Deadboy & the Elephantmen
Stubb’s, Thursday, March 16
Okay, so who followed Jesus after the Sermon on the Mount? Or maybe more topically, anyone know who played after the Flaming Lips Wednesday night at the Fox & Hound? So God help you if it reads “Special Guests” on the lineup before your band’s scheduled start time for SXSW 06. Not to equate the Beastie Boys to the Son of Man, but Stubb’s went from hosting the population of Bangladesh to that of about Snook, Texas, times maybe 2.5. On top of that they ate about 35 minutes into the start time of Deadboy & the Elephantmen. So God love deadboy Dax Riggs for clearly not giving a shit. He tore into the opener “Stop, I’m Already Dead” from the band’s debut We Are Night Sky (Fat Possum) without regard for who was there or who was left. Even better was drummer Tessie Brunet, the other half of the duo, banging away like a banshee on a kit so sparse it would make Stan Lynch look Neil Peart-esque by comparison. They kept the rock level steady through “Blood Music” on the back half and kept an indifference to who stayed and who left. And Riggs can take solace in the fact that nobody was left at Woodstock when Hendrix played, and things seemed to work out okay for him.This article appears in March 17 • 2006.