Peek-A-Boo Records Showcase

with Super XX Man, Wontons, Junior Varsity, The Kiss-Offs

The Blind Pig, Austin, TX

Andrew Chadwick

“super_xx_man”

The only thing that spoiled this show was the tiny venue. The stage was set up immediately to the left of the door upon entering. It didn’t take much to fill the space between the stage and the bar to make the entranceway nearly impassable. It was packed. Getting in and out meant making some people very uncomfortable. The stage itself had all the depth of a kiddie pool, which meant the bands set up in a line. Odd set-up, but an amazing show in spite of all the difficulties.

When I arrived, Super XX Man was playing an Eric Metronome cover and experiencing a lot of technical difficulties. Super XX Man is Scott from Silver Scooter’s solo project, joined tonight by people on drums and bass. He had a pretty simple set-up, and yet was still wrestling with all sorts of sound troubles. Still, I was so excited to be there watching him play that it wasn’t too hard to put the sound mess aside and just enjoy the songs. “Stroll On Through N.O.” from Vol. IV was my favorite song from him for the night, played quietly and sweetly on a ukelele.

“wontons”

The Wontons followed with a huge heap of punchy garage rock fun. I didn’t know a single song, but that didn’t keep me from dancing and singing along to songs like “Night Owl” and “Hex Appeal.” Lots of contagious energy.

Junior Varsity was probably the most eagerly anticipated band in the house that night, at least among Ink 19 staffers. True to their school, they took the stage in Mouseketeer ears and sweatshirts bearing their name in athletic style letters. Clean-cut bouncy pop fun with tons of ’50s style. The team spirit was fully evident, as Rebecca had the crowd pass her wristband to a friend outside so she could get inside the 21 and up show. (“No one saw anything, right?”) Their friend and mascot Bippy the Bear was on stage throughout the set, contributing to the overall good cheer. They played all the hits from Bam Bam Bam , as well as the old favorite “Two Scoops.” We were happy happy happy happy and feeling fine. Yay team!

“junior_varsity_3”

“kiss-offs”

I wasn’t expecting too much from the Kiss-Offs. I had heard their record and thought it was good, but I wasn’t overly enthusiastic about it. Silly me. They absolutely blew me away live, with total over the top rock and roll energy. They suffered from the worst sound problems of the night and took fixing it into their own hands by moving microphones and such amidst protests from the soundman. Definitely an adversarial vibe going between those two camps. Ah, well, when the mics don’t make you loud, scream, Katey, scream. An amazing set with vocals scream-sung over the noise of double guitar rock with keys being banged around. They weathered the problems quite well and put on a damn fine show in spite of them. Oh, and everytime I put my camera away, there was another explosion of fire somewhere, from the small pots around the stage to the drummer’s cymbals. Nice!

Silver Scooter finished out the night with fluid, moody pop songs. They are consistently one of my favorite purveyors of this sort of thing and I was excited to finally see them live, but it was honestly a bit of a step down from the pyrotechnics-fueled rock power of the Kiss-Offs. Silver Scooter played great, but I think I would have liked them more before the Kiss-Offs. Still, I was happy to finally see them play.

There was another band going on who were here from Japan, but I had to leave. What I caught that night was very enjoyable – I’m looking forward to seeing what Peek-A-Boo has in store for the future. ◼