syrinx

Parked within sight of the TX capitol building and the county courthouse next to a sheriff's only parking lot and walked 10 blocks down to the Copa for the "early" 7:30 first show of the evening. Austin's own 1001 Nights, a Middle Eastern music ensemble:

http://www.1001nightsorchestra.com/index.html

They opened with a didgeridoo...and traveled around the eastern end of the Mediterranean with their musical selections. excellent.
Decided to stay for the next act, Cassius Khan, a classical Indian tabla player and Ghazal singer from somewhere up in Canada(!?!) accompanied by his harmonium player (
http://cassiuskhan.impendo.com/

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=

http://www.indianelectronica.com/content/view/564/338/ ) and a local pickup sitarist(!) from Austin (
http://www.sangeetmillennium.org/ ).
Again, outstanding.

The Intuitive Music Orchestra was reminiscent of Frank Zappa's "Freak Out!" album, although the musicians seemed to have it a lot more together than that original off the wall exploration. I held back the urge to get up on stage and join in, although I imagine they would have taken it in stride had someone done so. In fact, I was in the next room over, writing, so I'm not sure that Cassius didn't get up on stage and join in on the drums at one point...

http://www.sonicbids.com/epk/epk.asp?epk_id=

http://www.ianbederman.com/home

http://www.youtube.com/Intuitivemusic

Two bands had cancelled - one from Pakistan because they couldn't get Visas - thank you, Global War on Terror and musical brotherhood - so the four that played had extended sets, which was the good news.

The last group was Monaretta from Bogata Colombia, who mentioned their little political tension recently (military people crossing borders and killing people which upset the other governments next door to Colombia) but our Latino brothers quickly sorted things out and they went right into their disco flavored Caribbean beats.

http://www.monareta.com/

http://www.sonicbids.com/epk/epk.asp?epk_id=

Tonight I hope to get into the Cedar Street Courtyard venue to see the Anti Records / Utne Reader showcase with Devotchka at midnight. They'll be around the corner at Antone's on Friday as well, also at midnight so that's another possibility.

Apparently they are going to be part of the live national public radio broadcast from SXSW.

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/03/13/devotchka_performs_live_from_sxsw/

As I drove home last night around midnight I was pleasantly surprised to tune to the local public radio station to hear the REM concert from Stubb's, which I was sure I had no chance of getting in to hear anyway. My strategy appears to be - arrive early, stay in one place, stay til the last set, and stay sober.

tags: music sxsw bands international world mideastern indian classical npr devotchka rem cassius khan 1001 nights orchestra sanjeet millenium intuitive monaretta