MUSIC SXSW 09 LIVE SHOTS CONTINUED FROM P.57 exhilarating UK rockers 25-plus years on. THE BAR-KAYS Their Cedar Street gig ranged from 1990’s Dirty Dog Bar, March 19 classic Screamadelica (“Loaded”) to a thun- dering version of new single “Can’t Go Back.” Gillespie looked and sounded a full decade younger than the shorn, scrawny blowhard that staggered through his last Austin incarna- tion in 2000. With demon-green laser beams shooting over the sardine-tinned audience’s sea of raised hands, the Scream’s skintight renditions of classic hyper-rockers “Swastika Eyes” and “Miss Lucifer” twice resulted in a stage-front scrum that brought security into the crush. Encoring the 50-minute set with an electrifying version of “Rocks,” Gillespie and company exited slapping front-row flesh, grin- ning, laughing, and looking altogether pleased with their own beautiful future. – Marc Savlov LADY SOVEREIGN Club de Ville, March 20 AUBREY EDWARDS Beginning 20 minutes late, Lady Call it the Beale Street Invasion. Memphis Music Foundation’s Thursday night show- Sovereign’s set initially reigned chaos. The case was a reminder that the resilient Tennessee town is forever a haven for American showcase MC tried to keep the crowd ener- music. After hip-hoppers Free Sol filled in for 8Ball & MJG, who missed their flight, and gized while Sov’s DJ Annalyze spun and rockers Lucero drenched the crowd in bourbon-inspired grit, the Bar-Kays headlined with scratched, and seven or eight entouragers a Delta soul/funk party they’ve pumped for the past 40 years. The faces have changed wandered onstage sipping beers and impa- – only bassist James Alexander plays on from the original lineup that lost four of its tiently signed orders to the sound booth. SANDY CARSON six members in the plane crash that also killed Otis Redding – but the groove’s just as Suddenly the trademark “S-o-veee” motif burst tight; the spirit’s just as high. The 10-piece roared through a 20-minute funk odyssey from the speakers, and the diminutive Lady before howler Larry Dodson called for 1967 classic “Soul Finger.” Caught up in classic bounced onstage. Sov seems to have less Stax fervor, Dodson and Alexander moved into a five-song Redding medley – “Can’t Turn of a shell than most rappers, which probably You Loose,” “Try a Little Tenderness,” “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” “(Sittin’ on) The increases the risk of nervous breakdowns Dock of the Bay,” “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” – which kick-started a “Freakshow on but also makes for uncommonly emotional the Dance Floor” and proved that time-tested vets shake intergalactic 1980s funk just performances; witness the explosive energy PRIMAL SCREAM as well as they blast 1960s soul. The Bar-Kays were a thrill. – Chase Hoffberger Cedar Street Courtyard, March 19 of the set’s second song, “Love Me or Hate By now it’s obvious: Scottish rockers Primal Me.” Starting out by demanding to see “every Scream are the true inheritors of the Stones’ single middle finger in the house,” Sov roared battered, jagged, yet ultimately glorious Brit- the song at the top of her lungs, and yet, DEVO rock & roll crown. Both Keith Richards and when she accidentally kicked an audience Austin Music Hall, March 20 Scream frontman Bobby Gillespie have pried member, she had the presence of mind to Given Devo’s emblematic role in shap- a few jewels off that tarnished old topper, the apologize midchorus. Following “Love Me” ing contemporary 1980s nostalgia, the better to barter for illicit consumables over with two lackluster new tracks, including the question was whether the Akron, Ohio- the years, but the eminence fronted by the Cure-biting “So Human,” Sov ramped things bred quintet would scare up a 21st cen- newly sober Gillespie and backed by guitarist up at the close with “Public Warning,” which tury version of Ricky Nelson’s “Garden Andrew Innes, former Stone Roses bassist she delivered with ferocious precision. After Party.” A competent running of the hits Mani Mounfield, keyboardist Martin Duffy, commanding the audience to mosh, she fin- would’ve sent the crowd home happy, and new guitar recruit and snappy dresser ished the song, tossed a beer on the crowd, but the group performed as if it were Barry Cadogan proved yet again why the for- spiked the mic, and exited, leaving it all mer train-spotters continue to be the most onstage after only five songs. – Daniel Mee JOHN ANDERSON still trying to seal the deal. As the house lights WOVENHAND dimmed shortly after midnight, Devo opened Spiros, March 20 with “Don’t Shoot, I’m a Man” from its forthcom- “Weave together anger and grief, bow down, bow down, and sing,” growled David ing (and still untitled) first new album in nearly Eugene Edwards during a rare South by Southwest Music Fest encore of his former band two decades. Video made this and two other 16 Horsepower’s “Horse Head Fiddle,” his blues moan scouring atop droning guitar. Few new songs, “Fresh” and “What We Do,” seem phrases better capture the preceding 40 minutes of Wovenhand’s set, Edwards unleashing more familiar than they had a right to be. “Peek- the ferocity of a Pentecostal firebrand. With only bass and drums backing his scorched, a-Boo!” was accompanied by scenes of doll raw guitar, the band powered through opener “Kicking Bird” and a rumbling “Beautiful Ax” sodomy that were too hot for MTV circa 1982, from latest Ten Stones, though live, the songs were rent with an intensity matched by the while “That’s Good” recalled Muffy Tepperman’s seated Edwards’ relentlessly twitching right leg, convulsing in the air as his left shuffled bat mitzvah on Square Pegs. After “Whip It” mid- the beat against the floor. The jackknife rhythm of “Tin Finger” serrated into a wail of dis- set, Devo focused on its first two LPs, coupling tortion, while “Your Russia (Dance Without Hands)” was bone-rattling, Wovenhand unravel- its deconstructed version of “(I Can’t Get No) ing a deep Southern Gothic through spoken verses and dark-holler tales that summoned Satisfaction” with “Secret Agent Man” and fol- prog proportions in their mythic scale and conceits. The drama of Edwards’ delivery at lowing “Uncontrollable Urge” with fan-pleasing AUBREY EDWARDS times overwhelmed the songs, but the Colorado dweller seemed possessed beyond his deeper cuts like “Mongoloid” and “Smart Patrol/ sweat-drenched frame, quivering and intently staring down the front-row fans with wild-eyed Mr. DNA.” Finally, Mark Mothersbaugh appeared abandon. Edwards captivates a room, like a fire and brimstone revival that unleashes a in full Booji Boy attire to squeal his way through rapturous spirit coursing through the waves of dark sound, terrifying and redeeming like a “Beautiful World,” solidifying the notion that summoned apocalypse. – Doug Freeman Devo’s joke-theory of humanity in reverse has aged frighteningly well. – Greg Beets 58 T H E A U S T I N C H R O N I C L E MARCH 27, 2009 a u s t i n c h r o n i c l e . c o m.