Luv Doc Recommends: Dexter Freebish

The lush overgrowth of your neglected lawn and the vernal glaze on the trees should tell you that the cruel, three-week tease of springtime in Austin will soon begin. It’s the only time of year when the temperature can accurately be described with the adjective “comfortable.” Spring is something people in other parts of the country take for granted. In Austin, it’s the quick, comparative blip in our memory that reminds us that six months of the year we live in hell, albeit hell with air conditioning. Spring is also the best time of year to invite out-of-towners for a visit. After a few margaritas on the patio at Shady Grove in mid-March, they’ll be calling their real estate agent in San Jose and screaming, “Sell! Sell!” If the preceding sounds like hyperbole, you probably spent the late Nineties in a coma. This bit of wisdom hasn’t been lost on the folks at SXSW, who to their credit, somehow diabolically cornered the market on Austin’s vacation season. Every year unwitting rubes from all over the nation walk right into a veritable Eden of mild weather, spicy food, and dazzling nightlife. SXSW in March is the largest music festival in the world. SXSW in August? Maybe not so much. In March, saying that it gets freakishly hot in Austin to a giddy, drunken out-of-towner has the same effect as trying to read the disclaimer on a pack of Marlboros to a four-pack-a-day smoker. “Thanks, buddy. You got a light?” So, every March a planeload or two of doe-eyed converts makes plans to make our fair city their new home, and in August, when their flip-flops melt to the asphalt on the way to the swimming pool, more than half of them hotfoot it back whence they came. Call it temperature-induced diasporic equilibrium or just common sense, but it’s the only thing saving us from blowing up like Vegas. Well … that, gambling, and legalized prostitution. Like Vegas, however, we run a pretty good floor show – better actually. If only we could get the waitresses to bring us free drinks. No, Austin isn’t Vegas, but there is still plenty of good entertainment to go around. This Saturday at Antone’s for instance, you can check out the big return of local pop star favorites, Dexter Freebish. In 1999 Dexter Freebish won the John Lennon Songwriting Contest with their song “Leaving Town,” which was chosen over 27,000 other entries. After signing a deal with Capitol Records, the band returned to Austin as the toast of SXSW then went on tour, both in the U.S. and abroad, receiving respectable radio play and critical acclaim. After a couple of years of road work and minimal support, Dexter ditched Capitol and is now working for its own label, Sixthman. While the pre-millennial buzz has subsided, Dexter Freebish is still hard at work and garnering impressive props. “Prozac (Be Like Me),” a single from their new album Tripped Into Divine won the rock category of the 2003 John Lennon Songwriting Contest. With a start like that, you can bet that pretty soon, they’ll be “Leaving Town” again, so catch them while you can