How's this for a kick start to South by Southwest 2010: Not only were two of my personal favorite bands of the '00s first on my list of acts to see, the Walkmen and Drive-By Truckers, but by sheer luck and a bit of pestering I was the very first person in line to see them in the super-puny IFC Crossroads House studio (I was standing by the door negotiating with a PR rep when they told people to line up). Ah, if only the rest of the fest could be this easy.
Both bands played songs off their new albums, and nothing but. The Walkmen's set was pretty mellow and moody, but there was one ferocious howler a la "The Rat." It was intense enough for frontman Hamilton Leithauser to quip, "It's too early in the day for that kind of stuff" (this was just after noon).
The Truckers tore through half the songs on their just-released 10th album, "The Big To-Do," starting with Patterson Hood's throttling down-and-outer "This F---ing Job" and including Mike Cooley's sordid album highlight "Birthday Boy." The action only stopped for a not-so-slight muck-up that's the kind of thing bands do more toward the end of the fest:
"It helps if you plug these things in," Hood cracked as he corrected the problem.
Also: I haven't seen Solid Gold's billboard yet, but I ran into the band members on the street and they confirmed it's looming overhead near Stubb's. They plan to try to climb it at some point, "probably when we're drunk," Zach Coulter said. The band already had a late night playing a big kickoff party last night at the Parish (this thing gets started earlier and earlier).
(Photo by Tony Nelson)
