Santa Wears Cowboy Boots Here at Holiday Hootenanny 

Ethan McConnell  

Local Music Director  

As finals close out, students are turning in their last assignments, packing bags for trips, and driving back home for the holidays to prepare for a well-deserved break from Texas State campus. As far as shows go locally around this time, it dims down a little due to the holidays coming up but within that our saviors at Resound gave one last little glimmer of tinsel and twang before festivities kick off. Holiday Hootenanny returns to the Austin area for its one-day event for a round two and what better way to celebrate surviving a semester than a music festival. 

CLUB COMA 

I spent the day quite relaxed the morning of, knowing that this festival started later than your average one with doors opening at 2p and first band on at 4p. When the time came, packed a tote bag with pen, notepad, charger and hit the road up to Austin. When arriving you could see lines of cars going down an endless road leading up to Radio/East. I walk in and the whole place is transformed, with the parking lot a space for the vendors selling everything from clothes and jewelry to paintings and other knick-knacks in case anyone needed last minute Christmas gifts. 

Starting off the evening to warm up the crowd was the new Austin based experimental band CLUB COMA. This was a four-piece band, but let me just say, there was energy from start to finish. It didn’t matter if there were 150 people in the crowd or five, each member was moving and enjoying themselves as they should. You had Geoff Earle (Texas State Alumni btw) providing funky bass lines and rolling synths, Aaron Perez with driving fills, Scott Martin layering spacey yet velvety guitar and Lani (Street Peach) as backing vocals creating a three-part harmony within the band. The instrumentation made the tracks fast paced and energized while their vocals felt elegant and rich meshing together this beautiful mix of funk and melody.  

Improvement Movement 

After the first band was finished, I took the time to walk around and check out the vendors who came to support the festival before the next band came out. Big ups to Dogfish Head for providing me with a free hat and vinyl.  The layout of the festival was captivating and I loved the idea of having a set schedule where artists played over each other because I was able to see each artist on the bill and not have to worry about missing something  or try to run halfway across a park to try and get a good spot to see them 

After grabbing some food, I went over to the second stage to see the Atlanta based band Improvement Movement. This acoustic rock band had such a laid-back feeling during their set. It felt like I could roll out a blanket and take a nap as they sung me to sleep. I very much liked the muted tones on the guitar and bass like the strings were covered with a pillow, but they also had wavy effects on the guitar from time to time. Each breakdown was slow but had me swaying from side to side and with each member of the band adding their own soft vocals layered together it made it such an easy listening experience. You had steady rhythms all throughout, but the vocal lines with small chugs from the guitar and linear drum fills to match the vocal lines really drew you in wanting more. Songs like “Window”, “On the Bus”, and “Too Far” really captured the feeling of a slow burn with a little southern twang.  

J’CUUZI 

I can’t end this without talking about J’CUUZI and if you don’t know about this band, then let me be the one to put bro on game. This dark and twisted avant garde pop band provides a set with anything out of the ordinary. You have elements of electronic synthwave, sovietwave, and rock all incorporated into one big, beautiful mess. Now when a band performs their tracks, there’s always a teeny tiny difference in sound from the streaming and live version but with this group of misfits, there is a HUGE difference with their live performance. This band is always striving to push the boundaries to try and create something new, and when seeing them live, the dedication is clearly shown. You had lead vocalist Trey chopping up his own vocals and adding guitar with a whole lot of buzzing effects along with other band member Gorge Bones adding choral vocals that felt raw giving off heavy traits on the sovietwave genre especially on the track, “How 2 Get Everything You’ve Always Wanted 4 Free (Forever)”. Every song performed live was an original take, a true 1/1 and as they took the stage, the crowd’s reaction matched the energy with screams and headbanging all around. The band members were performative with given choreography on certain songs and engaged with the crowd. This band does not disappoint you in giving you a show that you truly will not forget.  

Holiday Hootenanny felt like the perfect send-off before the semester’s end. Each act brought something distinct to the table. I unfortunately could not stay for the entire festival lineup but from what I was able to experience, it was great, nonetheless. This was my first Holiday Hootenanny, and it won’t be my last as it was so heartfelt by both the artists and vendors. As students head home and the campus quiets down, Holiday Hootenanny stood as a final, glowing moment of connection before the holidays truly begin.