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Mogwai / Soft Boys / Mark Eitzel Austin Music Hall, Austin, Texas March 17, 2001 Review by Squid Our last show in Austin was a showcase of Matador bands that offered Squid a Soft Boys reunion and Daz some quality time with her beloved Mogwai. As if that wasn't enough, there would be echoes of home with an opening slot from Mark Eitzel. The phrase "extreme emotional investment" leapt to Squid's mind several times during the evening. The Austin Music Hall was a huge cavernous space that really looked like a wherehouse with the exception of the small upstairs balcony. Imagine a smaller version of the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium with a remote second tier. Scotland's Mogwai were what drew the hippest part of the crowd, and not without reason. Sometimes Mogwai's songs aren't "songs" at all, but a series of circular attacks on the same phrase, building and dropping at different points. It's a tactic employed by those purveyors of the multilayered epic, Godspeed You Black Emperor! Mogwai did in fact have a cellist like GSYBE, but it was for touches of warmth rather than the core of their aesthetic. Daz noted that they performed mostly new songs, including the most beautiful 2 Rights Makes 1 Wrong, a song with elements of electronica, which (not counting the remixes and collaborations with others) is fairly new ground and it Daz thought it worked. Another newby, Take Me Somewhere Nice, included vocals which is another rarity for the Mogboys. There will actually be even more vocals on the new album with vocals provided by Gruff Rhys of the Super Furry Animals. Since their songs were typically eight or more minutes long, they only performed five, much to Daz' disappointment. Our Queen of Sadcore had also hoped for old favorites such as Summer or Tracy, but sadly there just wasn't enough time. Daz had spent the earlier part of the evening patiently trying to fathom the significance of the Soft Boys Reunion. Coz If Mogwai drew the hippest kids, The Soft Boys drew the strangest. Squid lamely attempted to explain, "Imagine if like, uh, the Beatles reunited. The Soft Boys are like The Beatles, only without money and an extremely odd, borderline Masonic group of devotees." Squid tried really hard not to build it up, but dude. You couldn't grow up listening to Robyn Hitchcock all those years without dreaming that the Soft Boys might on day...So anyway, when they finally went onstage, there were these weird squealing pockets of old people. Pretty funny. The Boys wisely stuck to material off the seminal Underwater Moonlight, including the title track, which of course has a lovely line about squids. In the role we've become accustomed to, Hitchcock used his sniping nasal tenor in its traditional counterpoint against the kaleidoscopic patterns he picked around the melody. Sharing the spotlight, however, was the amazing Kymberly Rew, who had accompanied Hitchcock on the Jewels for Sophia tour. Squid believes he was responsible for making Hitchock drop his folky thing and go electric once more. (Yippee!) Rew reprised his traditional role also, acting as Robyn's diametric opposite both in demeanor and technique as he throttled his guitar to choke out every last living note. It is entirely possible that the set didn't do much for the uninitiated, but frankly, nostalgia filled in any musical blanks. Mark Eitzel is certainly no stranger to the "artist showcase". He's been showcased and profiled and dissected for the better part of twenty years, the last three without representation. A new contract with his former label was an premonition of change on more than one level for Eitzel. This was evident as he took the stage with a new line-up of bass, keys, and most notably, a "DJ" playing samples and loops. We had seen this before and Squid had an inkling that a crowd unfamiliar with Eitzel would be far more open to his new sounds. (There were some mixed feelings about his new electronic direction with the hometown fans.) Squid as neophyte and Daz as veteran Firefly both loved the set on a second hearing. His new "Boy With A Hammer in A Paper Bag" received a gorgeous treatment of slide guitar punctuated with a sharp backbeat to match the vocals. His album is due out in April, and we hope it contains the same experimentation we were treated to live. --- Find out more about Matador bands at www.matadorrecords.com Read our Soft Boys review from The Fillmore, April 7, 2001 |