Pitchfork

[Photos by Christine Tadler]

R.E.M. ["Austin City Limits" taping]

By 3:15 p.m., people were lined up all through UT's communications center to see R.E.M. tape the first episode of Austin City Limits' 34th season. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to get in, let alone get a good spot, but after running up three flights of stairs and foregoing free beer (free beer vs. free R.E.M.: priorities, people), I managed to find a spot about 10 feet from the stage, in the second standing row.

There are very few bands that mean so much to me as to entirely override my critical faculties, but R.E.M. is one of them, if not the band. R.E.M. was my very first favorite band, and seeing them perform in a small room (with enormous TV cameras) was amazing. They played a balanced set of new material (from their forthcoming album Accelerate) and older songs including "Losing My Religion", "So. Central Rain", "Fall on Me", "Man on the Moon", and "Drive". Aside from the excellent song choices, I was struck by how comfortable and at ease the band seemed; thanks to the magic of editing, there was no need for them to plow through their songs or stay "on" during the whole taping.

Some thoughts on seeing R.E.M. up-close: Michael Stipe is still a presence to be reckoned with, and I can't imagine him ever being otherwise. He was gracious, strange, simultaneously self-aggrandizing and self-effacing, and constantly engaging with the audience. His voice only seems to have improved with age, too; the chorus of "Fall on Me" has grown from a subtle and insistent lift to full-on ascendant catharsis. Seeing "Losing My Religion" performed, it occurred to me first how incredible it is that such a song could become a full-on mega-smash, and second how much of the song's excellence really belongs to Mike Mills, whose bass part alternately emphasizes Stipe's vocals, Peter Buck's mandolin, and the shape of the song itself. R.E.M. on "Austin City Limits" will be broadcast by PBS on May 24.

So Many Dynamos [Jovita's; 4:30 p.m.]

The one downside to seeing R.E.M. is that I missed the always-excellent So Many Dynamos, who were playing at Jovita's across town. My friends who were at the show came back with glowing reports, and excited chatter about songs from the band's forthcoming, Chris Walla-produced record. Very few bands manage to put on a spazzy, high-energy live show and still have great songs (think Brainiac and the Dismemberment Plan), and So Many Dynamos are one of them. Here's hoping I don't miss then next time around.

Yo La Tengo [Austin Music Hall; 9:30 p.m.]

I've seen Yo La Tengo a good number of times, and their shows are fairly inconsistent. The band always plays well, but they sometimes play a batch of songs that just seems ill-suited to the event. This time, they just played the fucking hits, including "Cherry Chapstick", "Autumn Sweater", and "Tom Courtenay" (which, I have decided, has the best opening of any Yo La Tengo song, if not of any indie rock album period). Maybe the strict time constraints of a high-profile SXSW show were actually good for Yo La Tengo; aside from an awesome, 15-or-so-minute version of "The Story of Yo La Tengo", the band's set was concise and action-packed.

The English Beat ["Smokin' Music"; 11:45 p.m.]

After Yo La, we headed over to B.D. Riley's to see Canada's sorely underrated Simply Saucer, only to find that they were nowhere on the bill. So, we went and saw the fucking English Beat, at a fake venue sponsored by a cigarette copany. And it was pretty awesome. Only at SXSW...

Additional Photos:

Destroyer [Volume; 2 p.m.]

6th Street, 11 p.m.