Mojo - The Music Magazine

Dateline: Thursday, March 13
State of mind: Testifying

After yesterday’s fun and games, the morning comes around sooner than expected. And, following yesterday’s successful record shopping sortie, another spot of retail therapy is planned in order to ease ourselves into the day. This time our destination is the vinyl-only Friends Of Sound shop – a backstreet establishment on South Congress Avenue recommended to us the night before by Eli ‘Paperboy’ Reed, where the price of albums starts at a dollar.

Meeting up with MOJO’s own Manish Agarwal, we venture into the store armed with a growing sense of excitement which is only amplified when faced with a fantastic selection of vintage 7-inch vinyl – the soul and funk department proving particularly well stocked. A couple of hours later, time has flown and both Manish and yours truly stroll out of Friends Of Sound with bulging record bags (pride of purchase? Original 45s by Mable John, Barbara Mason and Bobby Bland). We make a note to visit FOS’s website on our return to London in order to peruse their wares further. You, of course, can do the same by visiting www.friendsofsound.com.

Our frenzied vinyl ferreting has meant that time has marched on and we are almost late for our first musical engagement of the day, the Roky Erickson Psychedelic Ice Cream Social, which starts at midday in the gardens of the legendary Austin rock’n’roll eaterie Threadgills. An annual benefit where the proceeds are designed to help with the heathcare of the former 13th Elevators frontman, this year the Social is sponsored by MOJO and features a glittering array of talent that includes Black Angels, And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, Thurston Moore as well as Roky himself.

Last night, Erickson was awarded the Musician Of The Year gong at the Austin Music Awards, marking another triumphant step on the road to recovery from what has been several decades of mental and physical anguish. The award itself was presented by ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, whom Roky’s manager Darren Hill informs us will be joining Erickson and his band The Explosives on stage. We’re already salivating.

We miss the Freddie Steady 5 but arrive in time to catch Austin’s latest psychedelic adventurers The Black Angels in full flow. Their post-Piper Floyd dynamics may appear slightly incongruous in the sunshine, but their set nonetheless emerges as well received. Next up are rising Austin outfit The Strange Boys, and the Golden Dogs. The former match a freshman-clean image with ‘60s post-Velvets sensibilities (check them out at myspace.com/thestrangeboys) while the latter Toronto outfit possess a canny epic pop edge akin to Guillemots (more at myspace.com/thegoldendogs).

And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead are next, weighing in with a set which, much like The Black Angels, is perhaps not best served up in the middle of a sun-splashed afternoon. More blissful is Thurston Moore, whose acoustic set sees his unique melodic approach undiminished by his folksier solo setting.

While all of these artists have been well-received during the course of the afternoon’s proceedings, the main attraction is clearly Erickson himself who, around 6pm emerges on stage, beaming happily. Today much of Roky’s set will be taken from his landmark 1981 set The Evil One from which the barnstorming opener, It’s A Cold Night For Alligators, is taken.

“It still comes as something of a shock when the ZZ Top guitarist emerges with a fantastically over-exaggerated ‘Who, me?’-styled facial expression.”

Word of Gibbons’ appearance has spread through the 600-odd strong crowd, but it still comes as something of a shock when the ZZ Top guitarist emerges with a fantastically over-exaggerated ‘Who me?’-styled facial expression for the start of The Beast. Chugging on down, his treacle-thick guitar sound adds fuzzy texture to what is a heavy-duty blues workout while his very appearance has actually forced the waiting staff from the adjoining restaurant to abandon their posts in order to gawp at the legendary bearded guitarist.

“Here’s the money shot!” proclaims guitarist Cam King as the band and Gibbons crank out the opening four-chord riff to the 13th Floor Elevators classic You’re Gonna Miss Me to further howls of approbation. Most tantalising of all, however, is the promise that today’s Erickson/Gibbons twos-up appears set to continue on a new album.

The high jinx of The Social over, a swift Threadgills meal is followed by a traipse back into the main SXSW thoroughfare of 6th Street for the evening’s entertainment. As usual, with around 90 multi-band shows to choose from, we are faced with an embarrassment of riches. But with queues of anaconda-size in store, we are already resigned to the fact that we won’t see My Morning Jacket, Billy Bragg or Black Mountain.

Our first port of call of the evening however is to see Eli ‘Paperboy’ Reed And The True Loves – the first act we saw at last year’s SXSW hoedown and one of the best. Having been playing since 9.00am this morning (“Hey! That’s hustling for you,” laughs the band’s drummer Ben), this evening the Bostonian soul eight-piece are playing their last show at 9.45pm at Club Deville. Despite their insane schedule the band are nothing if not on fire, their customary blend of vintage soul and high-impact R&B proving irresistible.

Tracks like She Walks, The Satisfier and I’m Gonna Getcha Back are delivered with Reed’s trademarked big bawlin’, super-soulful style to an audience who simply find it impossible to stop moving. The finale of Take My Love With You involves a high degree of melodrama, tension, not to mention begging and pleading from the man Reed, whose apprenticeship singing in the congregation at Mitty Collier’s Chicago Church has not been wasted, resonating as it does through what is a distinctly righteous performance. With the band’s second album, Roll With You, due out on April 29 in the US, it can surely only be a matter of time before a UK deal is secured for the True Loves, but you are advised to check them out sooner rather than later.

A quick squint through the pages of our handy, pocket-sized SXSW guide reveals that The English Beat are playing around the corner. To clarify, the band themselves are not entirely The Beat of ’79 ska fame. They do however feature The Beat’s leader and principal songwriter Dave Wakeling and perform a set culled from the band’s classic I Just Can’t Stop It debut. And tonight, while there is undoubtedly a sense that this isn’t quite The Beat as you’d like them to be, The English Beat are tight, drilled and spirited, attracting a crowd of a certain age which includes Spoon frontman Britt Daniel.

“This is good isn’t it?” beams Wakeling from the stage at Smokin’ Music. “It’s almost as good as doing a proper paid gig!”

As we leave The English Beat show it seems that the night may well be nearing its end. That is, until we realise that Mick Jones and Tony James are making their SXSW debut with Carbon/Silicon at a bar named Friends, a block away. Indeed, arriving at the venue, we find that Jones and James have attracted more than a passing interest from the SXSW crowd; the venue is uncomfortably full and only a quick round of skilled negotiation allows us in. Tomorrow, your correspondent is due to interview the duo in front of a live audience, so we wisely repair back to home base at a sensible hour. We arrive at the Hyatt at 1.30am only to find that the jet-lag has finally kicked in – a day later than expected. Tomorrow, we’ll simply have to stay out a bit longer…

Check out Piper Ferguson's Day 2 photos in our exclusively gallery!strong>