Hooves on the Turf

March 17 | Soon after I arrived in Austin, I headed to Ms. Bea’s for Todd P’s all-ages, free patio party, “Tejas Means Friends”, which featured half-hour sets from nine Texan bands. Given the circumstances of the venue (this being an outdoors show outside of a modest bar), the acoustics was naturally poor. But the weather was perfect and the atmosphere was relaxed, and I fulfilled one of my main goals I set for the trip, to see White Denim at least once.

[Update: Added White Denim video clip]

This Horn of Africa was playing when I got there, and someone’s car alarm kept going off during their set. I overheard it belonged to the singer of another band. That problem was taken care of by the time Total Abuse came on next:

The audio samples they played from their iPod included disturbing conversations about child molestation. They played fast drums and seemed pretty serious.

People watched.

And smoked.

The bar owner’s cousin shook her head to the loud music.

Dozal Brothers played next. They were kind of fun.

And enthusiastic.

Their friends joined in to dance.

They danced some more.

Todd P, the curator of the show, seemed like a devoted no-bullshit man.

More people watched.

I took a break to go look for food. When we returned, Ms. Bea’s was much more crowded.

Numerators were playing. They had three drummers and sounded pretty good.

They were playing so fast that if a drum stick flew to someone’s face, it would’ve probably left a hole.

There were other bands hanging out behind the stage:

Someone was extinguishing his cigarette on the sole of his shoe:

Dikes of Holland played next. They had a few technical issues, a mini shock from a microphone being one. Todd P wrapped that troublesome mic in a white t-shirt and duck-taped it.

People watched from behind the stage too.

Someone was really into it:

White Denim was setting up on the other half of the stage.

Then they came on for real.

And sang.

Even though I could barely hear the vocals where I was standing, the band sounded really good; but despite the incredible drumming it felt like they played much faster than necessary. In all that speed, they lost quite a bit of the nice details you hear in the album. With the exception of James Petralli’s amazing voice, which sounded as pristine as it does recorded, that perfect mix of restrain and energy you find in their studio sound didn’t come across all the way; instead of what was previously given to us in its finely chiseled form, what we got live were outbursts of messier blobs, though they were impressive blobs indeed. It would’ve helped a whole lot if the secondary vocals weren’t nearly inaudible.

In any case, you can be damn sure that this was a nice party to have gone to! Here’s a clip:

Someone filmed the set.

Todd P gave away free flyers and newsletters filled with listings of free shows. The biweekly newsletter is called Showpaper and can be found in New York even when nothing is going on in Austin. It lists all-ages shows under $25.