Review: Jenny Lewis & The Watson Twins

(images from the show pilfered from Steven Hopson -- check out his stuff!)

Stubb's, Austin, TX, 23 October 2006

Took a quick work-related trip to Austin Monday > Tuesday. In my brief and limited trips to the place, I must say, I've fallen in love with the city of Austin. The ubiquity of amazing barbecue and a sick ass live music scene make for a tantalizing combination. Despite being in town for little more than 24 hours, I was able to take advantage of both.

A true test for a city's live music viability has to be the one I gave Austin this week -- random Monday night, watchoo got? The options were limited, but strong and I settled on Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins at Stubb's BBQ. While leafing through the listings though, I noted an incredibly amazing 2 weeks of music in Austin starting with that gig. Even the most slovenly pathetic Universtiy of Texas student could go see over the next 14 days: Lewis, The Decembrists, Broken Social Scene, Trey Anastasio, Robert Randolph, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, THREE nights of Widespread Panic, Primus, etc., which isn't to mention any local music or the fact that most of those shows are outdoors in late October/early November. Senor Austin, you had me at pregame brisket/ribs combo.

There were three bands on the bill and being solo and full-bellied, I was able to enjoy them all with the aid of $3.00 16oz cans of beer (it's like bizarro Manhattan down there). Stubb's has got to be one of those dream venues. It's the backyard of a pretty darn good BBQ joint; great location, outside, good sound, great vibe, good sightlines, good sound... one of those near-perfect venues. I guess the big drawback is that shows end promptly at 10:30 pm there due to sound issues, I suppose [but, when you're in town for work on a Monday night, these things can also work to your advantage].

I'll probably end up spending a large bulk of the rest of this review talking about the first "act" -- "The Blow." This was the type of set that sends my meat-addled mind into a never-ending loop of existentialism and metaphysics. Basically The Blow was one woman on stage with a microphone. The sound guy would start a track of music that she had obviously put together on her Mac at home and she would sing over it and dance. It was like the ultimate evolution or de-evolution of music. I'm not sure the songs were even that good or that her voice was even worth listening to, but it was mesmerizing in a real metamusical way. More than that, it's like the next step in lip synching. When I was a kid, you'd put on your favorite music and lip synch and do embarassing dance moves in your room in front of the mirror. If someone caught you, it was embarassing. Now with YouTube, the mirror has turned into a camera uplinked to the internet and instead of being embarassed, the hope is that as many people as possible will look. Well, the woman in the Blow was like that except on stage in front of a live audience. The music was like completely plagurized bad 80's pop, wiped clean of vocals and replaced with lyrics that were probably just as inane. I'm sure each piece was nearly 100% original, but does it really matter? It's wonderful how technology -- software, internet, etc -- is making the whole art-making process much more democratic, but maybe all the intervention by "the man" actually account for something, actually filter out something. And part of me was completely annoyed and put off by the whole thing, but mostly I was completely mesmerized.

Along the same lines, Will Sheff was the second act. He is the lead-man from Okkervil River who is from Austin, so I guess that explains the billing, but.... He was solo with an acoustic guitar and he was nothing special, his voice was a bit half-assed and he didn't have songs that were anything special. The set did gain some strength as it went on, but it's all a bit relative, ain't it?

Finally after too long a break (sucks to know before the main act has hit the stage that they'll be back off again in an hour), Jenny Lewis, The Watson Twins and the rest of the band hit the stage. Defintely worth the wait. The first song was completely a cappella and set the tone for the rest of the set. This is country music, with a heavy bent toward the gospel influences on that genre. And in a way, it perfectly exemplifies the somewhat duel nature of some gospel -- the delicate balance of religious purity and wanton sexuality. Lewis is less than 6 degrees separated from Loretta Lynn. On looks alone, she cuts an image of Gwenyth Paltrow playing Sissy Spacek playing Lynn or something like that and perhaps her presence fits that description as well. The Watson Twins are the backup singers and sort of posse for Lewis and they are either really tall or Jenny is really short, I really couldn't figure out which, Regardless, they have a sort of imposing presence on the stage and their voices and backup-singer dance moves are more sweetly awkward than sexy or sultry, like a 6 foot woman navigating high heels. The strength of the show is undoubtedly the band which consisted of a lead guitar, a lap steel/keyboardist, bassist and drums. Usually I would find a drummer superfluous in a band like this and in some ways, they were unnecessary here. But, the drummer was probably the most talented musician in the band and was able to make himself as unnecessary as whipped cream on an ice cream sundae... which is to say: very much needed indeed.

The music was pretty much y'all-come-back-now fantastic from top to bottom. The bulk of the music came from the Rabbit Fur Coat release from this year and the set has obviously been choreographed and honed from touring over the course of the year and so the too-quick 50 minute set was more like a well-oiled full-fledged show than just a bunch of songs strung together.

Each member of the band was given room to shine and they operated under a sort of controlled looseness. The songs were arranged such that it was obvious that a lot of care went into each little sound that came from the stage, whether it be well-timed twangs from the pedal steel or just a cowbell beat down by on of the sisters. I read David Byrne's "review" of the show at Town Hall where he complained a bit about the vocals not being loud enough -- I noticed this a bit, too, at first, but actually liked it as a device. A diva might insist that she be turned up louder than everyone, but Lewis seemed to intentionally sit back comfortably with her band, she was one of them and knew that the music was nothing without them -- plus she was always loud enough when she had to be.

The music ranged from straight country and rock to a couple a cappella tunes, etc. I liked how it wasn't really all over the place and kept its focus on the strength of songwriting and execution. At one point the ladies left the stage while the band kind of vamped it's way through introductions, building up to a little boogie woogie rocker with the ladies coming back in shiny sequinned outfits which they wore the rest of the show and which kind of amped up the energy at the perfect spot. The last tune of the set worked similarly with the ladies leaving and the band kind of drifting into something that wasn't quite a jam, but close enough. They kind of faded out each instrument on its own, each guy walking off by themselves ultimately leaving the drummer to a short, well-deserved solo. I kinda hate it when an artist goes all eponymous on their act when at least half its strength is the band backing them. There was no doubt that Lewis had a lot of love and respect for the guys behind her and it showed.

The encore was a powerful nearly-solo take on the title track from the album -- the first song she wrote of that bunch, she said, and then they did a newer tune (one of a handful through the night) which was equally as outstanding. Finally they finished out with a Traveling Wilbury's cover which had me wondering how many people in the crowd remembered that somewhat-super-group?

Then I started feeling old because I was tired and bloated and wishing I could stay another two weeks.

In conclusion, four random observations:

1. there was a surprisingly large number of openly gay couples at the show which means that either Austin is wonderfully progressive or Jenny Lewis has some sort of Melissa Ethridge thing going on and no one bothered to tell me.
   
2. no exaggeration, Austin has better BBQ in its airport than most cities have in their best spot. A delicious chopped brisket sandwich wolfed down from the Salt Lick storefront before taking off was the best thing I've eaten in a while.
3. Travelin' light on the LIRR> AirTrain> JetBlue is the only way to fly. Made it feel like Austin was just a long subway ride from Long Island.
   
4. perhaps a semi-unknown fact about Jenny Lewis is that she was Ben's first kiss on Growing Pains. I don't know that that's such a big deal as the major surprise that I can't find a clip of it on YouTube! This will have to do.