SXSW News
By Ken Lieck, Fri., March 15, 2002
Number One With a Bullet
If you were up early enough this morning and had your television tuned to CNN's Headline News channel, you no doubt noticed they were taking a bit of time out from the endless Afghanistan war reports and giving South by Southwest national coverage. However, since SXSW Music Fest Creative Director Brent Grulke declared himself unable to make it to a 6:40am shoot while smack-dab in the middle of the busiest five days of his year, the Chronicle's Andy Langer took on the job of explaining exactly what was going on here, with Austin Music Award recipient of Best New Artist Caroline Herring providing the musical accompaniment. One assumes that the story will repeat throughout the day, as the cable news network's previous token Texas story, the Andrea Yates baby-drowning case, has pretty much wound down. Come Monday, it's gonna take another Charles Whitman to get 'em to pay any attention to the Lone Star State, as most of their staff has yet to recover from having to sit through Wayne Newton, Ricky Martin, and Destiny's Child's call-and-response of "You say George! I say Bush!" during Dubya's inauguration bash. Of course, if it's war they want, it's war they'll get if they look in the right directions during SXSW.
This year has seen the usual amount of chaos amidst the first night of the music festival. As the SXSW Film staff were driving home for a three-day nap and the Music Fest people were moving into their positions, a volunteer was caught stealing wristbands, badges, and -- here's the truly reprehensible part -- bands' beer tickets from the booths at the Convention Center. The young female, whose name has not been released, was taken away by members of the Austin Police Department. Not so helpful to SXSW, however, were the city's firemen, who weren't altogether satisfied with how things were going at some participating clubs, and proceeded to empty at least one. Considering said club was having plenty of sound problems, maybe it wasn't a total loss. The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, for its part, was also out and about, reportedly seeing to the arrest of a bartender at Sixth Street's Metro on Wednesday in connection with illegal drink specials being offered at the venue. For those of you from out of state, the law in Texas frowns upon alcohol deals along the lines of "All You Can Drink for $5," "Guzzle 'til You Puke," and the ever-popular "Pass Out and Your Next Highball Is Free!"
Even the sacred Austin Music Awards were not without their drama, as organizer Margaret Moser reports that a longtime staffer at the function was removed because he was "under the influence" and not doing his job. Said worker's better half was not happy, and an argument between the two women briefly escalated into a hair-pullin', food-fightin' free-for-all. Frequent Music Awards winner and guest performer Jimmie Vaughan commended Moser and "kissed it all better."
Other than the above incidents, the bouts of bad sound were about the only things marring the first day of SXSW Music Fest 2002. For instance, at They Might Be Giants' La Zona Rosa gig last night, it was discovered that several large speakers in the P.A. weren't even on. Says Grulke, "We have good gear everywhere, but we draw mostly from local engineers and sometimes they're working under different circumstances than they're used to." He adds that the problem there and those at other venues were reported to the respective sound crews, and that adjustments were made for Thursday night.
Love Handles
"Walking Into Certain Disaster" department, former Stretford member Dan Carney reports that he's one of two people assigned to be Courtney Love's assistants while the former Mrs. Cobain is in town for the conference. Hopefully, Carney and his fellow "Love handler" won't have to deal with the Hole singer in anything resembling the state she was in at Emo's following a Lollapalooza gig six or seven years ago. As locals may recall, Love got in a fight, in which she tore her dress. Drunkenly roaming about the club with her butt protruding gracelessly, she managed to lose her purse in the club's toilet, and when a certain local punk moved to Oregon a year or two ago, he was still trying to find someone to pay him $500 for her old "Mrs. Cobain" credit cards. Of course, I'm sure Love is the epitome of elegance and poise these days.
Battle of the Bulge
It looks as though Don Walser won't be making it to the showcase-turned-tribute show in his name tonight. From his hospital bed, where he was watching the History Channel (another cable channel that just loves wars!), Walser quietly acknowledged that since his recent collapse, he's "not gonna be able to walk as good as before." He won't be walking out of the hospital at all until sometime next week, it appears, but the world's finest yodeler is still in high spirits, "because my voice is getting better, and that's the main thing." Perhaps if Walser were to go on the John Popper diet, he'd be back up on his feet sooner. In any case, a rep for Detroit rockers the Brothers Groove called in to report that Popper and the rest of Blues Traveler popped up onstage Wednesday night during their set at the District Bar & Grill. "He totally jammed on the harmonica for the packed crowd," hoots one of the band members. Perhaps because he can move faster after having lost some 200 pounds, Popper appearances are becoming, as one previous Chronicle music columnist put it, "as common as bluebonnets on a Texas highway in spring." Especially since the band is here in town recording their next album. One likely future example is this Sunday's Willie Nelson tribute at the Hole in the Wall, I'm told.
