By: David de Young
 Bill Dankert and the Real Austinaires at the Terminal Bar - Photo by David de Young (Click photo for full-sized version.) |
Members: Official website: http://billdankert.netfirms.com |
Allyoop! I'm here to share my experience on one of the best live shows I've seen so far this year. My design is to make you sorry you missed it.
Midnight was the perfect time for Bill Dankert and his band the Real Austinaires to take the stage at the Terminal Bar Friday night. The weather had started to warm up--for good this time, we all hoped. By midnight most of us had recovered from the workweek, especially those of us who'd taken to drinking shortly after sundown. There was still an entire St. Patrick's Day weekend to separate us from near certain, impending war with Iraq the following week. In other words, I was in the perfect mood for some poppy, bouncy, fun mid-tempo rock and roll.
Anchorhead was just finishing another excellent show as I arrived. (Unfortunately I'd missed evening openers Hookhead & Mare.) The many fans that had flocked to the bar tonight to see the first two bands were still milling around as The Real Austinaires took the stage.
On this night drummer Brien Lilja was wearing a Lizz Winstead (http://www.girlcomic.net/oct2k1/oct2k1_bigones_lizz.php) t-shirt that crazily looked out over his drums for the entire show. Davin Odegaard, in a western-styled shirt, was looking like some long lost member of Jason and the Scorchers. His Barbie doll pink glittery bass would sound anything but pink as the night wore on. Guitar player Darrin Rinne's big beard gave him a scruffy almost 21st hijacker look. And Bill Dankert was dressed typically Kurt Cobain casual.
I hate trying to make musical comparisons, but if someone put a gun to my head I might suggest Dankert and his Austinaires' sound as falling somewhere between Bruce Springsteen and the Smithereens with a couple members of Fleetwood Mac (Stevie and Mick maybe) jumping onstage to stir up the pot from time to time. If you can even begin imagine that, imagine also that this music makes you feel that all is well with the world at 2 a.m. and you're starting to get the picture.
Dankert's new CD with the Real Austinaires is called "In Spite" and it's his third since giving up his post as the drummer for the Gear Daddies in 1993. It was recorded at Albatross studios by Rank Strangers front man Mike Wisti. The first official CD release kick-off event was held March 4th at Roadrunner Records, the Nicollet Avenue indie record store that currently carries the CD exclusively. (Though you can also purchase the CD direct from Bill on his website.) In the two weeks since I received this CD I probably played it for more people than I've played any other recent CD's I've acquired recently. I'm relieved to finally get this review online since attempting to turn people onto it by playing it for them one at a time in my living room is just not going to cut the cake.
Dankert's first song was "Sunday Morning's Gone" from his previously released CD "The Vanishing Head" (Veto Records, 2000.) The set list humorously calls this song "Rasslin'," but this is a sentimental and fun rock and roll song about times gone by and how "Sunday morning swallowed my heroes." You can hear a live version of it from a few years back in a live show that's still archived on Sursumcorda's site at http://www.sursumcorda.com/popular_creeps/popular_creeps_downloads.htm (The show, recorded at the Bryant Lake Bowl in July of 2001, is really worth a listen and includes an extended interview by Mary Lucia, and a cool, reverent live version of The Brain's "Money Changes Everything.")
The Terminal Bar gig was rock and roll show, no question about it, and unlike the recorded show at the BLB that was constantly interrupted by interview questions, Friday night's show raced forward from song to song with practically no time to breathe in between. In fact, the entire 11 song set actually clocked out at just over 35 minutes, so you can begin to imagine the intensity. This was augmented by the fact that there was not much in the way of either musical or conversational filler.
My favorite Bill Dankert song currently is "All Your Heart," the song that opens up the new CD. ("Allyoop" is the first line of that song.) The song, like many of Dankert's originals, is beautiful in its simplicity. It builds and builds upon one big hook, sounding at times like a more upbeat version of the Velvet Underground's "Heroin." It ends with a crazy, volume up, disaster-courting, distorted guitar sound that helped the show's energy peak very early in the set. The repetition of the hook has the added result of making you focus on the lyrics, assembling the story or image as the song builds. When the song ended, drummer Brian Lilja practically bowed from his seat behind the drum kit.
Some cowboy was apparently really digging the scene. He walked past the band on his way to the men's room and pointed both hands at the band in a mock dual pistol salute.
Dankert introduced an older song, "Cipher." It may have been an energy low-point to the set, but it was clearly recognized as well loved as people were still singing along. (The song is featured in the Sursumcorda-archived show.) Rinne's guitar was practically singing out front in the front of the mix, and that's a sound helps give character to many of Dankert's songs. That wailing rock guitar on top of country chords and down-tempo beats occasionally gives Dankert's music an Uncle Tupelo-like sound. It keeps the rock and roll fans on their toes while continuing to draw in the country crowd.
Friday's set also featured a couple new songs the band claimed to have put together just the preceding Monday. One of those songs, "Safety" reminded me first of Soul Asylum, then The Ramones, or some random punk band circa 1980, or maybe the Mats from 1983. My inability to pin down Dankert's influences just by listening to his band is a good thing because it shows both the diversity and the freshness of his music. Dankert promised next that they'd do something more upbeat and broke into Warren Zevon's "Gorilla, You're a Desperado." (They'd also covered this show at Roadrunner on March 4th.) Davin Odegard facetiously remarked as the song ended, "You know it does say something when you do a Warren Zevon song as an upbeat song."
As they played "No Point in Turning" (another older song) the floor filled with dancers, and the dancers stayed through "Monkey" another song from Dankert's earlier CD. On request from the birthday boy, Chad Johnson, who had assembled the lineup for the evening, they played a song called "Time Heals."
They closed with "Doesn't Bother Me," an energetic song from the new CD which reminds me of the Connell's "Stone Cold Yesterday." It was an awesome closing song to a great show. It really gets my gears turning to hear those borrowed (or stolen) power chords from the Who's "Baba O'Reilly" (aka "Teenage Wasteland.") (No other local artist has ripped off The Who so respectfully since Dan Israel mimicked the end of "Won't Get Fooled Again" in "Don't Feel Like Laughin'" on his latest CD "Love Ain't a Cliché.")
I'll leave you with Dankert's own words from "Doesn't Bother Me":
And I'm over thirty-five
And I've lived out half my life
With meaning interspersed with happy nonsense.
I'm not sure which of these two my Friday night Terminal Bar experience was, but either way. . .
Location Info:
The Terminal Bar
Artist Info: Bill Dankert
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