How does Timmy Hefner manage to look so calm during Chaos in Tejas? Maybe he wears Sure (though many of the attendees were definitely not), because this weekend’s hardcore and punk fest managed to be the best yet.
Some hazy highlights:
White Lung at Beerland Thursday night: They took me back to the discovery of Riot Grrl and, as one friend pointed out, they do have the same configuration as Bikini Kill. However, the Vancouver quartet’s not as overtly political. 2010’s debut LP It’s the Evil kicked cans down city streets, and their music is the embodiment of that urban boredom. Live, singer Mish Way, blonde hair covering her face for most of the set, shouted and sneered like Kim Gordon’s Canuck sister.
It’s the Evil clocks in at 25 minutes, and that three-minutes-or-less urgency informed the set, as the four tried to keep up with each other. Thirty minutes before that, Vancouver duo Nü Sensae – bassist Andrea Lukic and maniacal drummer Daniel Pitout – slammed through the sludge-punk of last year’s TV, Death and the Devil. It was metal in its fetal form, Lukic screaming and Pitout flailing. Whatever Vancouver’s selling, it smells pretty good.
Friday night at Antone’s, Omar Souleyman made his way onstage to the cheers of Austin record nerds and underground music aficionados. It was surreal, seeing the Syrian singer in the middle of Fifth Street, and watching people drop their inhibitions and just dance, even if some folks (like me) weren’t quite sure how to move to his hi-NRG dabke techno without looking like they were having a seizure. His keyboard player was the linchpin.
Contrast that crowd with the frothing masses over at Red 7 for Big Freedia – they knew exactly how to dance. Her call-and-response, deep bass sound is a missive, not just background music. She’s carving out a spot where women can feel safe shaking it without worrying about aggression or judgment.
Saturday, End of an Ear hosted Air Traffic Controllers and Unholy Two, but I was there to take in Olympia trio Milk Music, whose new 12-inch, Beyond Living, has been on repeat. They’ve definitely got the Northwestern trinity down: fuzzbomb sound of Sub Pop past, Hendrix squall, damp basement riffs.
“This song’s about life,” singer/guitarist Alex Coxen said by way of introduction. The next song was also about life, and their requests for a bag of weed while in town didn’t seem unreasonable for a band that’s managed to take strains of Nirvana, Mudhoney, Dino Jr., Wipers, and Guided by Voices, throw them in the grinder, and roll out a new sound that’s positive and unpretentious.
Maybe that’s why Hefner looked so calm: Chaos in Tejas has managed to do sort of the same thing. He’s broken down the festival model and rebuilt it his own way.
This article appears in June 3 • 2011.