing a drawing and then defining the shapes and putting in the base colors. Here are the first two in the series: Painting of Two Red Onions and One White Onion in a White Dish and Lemon - Lime on a White Plate: Acrylic Painting.
Here is a 16" x 20" acrylic patingin of five potatoes on a white plate. There is a large Russet, a yellow one and three red bliss potatoes. It is part of four part series. I am working on three peppers next.
Here is a 20" x 24" arcylic painting of a double shotgun house in the Fairgrounds neighborhood of New Orleans.
