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Friday, October 03, 2008

Sunset Rubdown Results In Happy Ending


Unfortunately, I can not take credit for the witty title of this post, I think that honor goes to Potsy and Jumboslice. Thanks fellas. Well, we are sort of working backwards (chronologically speaking) in regards to our trip to Austin. After a busy Saturday at ACL, we headed down to 6th Street to check out Jumbo's favorite Austin venue, The Mohawk. I will also add at this time that I had the pleasure of driving us all in my sweet rental car-I think it was a Nissan Sentra. Kudos to me for driving.

We arrived at The Mohawk just in time to catch Sunset Rubdown (missed the openers, sorry..). To be honest, I didn't think we were going to 6th Street to see any more music, I thought we were just going to drink, so this was a pleasant surprise. I own the first LP by Sunset Rubdown, "Shut Up I Am Dreaming" and I like it pretty well. I am more in the Wolf Parade camp, but this Spencer Krug side project always seemed pretty good in my book.

I was really the only one interested in the actual show and found a great spot on the balcony overlooking the band. It was an excellent viewpoint and gave me a much different perspective than the head-on approach. The band seemed pretty tight and they played a number of tunes off the before mentioned debut LP and a lot of stuff off the new disc. I think they threw a cover in there as well but I couldn't recognize it. I wish a had more to add, but it's been over a week and I my mind was sort of mush by that point. Here is a clip:


Other items of note about the evening:

* We walked down 6th Street after the show. Not really my cup of tea, lots of really drunk people and it had an Adams Morgan type vibe to it. They did, however, have a plethora of options for street chow. I enjoyed an excellent taco from a truck. I also sampled some pizza from another truck and it too was quite good.

* Some drunk redneck offered Potsy $20 for a bite of his pizza. Potsy said sure and the guy backed down. I saw this same dude get out a cab and say "Let's go where the white people are." to his redneck bitch and friends. After the pizza incident he mumbled something like "Jesus wants his cross back." Merely another reason that I would not want to live in Texas.

* The highlight of the night was listening to "Whole Lotta Love" with the volume at 11 in the Sentra (on the way home). That song fucking rocks.

Fun night out and I am glad we had enough energy to make it down there after ACL. Sunset Rubdown was surprisingly good and I would recommend checking them out if they ever return to DC. And, if ever in Austin, be sure to make a trip down to The Mohawk for some live music. I dug it.

3 comments:

Potsy said...

The Mohawk has a great set-up. Outside venue that you can spy down from above. A much cozier, Alamo looking, out-door version of the 9:30 Club.

I wasn't paying much attention to Sunset Rubdown after a full day of ACL, and wasn't within viewing distance of the stage. I do remember thinking that there was a change of bands at some point, as the sounds seemed to change dramatically. Maybe it was the way they changed up instruments during their set that gave them a few different sounds.

Whole lotta love really did hit the spot. Thanks for driving that night.

Jumbo Slice said...

I was glad we made it out to the Mohawk on Saturday even though we were pretty whipped after two long days at ACL. What I caught of Sunset Rubdown was pretty good. I'd definitely go see them again.

One clarification: we never actually made it to 6th St. We were on Red River. You're right that it has a Adams Morgan feel to it. 6th St. is twice as crazy though. They close off 6 blocks and it's pretty insane on the weekends. I don't go out on 6th much but I like to walk through on my way to catch a cab home. It's always good for a few interesting moments.

Oh, and capping the night off with some Led Zepplin was a nice touch.

Jimbromski said...

Yeah, Led Zeppelin, I like him