Lullaby Online

Members of R.E.M., Meat Puppets, She & Him stick on the rest of Big Star to recollect the late Chilton.
By James Montgomery

Alex Chilton

Photo: Frank Mullen/ Wireimage

AUSTIN, Texas — It was unseasonably cold low in the heart of Texas on Saturday night, as winds howled and low-hanging clouds swallowed up the moon . It was the kind of continue which seems to lend itself to mourning.

But inside princely Austin dolour club Antone’s, anguish wasn’t on the menu( there were, however, tacos) . Instead, friends, colleagues and disciples of the late Alex Chilton, who died progressing this week of an strong heart conflict, had collected to compensate reverence to the male and his song . And whilst there were a couple of tears strew, this was a night really most dedicated to celebration.

Originally scheduled as a South by Southwest shutting unison by Chilton’s successful power-pop rope Big Star, the Antone’s gig instead became a commemorative show . Strange Star drummer Jody Stephens and newer members Ken Stringfellow and Jon Auer( who assimilated the rope when it reformed in 1993) served as a residence rope as a host of top-flight bent sat in to perform Chilton’s songs and applaud his hold up . Canceling the show was never an option.

Before things got underneath approach, Stephens addressed the throng, revelation them he was “stunned and shocked” by Chilton’s flitting, and thanked the Austin low-pitched village for the escape of await in the days following his genocide . He pronounced his heart went out to Chilton’s mother, Laura, and a minute she had created for the dusk was review . In the note, Laura Chilton remembered her father as a “spontaneous, honest and inexhaustible male .. . who customarily befriended the underdogs.”

The minute brought tears to those onstage and in the assembly, but as prior to long as Stephens was assimilated by Stringfellow and Auer, the dolour stopped . The contingent welcomed Meat Puppet Curt Kirkwood to the theatre to fool around guitar and sing on a stomping span of Big Star classics — “Don’t Lie to Me” and “In the Street.”

Up subsequent was guitarist/producer Chris Stamey, who played with Chilton early in his career and went on to form jangle-pop outfit the dBs . The party launched in to “I Am the Cosmos”( created by late Big Star part of Chris Bell), highlighted by a tears Stamey guitar piece for one person, and “When My Baby’s Beside Me.”

She & Him’s M.Ward appeared subsequent( Auer introduced him as “a man who used to take karate lessons with Alex”) to do a gloomy, acoustic chronicle of “Big Black Car.” Afterwards strange Star bassist Andy Hummel — who left the rope prior to long prior to the recover of their 1974 manuscript, Radio City — picked up a guitar, and as revolutionary fans cheered extravagantly, the group of four took on “Way Out West.”

R.E.M . bassist Mike Mills sang lead on an gaseous “Jesus Christ.” John Doe from X did the same on “I’m in Love With a Girl, ” and 27-year-old Norwegian thespian Sondre Lerche incited in maybe the night’s excellent opening, a bell-clear and big-voiced spin on the classical “The Ballad of el Goodo, ” which left the throng cheering their approval.

Evan Dando achieved a short acoustic reverence . Surly singer-songwriter Chuck Prophet bloody by “Thank You Friends, ” and afterwards, eventually, the reverence entered the homestretch . Auer thanked Chilton’s friends for behaving, and the throng for their await, afterwards voiced, “We’ve tired the supply of songs, solely for this final one.”

And afterwards, with Mills, Hummel, thespian Susan Cowsill, and the Watson Twins fasten them onstage, the rope began personification the sad, smashing “September Gurls, ” all fasten forces on the carol and vouchsafing the guitars ring loudly . The throng called out for some-more, but which was it . Stephens, Auer and Stringfellow embraced, bent and left offstage . Seconds after, as the throng clapped and a spotlight shone on a sole microphone mount, Stephens reappeared and addressed the throng once some-more, thanking them for the smashing memories and their intractable await for the rope as they onslaught with the loss of their friend.

“You’ve wrapped your arms around us, ” Stephens pronounced, choking up a bit . “We conclude it.”

Related Artists

• R.E.M.
• She and Him
• Meat Puppets