Pre-SXSW 2011: The Aussie BBQ and Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Bowery Ballroom and Terminal 5, New York City (13/14.03.11)

In between my visits to the Canadian Music week in Toronto and SXSW in Austin, I spent 48 hours in New York City, catching the 2nd leg of the Aussie BBQ tour at the Bowery Ballroom on the 13th and the cinematic stylings of Godspeed! You Black Emperor at Terminal 5 (where LCD Soundsystem will be playing 4 farewell shows at the end of the month) on the 14th. First up – The Aussie BBQ!

I managed to catch the beautiful vocals of New York based Luluc as I entered the Bowery, fresh off a 10-some hour journey from Toronto (during which I got to see Niagara Falls for the first time as the sun rose – rad!). She was perfectly placed early in the day, as her intimate, gorgeous music suited a setting where people slowly arrived and filled the floor – many sitting down for this set in particular. A very enjoyable, though quiet, set.

Next up, two piece DZ Deathrays rocked the house down, throwing it on its side with their infectious jams and pure rock and roll. Think Nirvana on acid. This is some fun shit! “Party Girl” closed up the set. One thing that really struck me about their set was just how great they sounded. Amazing the difference playing through some decent speakers with a good sound engineer can make! Such is a standard of American and Canadian venues from my experience thus far.

The Holidays followed, a Sydney band whose reputation preceded them, seeing the room start to pack out – with locals and expats alike. What is left on a website like ours that hasn’t already been said about this talented troupe? It’s just a pleasure to see them hitting the road so successfully on the back of one of my favourite albums of 2010, Post Paradise.

Now based in New York, Paul Dempsey graced his second consecutive Aussie BBQ, this time with a full band in tote. He continues to play through Everything is True, though he’s hard at work on new material. Having not seen Paul play this material with a full band before, it was like experiencing it all over again. We wish Paul the best of luck in New York!

Fresh from their stints at the Canadian Music Week Aussie BBQ, Hungry Kids of Hungary and Wagons followed, delivering sets very much the same – though to a much bigger crowd. Henry Wagons continues to be a storyteller for the ages, entertaining crowds with his between song banter. Meanwhile, heroes of Canadian Music Week, The Jezabels, proved they were in America to dominate, delivering yet another spellbinding set. But would you expect any less?

Having had very little sleep for the week prior, I hit a wall around the time that Little Red hit the stage, though I managed to remain upright until they closed with “Rock It”. This is a band who have gone from strength to strength back home, and they definitely seemed to be well digested by the New York crowd. The classic sensibilities of their music should serve them well wherever they wander – but only time will tell how far they go internationally.

Closing out the night were Blue King Brown, Bliss N Eso and Sampology who would all go on to play the Aussie BBQ in Austin, bringing this travelling circus of incredible Australian talent right around North America.

The following night, I delayed by SXSW flight by a day so I could catch iconic Montreal instrumentalists Godspeed! You Black Emperor – one band I never thought I’d have the privilege of seeing.

Playing tracks off Lift Your Skinny Fists…, among others, the band played a non stop two hour set; an audio-visual spectacular. The group hit the stage to a mountain of reverb, with “HOPE” projected on the wall.

Jumping between a six, seven and eight piece throughout the course of their set, the group did little to interact with the crowd, beyond a wave goodbye at the end of the set. They relied simply on the music to engage the crowd. For the most part this was enough – just think of their albums, this can be goosebump enducing material – but at other times it did cause a few yawns.

“Sleep: Murray Ostril (They Don’t Sleep Anymore on the Beach)” off the aforementioned album was a highlight of the set, and while much was recognizable, the very nature of their music often brought along a ‘wait, which song is this?’ sensibility. With one song blending into another, this was an epic 2 or so hour set, the band hiding in the shadows, with a screen up the back providing us with some Decoder Ring-esque video to hypnotise us further.

By the end of the set I was pretty content wandering back to my hotel, with the realization that I finally saw a band I’d wanted to see for a very long time. And as burning down buildings were projected behind them as one of their final tracks built to its climax, I can’t help but feel it was worth the wait – this is a group of incredible musicians who anyone with the love of the cinematic should have the pleasure of enjoying.

On to SXSW!

Larry Heath

Founding Editor and Publisher of the AU review. Currently based in Toronto, Canada. You can follow him on Twitter @larry_heath or on Instagram @larryheath.