Live music review: Built to Spill Slays, Shreds, Sells Out Mohawk Austin
Around 9th grade my mom drove me around the suburbs of Nashville like a chauffeur. My compensation was subjecting her to my favorite iPod playlists. One band she loved was Built to Spill. “Hey, play that song about going out of your mind,” she’d request. Translated from mom-speak, that was the band’s standout ‘Goin’ Against Your Mind.’ At Austin’s Mohawk on April 8, I thought about the drives with her as the drums launched into the 10-minute six-string odyssey.
Boise, Idaho’s Doug Martsch has been making music under the Built to Spill moniker for over 30 years. On stage, Martsch dresses like my 6th grade wardrobe: sneakers, high socks, cargo shorts, and a worn t-shirt. At 53, Martsch fits right into Austin’s DIY scene with his nonchalant stage presence and virtosic guitar playing.
But don’t mistake his unborthered exterior for an inferior work ethic. The first six songs all came from six different records. The night featured a well-organized and unpredictable setlist spanning three decades, no banter, and 17 songs.
The band kicked it off with ‘Never Be the Same’ from Untethered Moon. If you didn’t already know, Martsch really, really likes to play octaves on his guitar.
With a rotating cast of backing players, he’s now joined by Melanie Radford on bass and Teresa Esguerra on drums (positioned stage left, facing the rest of the band). Without a second guitar, Radford frequently played higher on the fretboard than most bass players to imitate the missing guitar melodies.
Mess with Time”, from 2006’s criminally underrated You In Reverse, marked a highlight as Martsch showed his prowess harnessing the fuzz from his amplifier for six minutes, wrestling with feedback to make his guitar groan like a monster. I don’t know if anyone has ever accused Martsch of “having a set of pipes” but his voice is extremely unique like a combo of Modest Mouse’s Issaac Brock and 90’s Neil Young.
Martsch’s playing ranges from J Mascis-level shredding (‘I Would Hurt A Fly’) to sparse trebley barre chords (‘Big Dipper’). He specializes in calculated solos where the notes sing rather than meander into self-indulgence. Some of his playing is so smooth, you’re not sure if he’s playing with a slide or an E-Bow, and then live you realize he’s using neither. Martsch exclusively wielded a black and white Stratocaster that’s been used throughout his discography.
In ‘Big Dipper’ Martsch creates ascending and descending melodies out of thin air, populating the venue space with descriptions of the only constellation he can see. New tunes from last year’s release soared like the album’s opener ‘Gonna Lose’.
Over enough years, we watch our indie-rock heroes take on a persona or mythology that frequently overshadows the music. Martsch would rather keep the jangly, fuzzy, power-pop front and center.
Brendan Gleeson’s ‘Colm’ from Banshees of Inisherin just wants to make a melody that’s remembered a century after it’s made (can you tell what I just watched?). What’s so amazing about the music of Built to Spill is what previously sounded minimal or unremarkable will lodge itself into your brain for eternity. The melodies are built to last and built to air-strum along a century after you first hear it.
Built to Spill’s remaining U.S. tour dates can be found here.
If you like Built to Spill, check out: R.E.M., Pavement, Television, Sebadoh, The Thermals
All photos by Drew Doggett
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