Music festivals are a nightmare. They're the big-box retailers of culture, designed to accommodate teeming hordes of wasted twentysomethings in Native American headdresses who wanna party first and listen to music second. But, as anyone who has been stuck in a Best Buy or a Walmart can tell you, even the crappiest landfills can contain buried treasure. By virtue of volume alone, any big music fest worth its salt has at least one hidden gem waiting to be discovered, a band that makes all the hassle worthwhile.
Case in point: There I was at the 2014 Austin Psych Fest this past May. It was 98 degrees with a blazing sun in a cloudless sky and high winds, like God's own hair dryer was trying to blow the festival grounds right off the face of the earth. Even in the barest of clothing, most people were drenched in sweat, and practically everyone had scarves over their faces to keep from inhaling the dust that swirled around in the hot air. Then I saw him, standing next to an old music-booker friend of mine who'd recently moved to Texas from Tel Aviv: Charlie Megira, dressed in a full black tuxedo, black wraparound sunglasses, and a miles-high black pompadour, with nary a drop of perspiration on his brow. He was basically the coolest person I'd ever seen. And that was before I'd even seen him play…
Charlie Megira & the Bet She'an Valley Hillbillies play Friday, November 21, at the Highline.
