Live music review: Hi How Are You Day benefit concert featured Flaming Lips, Built to Spill and lots more
Tuesday evening in Austin the Flaming Lips, Bob Mould, The Black Angels, Built to Spill, Yo La Tango were among the many performers who performed fat the second annual Hi How Are You Day benefit organized by Courtney Blanton and Austin City Limits TV General Manager Tom Gimbel. who founded the project. The event took place at ACL Live, the same building where Gimbel works. The purpose of the mental health awareness project is to remove the stigma surrounding mental well-being and start an honest conversation around mental health issues. Blanton and Gimbel were inspired by the latter’s management relationship with Lo-fi songwriter and artist Daniel Johnston who has struggled with well-documented mental illness most of his life.
The now legendary mural, Jeremiah the Innocent (the friendly frog illustration) is the artist’s embodiment of this idea as Johnston intended when he painted the image on the wall outside the now defunct Sound Exchange shop across the street from the University of Texas campus. While the shop is long gone, the mural has survived successive owners thanks to the local community’s efforts to preserve Johnston’s work.
Local singers, Tameca Jones and Bob Schneider along with Gavin DeGraw performed solo, acoustic sets between full-band performances in order to keep the heavy slate of acts somewhat on time. The awards-style format meant lots of changeovers which stretched the run of show out a bit but that didn’t stop fans from enjoying superlative performances from all the talented artists on stage.
The City of Austin and State of Texas even got involved with both awarding official proclamations offcially declaring January 22, Hi, How Are You Day. The date is also Johnston’s birthday. Presentations were made by the Austin Music Office’s Erica Shamaly and Brendon Anthony of the Texas Music Office.
Besides the lovely voice of Jones whose vocal chords sound as though they’re made of gold and local hero Scheider’s irreverent songs stand-out sets were turned in by Boise’s Built To Spill who led off with a Johnston song followed by hits off their most popular album “You in Reverse.” It was a delicious teaser as to what was to come Wednesday night at the group’s sold-out Antone’s show. Bandleader, Doug Martsch’s unconventional playing style mixed with just about every weird guitar effect you can imagine. He comes off as a musical polymath while performing as the guitarist is constantly twisting knobs and triggering effects pedals.
Austin neo-psychrock outfit, The Black Angels led by guitarist Christian Bland and vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Alex Maas immediately hypnotized the Moody Theatre audience with their droning, spiraling, psychedelic songs. Bland alternated between keys and guitar during the set. Check out the recording of the live stream below to catch dynamic drummer Stephanie Bailey in action (we love watching her perform). Also of note, Rotten Mangoes guitarist and founder Ramiro Verdooren was playing bass for the group and has appeared on stage with the band recently.
Show closers Flaming Lips and leader Wayne Coyne did not disappoint playing hit song “Yoshimi Battles Pink Robots” while Coyne sang in front of a giant, inflatable pink robot. Later the group led all the performers who appeared during the concert in a cover of The Beatles’ song, “All You Need Is Love.”
It’s true, all we need is love and understanding to make our community a better place to live. Starting a conversation about mental health because 1 in 4 Americans are affected isn’t just a good idea, it’s smart.
To make a donation to the Hi How Are You Project head over here.
Watch the entire performance:
