MUSIC REVIEW: OKKERVIL RIVER - LIVE AT RED 7 (SXSW 2011)

In A Not-So-Quiet Corner Of Texas, Alt-Rock Sounds Capture the Festival Crowd

By: Ramus Dahl

March 17, 2011

I had heard of Okkervill River, their music, and the reputation of their live shows (being that they are a local favorite), but I had never really invested enough of my interest or money their direction to their music to ever purchase an album or see them live.  

Until last night.

After somehow navigating the torrential human flood whose currents wash out from I-35 to 6th Street and every street in between, on any given night of SXSW, I found myself ducking into Red 7 off of Red River sometime after midnight, not so much with an agenda to see anybody or anything in particular, but to merely use the john, grab a drink, and gather my bearings.  

It was then, standing in the pisser dispelling of the night’s libations, that I heard the heavily distorted harmonies of the Sandburg classic, “The John B. Sails,” rattling the stall doors off their hinges.  I quickly swam back to the outdoor stage by the bar where I picked up a Lone Star and stood in the back of what was a roaring ruckus of rock and roll mayhem.

Okkervill River kicked off the festival with a fury of horns, keyboards, clashing symbols, and clanging guitars.  Okkervill River has certainly garnered a notable repute in the music world, and they are no strangers to the SXSW scene.  Yet last night it seemed that the band was bent on convincing us, the audience, that we had nothing to do and nothing to lose, that the festival itself was of little to no concern, that we were here now and the music was loud.  

“Get what we take!!!” they shouted, and by this point, we all believed them.

The show was a rebellion of sorts--an open benediction to cast off the pomp and circumstance, the itching sense that you needed to be somewhere else soon (the demon of this festival), and stop...hang on the moment and enjoy it.  This is the Holy Grail for every band in town this week--to lure in your audience and catch them.  Okkervill River was a rebellion of reckless abandonment--a 'don’t give a shit' attitude that was working overtime to commandeer the masses into their sound, to hook us into whatever was happening at 1:00 a.m. on a Thursday morning at Red 7 on the frontside of SXSW 2011.

As I said, I had previously never paid much mind to Okkervill River. But, as fortune would have it, I was at the right place at the right time.  The current pulled me in and, despite my reluctance, Okkervill River set the hook and reeled me in.

For Fans Of:  Beirut, The Decemberists