The Mile High Makeout: From Austria with love
By eryc eyl | January 15th, 2010 | 16 comments
Alexander Sackel and Slim Cessna, photographed by Carol Kennedy in the bowels of the Bluebird Theater.
Once again, I’ve got a confession to make. From time to time, I’ve been guilty of spending far too many precious hours perusing readers’ comments on various Colorado music blogs. Every once in a while, these threads contain insightful, well-reasoned conversations that challenge and inspire my thinking about the Denver music scene. More often, however, the comments are peppered with vague-yet-vituperative insults and invective. This caustic commentary is sometimes aimed at the writer, photographer or subject of the piece that precedes it, but just as frequently, it holds in its sights the Denver music scene itself. In fact, one type of comment that seems to crop up every few weeks or so goes something like this: “No one outside of Denver cares about Denver music.”
Now, my first response to such a comment is, “So what?” After all, does the authenticity and significance of our fair city’s music dependent upon external validation? Is the measure of a successful music scene determined by strangers and aliens? Just as I was about to open my yawp and preach my vociferous argument against this line of thinking, I ran into an Austrian gentleman who rendered the whole conversation moot. Alexander Sackel lives in Austria, and he LOVES Denver music.
I first heard about Sackel from Dameon Merkl of Denver’s Bad Luck City, who had been contacted by him on MySpace. As the singer-songwriter described the Austrian man’s obsession with Denver bands to me, I thought it seemed too far fetched to be true. I suppose a part of me thought that, as highly as I regard the music produced in the Mile High City, it was highly unlikely that someone who didn’t live and breathe it would feel as passionately. It turns out I was wrong.
Living in the Austrian town of Seewalchen — a city of approximately 5,000 people, located about 40 miles northeast of Salzburg — Sackel was first exposed to Denver music in 1996, through a free CD in a German issue of “Rolling Stone.” The CD, titled “New Voices, Volume 8,” included tracks from Tracy Bonham, Billy Bragg, Ani DiFranco and noteworthy Denver act 16 Horsepower.
“When I first heard ‘Haw,’” Sackel tells me, “I was completed hooked. I’d never heard something like that before.” The Austrian music lover immediately ordered the band’s debut full-length, “Sackcloth ‘n’ Ashes,” and began scouring the Internet to find out more about the city that churned out such hauntingly beautiful and quirky music. Over the years, this faraway fan discovered Slim Cessna’s Auto Club, Munly, the Czars, Elin Palmer, Tarantella, Denver Broncos UK, Bad Luck City and Woven Hand.
Sackel has a difficult time putting his finger on exactly what attracts him to Denver music. “Music that I really like has to touch me in some way,” he says. “If it’s the sound, the lyrics or just one song — when it hits me, I’m into it.” While it was initially the vocals and lyrics of 16 Horsepower’s David Eugene Edwards that caught his ear, later discoveries further created a mystique for Sackel. Finally, when his fascination rose to a fever pitch and there seemed to be no end to the moving musical discoveries coming out of Denver, the Austrian adherent finally decided it was time to see the place for himself.
After a 2008 trip for Slim Cessna’s annual New Year’s Eve show had to be canceled, Sackel rescheduled for 2009, planning his trip six months in advance. Shortly after conducting an interview with Edwards in Salzburg for Radio B-138, the 40-year-old self-proclaimed “crazy music maniac” boarded a plane and headed for the place that had taken on mythic status in his mind. Between his arrival in Denver on the 26th and his departure on Jan. 3, Sackel saw an admirable four shows. He caught performances by Munly & the Lupercalians and Slim Cessna’s Auto Club at both the Aggie Theatre in Fort Collins and the Bluebird here in Denver. On Dec. 30, he managed to enjoy the afternoon performance by DeVotchKa at the Mercury Cafe, and then captured Paper Bird and Slim (yes, again) at the Bluebird later than night.
After anticipating these experiences and dreaming of this trip for more than a year, Sackel was not disappointed. “Munly’s performance at the Bluebird on the 31st was one of the best I have ever seen,” he raves with characteristic enthusiasm. “Very haunting, very intense, just unbelievable!” Slim Cessna also exceeded his expectations. “After the first show at the Bluebird, I told Lord Dwight Pentacost that I saw AC/DC three times in 2009, but SCAC rocks more.”
In addition to seeing some of Denver’s most legendary performers in their native habitats, Sackel also made a point of touring some of the Denver sites featured in his heroes’ songs — places like Club 404 and the Lion’s Lair — as well as other Denver musical institutions. “The fabulous Twist & Shout record store is the best I’ve ever seen,” he exclaims. While there, he bought the entire discography of Crooked Fingers, another band that once called Denver home (frontman Eric Bachmann is currently in Guatemala). He was also thrilled to meet Gary Isaacs, the Denver-based photographer who has done as much to create the mystique around the so-called Denver sound as the bands themselves. Sackel was also delighted to meet Bad Luck City’s Merkl. “It was such a big pleasure to meet him in real life!”
Hearing this middle-aged Austrian man express his love and admiration for the music we take for granted, the places we pass by without taking notice and the people who sit on the barstools next to us, I had to think differently about our music and our city. Somehow, the music made here reached 5,000 miles around the world and touched someone so strongly and deeply that it provides a lasting centerpiece for his life. And it isn’t just one band or one sound that made that journey. It was several artists in different genres that sent their music out into the world and found their soulmate in a most unlikely place. That’s the magic that we have in our own backyards.
Eryc Eyl is a veteran music journalist, critic and Colorado native who has been neck-deep in local music for many years. Check out Steal This Track every Tuesday for local music you can HEAR, and the Mile High Makeout every Friday.
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