Palaxy Tracks Red Eyed Fly, February 15Palaxy Tracks

Palaxy Tracks

Red Eyed Fly, February 15

On a rainy Thursday evening, as the storm blew in after midnight, you still couldn't find a decent parking space in the Sixth Street/Red River corridor. Who the hell was out on a night like this? Thirty or so people in the Red Eyed Fly's new lodge, that's who. And the four guys in Palaxy Tracks. In fact, walking toward Waller Creek from a distance where shuttles should shuttle, you could hear the band's Spiritualized wall of sound clear as rain. Was someone playing outside at Stubb's next door? Nope. As you drew closer, it was obvious that the perfectly echoed ring was coming from out back of the Red Eyed Fly's small storefront. No wonder the lady across the street kept calling the cops. Thing is, this is the spot Mayor Kirk Watson wanted to turn into the equivalent of San Antonio's Riverwalk area -- an entertainment district. While housing goes up all around the "entertainment district" on the other side of Congress -- Austin Music Hall, Antone's, La Zona Rosa -- housing already exists at odds with the Sixth Street area; for years residents have complained about loud music. Sorry folks, you're living at ground zero of Austin's tourist trade. Loud music is the order of the night. Besides, this is downtown of a growing metropolis, not Round Rock. No wonder Palaxy Tracks is moving to Chicago -- it's a real metropolis. Judging from this, one of Palaxy Tracks' last local shows (there's this weekend's show at the Ritz and South by Southwest), Austin is down another amenity. Playing the roomy stage on what used to be the Red Eyed Fly's outdoor deck, the band ignored the flapping blue tarp tied across the high north wall of steel girders -- atop which now sits a handsome new wooden roof that's supported on the opposite side by an equally sturdy rec center-type wall -- Palaxy Tracks' tight, 45-minute set was as full-bodied and warm as its surroundings. Amidst the heater lamps, Christmas lights, and wooden deer head hung on the oak tree growing through the roof, the band filled out the atmospheric pop from last year's promising The Long Wind Down with two guitars, burbling, spacey keyboards, and enough minor chords and up-tempos to drown out the rain now battering the roof. "I hope we're all drunk enough," said singer Brandon Durham at one point. Sounding as good and confident as Palaxy Tracks did, you didn't need be -- the buzz was already there.