20 Miles show at Stubb’s, 801 Red River, Austin, TX, US with Bob Log III on 16 February 2000.
Poster Artwork: Jason Austin
20 miles released split singles with Doo Rag and Bob Log III.
Austin Chronicle Review:
20 Miles, Bob Log III
Stubb’s, February 16
The blues is No. 1. Ya heard? I said, the blues is No. 1! No. 1 in Tucson, Arizona, and New York City. No. 1 in Austin, Texas, and Yazoo, Mississippi. No. 1 in your heart and in your pelvis. No. 1 at the White House and in the outhouse. No. 1 at Thirty-Three Degrees and Music Mania, and definitely No. 1 at Stubb’s. The venerable Red River BBQ oasis could have been called the Chicken Shack, there was so much scratching going on. None of that stilted, academic blues 14-year-olds are using to learn guitar instead of Eddie Van Halen these days; this was blues lower than a snake’s belly and blunter than Method Man and Redman after an evening in the studio. The kind sharecroppers’ sons sang when a battered out-of-tune guitar was the only weapon available to beat back the devil — except for maybe a paint can or washtub for a percussively inclined sibling. Judah Bauer of Jon Spencer Blues Explosion fame has one, the skinbeating Donovan Bauer, and thus was born 20 Miles. Not quite as art-damaged as JSBX — but damn close — the brothers Bauer essentially played two songs: either Judah picking out arpeggiated runs creating a merry-go-round of single notes while Donovan humped his high-hat, or jabbing out a chuka-chuck rhythmic pattern as his bro went all LAPD on the toms. Simple, brusque, and bad-ass — and nary a holler for “Full Grown” or “2 Kindza Love” from the in-store-size audience. Culling most of the hourish set from their new Fat Possum disc I’m a Lucky Guy, the Bauers did current and former labelmates R.L. Burnside, Cedell Davis, and Junior Kimbrough proud, demonstrating how far under the skin blues can burrow, and how essential they are to everything that came after. That includes Public Enemy’s brain-melting 808 assault “Welcome to the Terrordome,” which preceded the brothers’ set, and it definitely includes opener Bob Log III. Once half of Tucson lo-fi demons Doo Rag, Log gutted out caustic, congested wads of National guitar noise run through way more than 20 miles of distortion, closing with soon-to-be anthem “Clap Your Tits” as his right foot stomped out a ball-busting kick-drum beat. Gotta have that beat. Gotta have those blues, because — say it with me — The Blues Is No. 1!!!” – CHRISTOPHER GRAY / Austin Chronicle (February 25, 2000)
