SXSW: Day Four, Saturday Day
March 21st, Austin, Texas

Wow, last day. Better make it good. Back at the Hot Freaks Saturday party this day, where the billing was a bit more varied from the day before… it did, in fact, have Peelander-Z in the line-up… I caught only a little of Jason Lytle’s relaxed set, before saddling up to a good spot for the Vivian Girls. As you may know, they reached a lot of people’s Top Ten lists of 2008 with their self-titled debut record. I liked the record quite a bit, but felt a little uneasy about it too, as it all went down like a bad egg salad sandwich of sorts. Just didn’t sit right. Obviously, I want to champion female rockers as they are few and far between, but I’d actually seen the Vivian Girls perform at last year’s SXSW in some parking lot, and while their aesthetic was definitely cool, all the right tattoos and clothes and bangs, they weren’t very good. So, I was a little surprised that their record climbed the lists of even Jim DeRogatis. Or was I? Seems those watching them at the front of the stage consisted mostly of our male counterpart staring up at them with total adoration. They actually started their set quite late since frontwoman Cassie Ramone took off to find coffee while no other girl in the band could restring a bass guitar. Really? It’s not at all complicated; definitely something the bassist should’ve figured out by this point. Some random dude working the show had to do it for them. Ramone came back, and they all took to the stage, only to complain about how hungover she was. She forgot words to multiple songs, as the rest of them stumbled their way through the songs made somehow even more terrible by their off-key harmonizing worse than on their recording, the drummer the only one seemingly ready to play, while Ramone confessed to the audience to never play 18 shows like they were attempting to at SXSW. Really? These Pitchfork darlings of varying musical talent are going to complain about having too many shows? It’s hard not to get the feeling that they are simply not built to last, getting by on their good looks and cool references to the Wipers and Henry Darger, laughing all the way to the bank. Then, as if that wasn’t enough, Cassie Ramone broke a string. Since she didn’t have a backup guitar and wasn’t prepared to change a string (do their songs really require all the strings anyway? I bet they don’t…), the set was done after about 20 minutes, about 10 of which was actual music. A part of me wanted to yell out “You suck!” but refrained. Their idiocy speaks for itself quite clearly. And it seems that everyone I talked to about them who had seen them play elsewhere in Austin had the same impression. One guy said it best: “Marnie Stern must be fucking pissed.” Everyone’s allowed a bad show from time to time, but Vivian Girls are just not ready for all the real hard band stuff, like changing strings or simply playing through it. Live it up, ladies.

Viva Voce was up next and in stark juxtaposition to what we just witnessed, thanked the audience several times for coming out to see them with so much else going on out there. Their sound is extremely organic and cohesive, and enjoyable from start to finish. After that the crowd really spilled in for Peelander-Z, the Japanese punk band based out of NYC. They’re very comical and animated, if not a bit shtick-y, as they dangled upside down playing guitar from the rafters for instance. I jumped from my good view to let others have at it to go downstairs to catch the majority of Mason Proper’s set; a hard-workin’ Americana band that told the audience they were playing this show, driving to Waco to play a show, and then driving back to Austin to play another show. Pretty impressive, especially as they put their all into it (the lead singer almost passed out from rockin’ so hard) and never once complained about that fact. He just asked for a minute to get his shit back together, and we were obviously glad to let him. Camera Obscura finished up the party and they sounded great… so, so sweet. — Jocelyn Hoppa

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