Live

Live, originally uploaded by R. Walker.

 

Thanks to a tip from our friend Mr. Franklin, we wandered up the street to the nearby Starland building’s Desoto Row “Music Space,” which is really a street, to check out a New Orleans band called Why Are We Building Such a Big Ship. (You can hear some of their music on their MySpace page.) They’re sort of like a New Orleans-y version of Gogol Bordello, and they were a lot of fun.

The event was extremely low key, there were maybe thirty or forty people there to check it out, mostly young people who I assume were Savannah College of Art & Design students. This little alley-like street isn’t an official venue, and so far as I know musical happenings there aren’t really advertised or even announced, you just have to know about it. In a way, the scene reminded me of things that used to happen in Austin when I was a student there in the late 1980s, and, of course, of things that used to happen in New Orleans. I’ve always said the quality of street musicians in New Orleans was shockingly high, and I can totally imagine this ensemble being as comfortable and impressive on the streets as in a bar.

The members of the band — horns, accordion, drums, stand-up bass — were threaded out in vintage wear that looked like it really came from thrift stores, not from boutiques, and there was something vaguely post-apocalyptic about them. Like they had just crawled out of some ruins and decided that given how bleak everything looked, they may as well go on tour. There was a bit of tension in their sound. And why not? I have no idea what it’s like to live in post-Katrina New Orleans, but I imagine that, added to the usual mix of defiant celebration in the face of the various risks and troubles that have always been part of the city’s culture, there might be a little something that’s not quite anger, but certainly encompassing tension.

I don’t want to make it sound like they were a downer, or confrontatinoal. The vibe was definitely celebration, live for today, go on the road and play for people for basically no money, with no permit, drink some beer, have some fun, then get back on the road to the next town, and things will somehow all work out.

I’m also not saying this is the best band of all time or whatever. There are tons of great musicians in New Orleans, obviously. Maybe it was just that I was enjoying a lovely night, and a little bit of a hint that maybe things can still happen under the radar in the age of coolhunters and Web hype and new-new-thing mania that ends up trivializing underground culture, rather than celebrating it. It was a relief, for instance, that nobody from Red Bull or Toyota Scion suddenly popped up to hand out stickers and merch or whatever. It was old school. I wish these kids a lot of luck. According to their MySpace page, they’re headed north to Philly, New York (ABC No Rio! Good choice!), and points beyond. If you’re in their path, check them out.

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