SWSX DAY 1 Vol 1
‘Overwhelming’ doesn’t do justice to the feeling on the first morning of SXSW. We arrived on Tuesday evening, and a wonder down the neon-lit strip of bars and venues on Sixth Street was about all we could manage. The next morning, we scanned the guidebook with wide eyes. We headed back to the Sixth Street area to find some breakfast and gear up for the day. In the coffee house we found, on Congress Avenue, we were served by a singer songwriter whose picture was plastered around on flyers for his own shows that week. In the live music capital of the world, it looks like you have to have a day job.
We headed for the Mohawk on Red River, where a party called ‘Gonna Goona Get Get Down 2′ was the first opportunity to see a band, starting at 11am. That band was THE SHIVERS, a girl-fronted synth-rock group, that never quite went the whole hog. The front woman’s voice was almost too good for this band, which would have benefited greatly from more grit and more rock and roll – sounding as they did like a less catchy Killers with a female pop singer at the helm.
Next up we strolled to the Red Eyed Fly – where we by chance caught BLOODCAT LOVE, the guitarist of whom was a member of the now-defunct D4, ROTR faves back in the heady days of 2003. Bloodcat Love are fronted by Myles Hendrik, a New Zealander who relocated to LA five years ago to make it in rock and roll – like so many do. Luckily for him he has done a good job. Said Hendrik yesterday: “Bloodcat Love is something I’ve been working on for three years.
“But every band member we’ve had had some kind of drug problem of girlfirend issue.” It all seems to have come together, and flying ex-D4 Dion over from NZ to play guitar was a good move. The band play all-out rock and roll, and Hendrik’s presence on stage – skinny, topless, tattooed and masked by his floppy dark hair, is the ultimate addition to the group’s full-pelt musical approach. Musically think Hellacopters and MC5, with Hendrik giving it that little bit of Iggy.