Steady Tonic

Most, not all, of the 14 year-olds in the crowd for the Cool Kids cleared out so we could get a bit closer for Okkervil River. The Stage Names was my favorite album of 2007, and a conflict kept me from their show at the Logan Square Auditorium last fall, so I was quite anxious to get to hear them live.

Distracting Band Member Feature: What’s a Chexican?

Okkervil River’s (extremely kick-ass) drummer was sporting this T-shirt. Apparently, as he told us after their set, it was supposed to be “Czechican” for a Czech friend, but got misspelled. We think it’s funnier this way.

Okkervil River sounds great on their records - catchy melodies supported by a range of delicate to forceful instrumentation and underscored by extremely dark and articulate lyrics. Live, they were fantastic, especially under a small tent in the backyard of an art gallery.

The band burned through a tight set opening with “The President’s Dead” leading right into “Black”. Most of the remaining songs were Stage Names standouts, including “Our Life Is Not a Movie or Maybe”, “A Girl in Port”, “A Hand To Take Hold of the Scene”, before the band offered us a choice between “Unless It’s Kicks” or “For Real”. We chose the latter, and I think we chose right — at the song’s conclusion, I was surprised to see that the tent was still fastened to the ground.

Oh, and also, the band has some really sexy fans:

The gentleman (?) on the right was kind enough to lift his skirt for my lens.

We lined up early again at Stubb’s to get a good position for our second Okkervil River fix.

We secured a key position on an elevated platform ready for some opening act called Duffy. She sucked. She was the boring blond version of Amy Winehouse, singing in the 60s diva style backed by synthesizers. Actually, she is probably closer to a female Robbie Williams, but less talented.

Rather than looking a pictures of Duffy, let’s show you some hipster approved footwear that we spotted:

Okkervil River put on another great show, with a longer set allowing them to include a few additional tunes, including “The Latest Toughs”, “You Can’t Hold the Hand of A Rock and Roll Man”, and “Unless It’s Kicks”.
Here’s a clip from “The President’s Dead”:

All my other clips are NYPD-bluesque because of my inability to refrain from boogeying.
We skipped out right after Okkervil River to grab a sandwich and come down a bit. When we settled outside Stubb’s, we ran across this sign:

Nice - they’re from Austin, it’s their official SXSW showcase, and they get the band’s name wrong.

As we were sitting there, we saw the Chexican and called him over to point out the misspelling. He introduced himself as Travis and sat down to chat for a few minutes — and turned out to be a very nice Madison, WI transplant.