Dead Venues Live Series

Those cats over at Super!Alright! sure no what's up. Have you seen their Dead Venues Live Series for the Dell Lounge? It's basically a way to "Pay Tribute" or make you go, "Aww, I hate change!" and remember those days of yore before Austin was over-run by "people from California". In addition to misplaced nostalgia, the series features a lot of Austin's best bands from TODAY! If you want, I'm sure you can check it out on Vimeo and the like but I'm gonna stick to YouTube since I have an iPod touch. Even though the video is kind of shoddy on YouTube. Anyway, here's a few of my favorites from the Dead Venues Live series:


Ume - The Conductor video via YouTube


The video above the break is sans commentary so you don't really get to learn about the venue from that but I <3 Ume so much that I wanted you to experience the performance. So, here's the historical back-noting-enhanced version:


Dead Venues Live - Episode 1: Club Foot video via YouTube

Episode 3 features The Ritz Theatre as well as the Strange Boys both of which I enjoy immensely. The Ritz, as you may know, is the current site for the flagship Alamo Drafthouse. the Strange Boys are currently a band that sounds like a drunken, American version of 60's British psychedlia ala Nuggets. So here's the performance:


the Strange Boys - Who Needs More video via YouTube

...and here's the episode:


Dead Venues Live - Episode 3: The Ritz Theatre video via YouTube

The most recent episode features a band I have yet to see live but have already heard some buzz about on Twitter, obvs, they're called The Steps check em out:


The Steps - Blonde Smoke video via YouTube

I must say Episode 4 is the episode that made me most nostalgic/most self-loathing/most hate-inducing re:people from Cali. I also wish people still called a genre of music "New Sincerity", but I suppose that became "Emo", which is not-necessarily affiliated with Emo's.Liberty Lunch is def a place that I have heard a lot of people talk about so it's cool that it's getting explanation/recognition in Episode 4:


Dead Venues Live - Episode 4: Liberty Lunch video via YouTube

I haven't blogged about Brothers and Sisters, which is weird because they are one of the first Austin bands I saw within the first few days of living here. They are very talented but for some reason they just don't excite me. No offense B&S you're just not for me. But regardless this is a great performance/song/video and it's part of the series so here you are:


Brothers and Sisters - You're Gone video via YouTube

This full episode should explain why they are playing in a parking lot near Whataburger:


Dead Venues Live - Episode 2: Armadillo World Headquarters video via YouTube

Dude, Springsteen played there for a $!?!?

The irony of this whole thing, is a lot/most/all of the bands have members who moved to Austin via California and/or the rest of the world. I'm also guessing that a lot of the folks over at Super!Alright! also fall into this category, as I do. Go figure. By the way when can we expect episodes featuring: Corto Maltese, Harlem, or Transmography, eh?