Heavy Lights perform on their way to South By Southwest over the weekend. Photo courtesy of Cassandra Mullinix. For more of her photos, visit https://www.facebook.com/bucketofrock.
All right. So, check this out. We have a slew of area artists performing at South By Southwest this year in Austin, Texas. Those artists? Heavy Lights. The Hello Strangers. And Rozwell Kid. The Knolly Moles were supposed to make the trek, but … well … they are The Knolly Moles.
As it goes, the indomitable Cassandra Mullinix, she of photo and Bucket Of Rock fame, met up with the fine young lads in Heavy Lights this weekend as they swung through New Orleans on their way to Austin. She’ll be checking in with us periodically through the week, so you – yes, you! – can follow along with all the action and debauchery that is South By Southwest through a local lens. We love her for this. You should, too.
Thus, behold her first entry of the trip, which came from the weekend – Saturday, March 14, and Sunday, March 15. Enjoy!
Runner up word of the year in 2013, “Twerking,” originated in New Orleans. Some twist, some twitch, but they all get real low on Bourbon Street – it’s like the wave at a baseball game, but with a twerking motion instead. Due west of the French Quarter, however, on this “Pi Day,” which seems to stand for shepherd’s pie, given the abundance of St. Patrick’s Day parade-goers, Heavy Lights are scheduled to play a late night set at Circle Bar in the NOLA Central Business District.
The bar is kept in constant motion by the historic St. Charles Avenue street car, kind of like a drunker version of “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.” The Circle Bar offers it’s homely and red-lighted music living room to local bands and travelers. Nothing fancy, but decent acoustics and open windows that let the music seep out into the street alongside the booze make it a music listener’s type of place. After a long day in the van, Heavy Lights were ready to make some noise for a healthy handful of locals who aren’t otherwise landlocked by residual St. Patrick’s Day parade traffic.
Like listening to Radiohead’s discography from front to back for the first time, life on the road breaks all of your expectation of events, yet it is often rewarding with chaotic beauty inside your metal and glass biosphere orbiting in the swaths of vast black top. Heavy Lights are four days into their tour and they’ve already driven 1,724 miles. It was a hard push to leave the festive gravitational force of the Big Easy and charge on to Super Happy Fun Land in Houston, Texas, because somehow after being in New Orleans, it’s hard to imagine another place claiming such a name. But it’s a new venue for the guys and excitement reigns nonetheless.
It’s a pre SXSW show and the six bands including Heavy Lights are on their way to Austin tomorrow. One by one, the bands march on and off stage at the DIY warehouse/funhouse complex. It’s not a stellar turn out, but we’re in good company. Just remember: The guy with the bunny says two more songs.
