SXSW 2010: Mickey Brings Down the (Ware)House

Photos by Austin L. Ray

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Today, I convinced an Austinite friend to drive me a few miles off the beaten path to visit East Austin’s The Broken Neck. If I’ve learned anything in four years of visiting SXSW, it’s that sometimes you need to step a little outside your comfort zone. Not all the good stuff is on 6th Street. Some of the good stuff isn’t even music.

The Broken Neck your basic, run-of-the-mill warehouse in a pseudo-sketch neighborhood, complete with all the sorts of things you’d expect from a building like that: cool graffiti, stickers all over, general filthiness. Today, it was playing host to an Acid Marshmallow showcase called ‘Texas-Sized Headache,’ which featured all sorts of great Paste-approved bands like Thomas Function, So Cow and Jeff the Brotherhood, amongst others. But I was there to see Mickey.

My sole exposure to this Chicago quintet pre-show was a smattering of songs (of varying recording quality) on the band’s MySpace page and the unimpeachable “She’s So Crazy” 7" Hozac Records put out late last year. In fact, the latter song is so wonderful, such a fine modern distillation of all that is great about sleazy, glammy, late ‘70s rock ’n’ roll a’la the New York Dolls, T. Rex, et al, I was more than happy to heartily recommend the band to one and all at this year’s SXSW. But here’s the thing: they played that thrilling single early in the set and it wasn’t even the highlight.

Suffice it to say that frontman Mac Blackout is a certifiable joy to watch and that his band has the chops to back him up. There was also lots of confetti and I bought a t-shirt, which is something I can guarantee won’t happen again this week. I could go on for a while, but there’s only so much time left in the evening and so many bands yet to see. Listen to the music linked above, check out the photos below and hope like hell that Mickey has a full-length coming soon.