SXSW: Thurston Moore, My Morning Jacket pay tribute to Reed

In a sort-of indie-rock version of a lifetime achievement award, Moby, Yo La Tengo, My Morning Jacket and Thurston Moore, among others, paid tribute to Lou Reed late Thursday afternoon at the South by Southwest Music Conference (SXSW) in Austin, Texas. The coronation went down at an afternoon party sponsored by the Fader, with lines at one point stretching two blocks long to get in.

Yet like a tribute at the Grammy Awards, the well-intentioned event went on far too long, in this case more than 2 hours. In fact, the entire first hour could have been chopped.

Opening with Arizona rock What Laura Says Thinks and Feels, the set got off to a faithful, if uninspired beginning, with the band delivering a passing-grade version of "Run Run Run." Indie rockers Oh No! Oh My! and Paper Route were on par, but when the folksy Ezra Furman & the Harpoons butchered "Heroin," paranoia set in. Sub Pop's recent signees the Fleet Foxes also had an afternoon gig, and it was starting to look like the wrong choice was made.

Thankfully, Yo La Tengo arrived in time to get things back on track, delivering a delightfully textured low-key version of Reed's "She's My Best Friend," and then the Velvet Underground's "I Heard Her Call My Name." The fuzzed-up edition of the latter was carried by guitars that scurried around the vocals like city rats.

Elsewhere in the set, Dr. Dog offered up a version of Who Loves the Sun," sneaking in a baroque breakdown in the middle, and My Morning Jacket delivered a honky-tonkin' take on "Head Held High."

Moore and his backing band the New Wave Bandits provided a scorching version of the recently-unearthed "I'm Not A Young Man Anymore," with guitars screeching like a subway train tunneling off the tracks.* The show ended with Moby, who played guitar, and was joined by Reed for an extended, slow-build of "Walk On the Wild Side."

When the song concluded, Reed held up his arms like a prize fighter, and said, "I love punk rock, and I was the first one," maintaining the attitude he had at the Thursday morning keynote.

Reps from the Fader noted that they plan to make the full Reed tribute available online.

*I apologize for the Second City-like metaphor in this post.

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Comments

[The Playlist]

Gee, a tribute to Lou Reed and all these indie-rockers can do is (moslty) play Velvet Underground songs. Did any of them bother digging deeper into his solo work past the first album?

[Kim]

That Laura band from Arizona actually played a Lou Reed song, Ecstasy which came out in 2000. It surprisingly morphed in to Run Run Run. I think it was pretty cool. Oh and Ecstasy was sung in Spanish too I think. Oh and Paper Route played music from Metal Machine Music. So not all of the bands stuck to the Velvet Underground recipe.

[fortyFIVE]

Lou Reed seemed to enjoy Ezra Furman's performance. He was snapping away at Ezra with his camera and spoke to him at length after the performance.

[Joann]

The song Dr. Dog performed was actually "Who Loves The Sun" (Velvet Underground) not to be confused with the Beatles' "Here Comes the Sun." Just want to clear that up!

[Joann]

The song Dr. Dog performed was actually "Who Loves the Sun" (Velvet Underground). Not to be confused with the Beatles' "Here Comes the Sun." Just want to clear that up!