The Ex-Husbands: Opal Divine's Freehouse, Saturday, Mar 18

The Ex-Husbands

Opal Divine's Freehouse, Saturday, Mar 18

Weather -- the wild card at South by Southwest. You may recall the torrential storm that rained out BR5-49 at Stubb's last year, the winds that nearly blew Hank Williams III all the way to Ben White this year, or the downpour that found the Waco Brothers playing to a huddle of poncho-wearing fans at Scholz Garten that same night. For the Ex-Husbands' set at Opal Divine's, the skies were occasionally stitched with lightning (drawing whoops from the crowd), with a shower dampening the crowd intermittently, but the hand of God was on Nashville trio's side this time. Out on the front porch, guitarist Anders Thomsen had his Fender amp turned up way louder than usual, pushing those tubes for a sound that Yardbirds-era Jeff Beck would have loved. Several South by Southwest revelers were visibly swaying and weaving a bit, working on a Lone Star buzz that would bring this year's festival to a suitable climax. As the band churned through familiar favorites like "Honky," "Tequila Salt," and "Lime," "I Have a Ball," and "Six Feet Tall and Crying," the mood took on that of a big house party, the band's many female fans dancing onstage, longnecks being drained effortlessly, and revelers dancing from the venue's balcony. The Husbands even strayed toward an AC/DC cover, Jerry Reed's "Eastbound and Down," and ZZ Top's "Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers" until it seemed like a foregone conclusion that someone would take their clothes off at some point (almost, but not quite). It was all over too soon, the band closing the set with a cover of the New York Dolls' "Rock and Roll Nurse" and the bar staff starting their "finish your drinks" spiels. Too bad bands like the Eagles and Poco ruined the term "country rock" some 20 years ago; the Ex's can play honky-tonk faithfully enough for a Broken Spoke two-step crowd, but then can rock out hard enough to offend rockabilly purists nationwide. Their genre-blurring Saturday-night set just goes to show that "alternative country" is a term that's quickly becoming as useless and obsolete as "New Wave," "alternative rock," and whatever other trendy music-writer tag you can think of from the past two decades. All told, a great pull-out-the-stops coda to SXSW 2000, and the band never did quite get rained out, either.