The Motorboat Artist

So this Friday night once again proved to me why this is the greatest city on Earth. For weeks I was bummed about not getting to see The Duke Spirit on their tour for their new album Bruiser. Last time they came I paid Incubus money to see them because they were the opener, but I was not doing that this time with Jane's Addiction. But as I was thumbing through our weekly event mag The Chronicle, I saw that they were playing a secret show at Frank's Hot Dogs! Frank's Hot Dogs??? So I guess as long as you have a 3 x 5 inch space, you can call it a stage and put on a show. This always happens during SXSW but it appears Austin has figured out that you can do this every weekend now. And honestly, why not? Btw Frank's has some damn good hot dogs and it turned out that this is a part of some new Transitor 6 series where they have an intimate (ugh i shudder now everytime I hear this in reference to a show) setting with cool bands, a photo shoot, and interviews. Plus it's free!!! Really? I get to see The Duke Spirit in a place that holds like 100 people for free? Unreal!

So I get there a bit early, just in time to see Ringo Deathstarr. Ringo is a local alternative noise rock band. You can tell they are heavily influenced by My Bloody Valentine and the promoter even begged you to pop in your ear plugs before they came on, ala Valentine shows. To which, one of my favorite hipsters at the show responded  by not budging. Yet he remained in his "im gazing at art with my arms folded while delicately holding my PBR" stance. It was impressive to say the least. But Ringo went on to put on a decent show. Like i said earlier, its mainly just noise with Frazier moaning indiscernible lyrics in the mic, but every now and then they'd get a hold of a cool riff and you'd find yourself rocking out. Definitely not a bad opening act. I'd check out this three piece band if they were playing somewhere for cheap. Plus it helped quite a bit that I was standing next to Duke Spirit's lead singer during their performance. Now if I were the Kelly of old, I wouldve probably tried to sneak in a quick motorboat and made a run for the door, but I've lost a step or two and wouldve easily been clubbed over the head before reaching the exit. And Texas is known for being in love with the death penalty, so I left it alone and just gave her a friendly and I'm sure creepy smile instead. Anyway, I give Ringo a rating of kind of WEAK, only because I think I could make this kind of music after a few months in the studio. Props to them btw for having a drummer that looks like Ted Danson.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxyYPlv4RVs&feature=related

So now it came time for The Duke Spirit. The first time I saw them, they opened for Silversun Pickups during SX at Antones. At that point I had only heard their hit Lassoo and dug it quite a bit. So i figured I'd give them a shot. Man, after hearing how much these guys rock live and being mesmerized by Liela's sexy voice and her gyrating on stage, I immediately ran home and got all of their albums. I certainly was not disappointed by the rest of their material. It's really not a complicated sound. They're basically a 5 piece band with a traditional rock sound but combine the distortion, guitar solos, with Liela's seductive voice (yes I know how lame that sounds) and the high energy they bring to a show and this is what separates them from some of the other acts out there with a token female lead. At times they seem to struggle with the fact that they can turn it up and rock out, so they have quite a few slow numbers, especially on their latest effort Bruiser. So much so that I had almost forgotten how they can bring it, but as soon as the lights went out, it's like they took on another personality. They used every part of the stage to entertain the audience. Actually they almost got a little too carried away by coming very close to knocking down this huge chandelier on themselves. They played the 7 songs songs they were supposed to but then basically said screw it, we've got nothing else to do tonight and played another 3 songs. Again, all of this was free!!! So if my lack of hearing and almost attempted assault wasn't enough to convince you, maybe this link and my rating of FRESH will be enough to get you to check them out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLFHj83WOKU

Oh and for those of you who did not believe that this song actually existed from my last piece, here you go
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRwhm-B6yNI&ob=av2e