The Thurston Moore illustration that appeared on the front of the tote bags sported by many a SXSW Music attendee tossed the word “damage” among “art” and “music”. That didn’t seem too far off, from either an aesthetic or a musical sense. Some of the best bands I saw during those four days in Austin have a sound that could be characterized in that way, from the overcome sparseness of No Age’s songs to the white noise permeating those from Parts & Labor; from the emotional wounds and subsequent catharsis of Gowns to the massed shouts of “It’s revenge!” that ended one Bound Stems song.
Physical damage, too. Bodies in motion against one another and concrete as Fucked Up played. A man assuring his friends that the cut on his forehead, and the blood on his shirt, was worse than it looked just after Tyvek finished their set. Two of the most cathartic sets I heard — those from Castanets and Retribution Gospel Choir — were watched from a pew in the middle of a church, and the fact that those chords and words came forth from a band situated on an altar gave them a potentially different context than had they been played from a stage. (And potentially not.)
At times, the shows I saw at SXSW felt like the biggest basement show I’ve ever attended, with everything that imparts. Maybe I’m reading too much into this, but if the last few years have seen the more populist wave of punk-reared bands (Against Me, Thursday, etc.) reaching a wider audience, one wonders if 2008 and beyond will find the noisier, more obscure corners of that aesthetic heard by an unexpectedly massive number of listeners as well. (One could make the point that Kimya Dawson’s recent elevation in profile is also a indicator of this.) Having made that argument, though, I also feel the need to raise its opposite: what if there’s a ceiling? No Age’s next New York show will be at the Bowery Ballroom, and if their higher profile is any indication, that’s probably not the largest space they’ll play in the year to come. Is there a point beyond which a blown-out sound no longer fits with a space?
On the other hand, that’s a question that’s not really answerable until the situation itself arises. The next year or so should be an interesting one as far as music is concerned, and one (or more) in which a lot of elements worth giving a damn about will have their time in the sun.