“Is it safe to say that this is the best venue at SouthBy?”
So said Sunflower Bean bassist/vocalist Julia Cumming as she addressed the crowd at Hotel Vegas during their Thursday night set and I must say that I do agree with Cumming’s assessment of Hotel Vegas, though I do have a few other faves that might possibly tie it for first place in the “best SXSW venue” contest.
It is a special place though, with its own unique vibe. I too have seen many great shows there over the years and this year, I may have spent more time there that at any other venue, spending at least a bit of time there for all but one of the days I was in Austin. And on the final full day of the festival, we spent pretty much the entire evening there as well as a bit of the afternoon, taking in some solid performances from The Courettes, Two-Man Giant Squid, Annabelle Chairlegs, Holy Fuck, and Sweeping Promises.
Danish/Brazilian garage rock duo The Courettes always put on a fun show full of ’60s-inspired sounds and plenty of rock n’ roll swagger. Joking that they’d just arrived that morning (they’d been in Austin for days by that point) and that they’d driven all the way from Denmark, the duo of Flávia Couri and Martin Thorsen put their all into their mid-afternoon performance, culminating in Couri crowd surfing while playing guitar before jumping back on stage to finish off the set. All while wearing heels, no less.
Returning to the venue later in the evening, we crammed into the crowded indoor room at Hotel Vegas to take in some dance punk from NYC’s Two-Man Giant Squid, who reminded me at times of LCD Soundsystem, most notably on “I Was a DJ in 2015.” Following that, it was back outside for locals Annabelle Chairlegs, who impressed even though we only caught the tail end of their set. Perhaps the most musically impressive performance of the night though came from Toronto four-piece Holy Fuck, who delivered a mind-blowing set of dancey psych/electronica.
Up next was Lawrence, Kansas-based post-punk trio Sweeping Promises. The band put on an impressive show, but the most memorable moment in their set was not a musical one, but a bit of stage banter from the excellently named Caufield Schnug. Taking to the mic between songs, he commented on how he used to live in Austin until it “became unliveable,” later going on to talk about how back in the day, creative types used to be able to find rent for $100 – $300, work a part-time job and be able to spend the rest of the time making music or art or whatever. This had us at first wondering when exactly this would have been, whether he was somehow secretly a really well-preserved 60 year old, and what exactly these $100 spaces might have looked like. Regardless, as a Torontonian, I could relate to the concept of outrageously high rent.
Sweeping Promises would end up being the final act of the night for us – I would have loved to have also taken in sets from Egyptian Lover and Cloth, but alas, a week of shows takes its toll on you and i was starting to fade. Still, all in all, a solid night of music at Hotel Vegas.
