SXSW Overflow 2011: Day Fourteen (Apollo 18, Vigilante, Alex Anderson Band, & Vampirates)

Man…falling behind yet again, dammit. See, this is the bad part about working on a computer all day for the Day Job — the last thing I want to do is try to come up with yet more words on a screen…

Anyway, tonight, Tues., March 22nd, is Day 14 (um, maybe?) of Super Happy Fun Land‘s SXSW Overflow Fest shows, and it’s a little lighter than it’s been; here’s who’s on:

APOLLO 18: Okay, so these guys came here all the way from freaking South Korea, for crying out loud (well, when I say “here,” I don’t mean “Houston,” but rather “Texas as a whole”), which makes me hope against hope that there’re folks in attendance at the Super Happy tonight.

Not strictly because of the distance they’ve traveled, mind you, but also because they’re pretty damn good — they play atmospheric mostly-instro-rock that veers between loud, frantic walls of guitar and more delicate, high-flying passages and calls to mind Pelican or, even more than that, Co-Pilot (albeit with Thom Yorke-ish vocals), with plenty of drifting, slowly-unfolding guitar lines that eventually explode into roaring crescendoes of sound and martial, steadily building drums. “Time,” in particular, is pretty freaking epic. Prepare to stand and sway, y’all.

VIGILANTE: This one’s actually local, from right here in H-town; they’re a gang of old-school-leaning, fists-in-the-air, yell-along punk rock, with vocalist Shannon riding the line between Cinder Block and Joan Jett as she rants about commercialized music and the overwhelmingness of modern technology. It’s nothing spectacularly new, no, but they throw themselves into it, and I have to give ’em a hand for their cover of The Cars’ “My Best Friend’s Girl,” which punkifies the original quite nicely.

THE ALEX ANDERSON BAND: Eh…I’m not super impressed with this one, I’m afraid. The Alex Anderson Band (or AM Band? I’m seeing two different names…) plays bluesy, semi-funky, straight-ahead rock with a little bit of an Elvis Costello thing going on in Anderson’s vocals, and while it’s pretty serviceable for that, it just doesn’t knock me down or anything. I’m listening, and all I can think about is listening to something else next, and that ain’t a good sign. Sorry, y’all.

VAMPIRATES: Ah, yeah — the Vampirates boys apparently decided to hit up the SHFL for a second night; see here for what I had to say about ’em the first time around…

There it is, at least for now. Two more days to go, dammit…