Ugh....the post St. Patty's day hangover. It's been a good week of shows so far. Since this past Saturday I've seen: This Will Destroy You Black Joe Lewis DJ Premier The Civil Wars Portugal. The Man The Black Angels Queens of the Stone Age Young the Giant Fishbone Wu-Tang I'm hoping to get outta work in time to catch Fitz and The Tantrums today at 5.
Caught the end of Fitz on Wednesday afternoon at Waterloo Records. Mother Truckers put on a great show Wed. afternoon, too.
I MISSED BRAVEYOUNG CAUSE I WAS BEING A DUDE AND THINGS. REAL BRO STUFF. ALL CAPS. just wanted everyone to know. not sure what to do now until tomorrow. going to see former thieves for sure. I hope I can see Das Racist....but not getting my hopes up.
What a week! I followed up the previous list with: Skrillex Beats Antique The Bravery Eagle Claw DJ Jazzy Jeff DJ Z-Trip De La Soul SXSWinning!
Good SX It did not appear the lines were not any worse at the official showcases than past years. I've been a badgeholder for six years now, and didn't see an increase in delays. The only showx I didn't make it into was Civil Wars at the Driskill and Duran Duran (though I was in Stubb's two hours earlier during that same showcase w/out a wait). Now, day shows, that is a different story altogether. Those were often a cluster, including NPR party, MTV Garage, and MWTX. Bands I got to check out: Head and the Heart (X3) Fitz and the Tantrums Yuck Wild Flag (X2) Maxium Ludwig and the Santa Fe Seven Givers (X3) Wye Oak Naked and the Famous The Joy Formidable (X2) Sharon Von Etten Caitlin Cary Tuneyards Carl Broemel (MMJ guitarist) Wanda Jackson Whitey Morgan and the 78's Ha Ha Tonka !!! Surfer Blood Fresh and the Onlys Smith Westerns Jonquil Esben and the Witch Twin Shadow Hayes Carll Lord Huron Matthew and the Atlas Sarah Jaffe Lost in the Trees Apache Relay Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr Baskery These United States Cave Singers John Vanderslice Hunx and his Punx Nive Nielsen Nicole Atkins and the Black Sea Jessica Lea Mayfield Yelawolf Das Racist Owen Pallet James Vincent McMurrow Boy and Bear Hey Rosetta! Fences Or, The Whale Off! Onyx and Crake Beats Antique Silje Nes Likely missing one or two, but if so, I guess they didn't make much of an impression. Good times!
Glad to finally have today off. I had to work the Perez Hilton party last night and cannot, for the life of me, figure out why it was so popular. The new ACL Live venue was great and having full access was great. The free Patron in the back made all of the work worth it. It seems that Odd Future was the runaway group of SXSW this year. My roommate saw them at Mess With Texas and said it was one of the most genuinely insane concerts she's ever seen.
ya, they were everywhere... caught them at fader on friday then fader again last night after p diddy. while they're fun to watch, i dont find them particularly good nor original. you'll find crazier assh*les at just about any decent punk show. thee oh sees were my hands down favorite act of the weekend... they slayed it at mwtx, really wish i could've caught them at a more intimate setting but it is what it is. surfer blood was real good too. and imo it was significantly more crowded this year then in year's past.
On Friday, I caught: an horse-mohawk glasser-club deville deer tick- barbarella cults Sam amidon tune-yards James Blake !!! casiokids das racist menomena- central presbytarian church By Saturday my festival was basically done, but I stuck and decided not to leave early so I caught: Star*****er Beats Antique Great Lake Swimmers Missed out on Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr, Shilpa Ray and Telekinesis. Actually showed up to a Telekinesis show at Homeslice Pizza but they cancelled their performance. Also missed out on This Will Destroy You due to timing error on SXSW scheduler software. I read that due to The Strokes fiasco where people got injured toppling over barricades to get in, the SXSW committee is now looking to limit free events or only to those with wristbands/badges. A step in the right direction. A few things I noticed this year other than increased crowds was that more people seemed to have badges for some reason. Also almost half the shows I went to were delayed by at least 10-20 minutes. It used to be everything was on a razor sharp schedule. When a show goes over by 20-30 minutes it really throws off your schedule. The worst was Das Racist basically starting almost every other show they had an hour late. I saw them at Club Phoenix and they came on a full hour late at around 12:20AM and played for about 20 minutes and then had to leave to go play another show at Emo's at 1AM. I didn't really care that much since I'm not a huge fan and had a pass, but I would have been upset if paid an 20 USD entry fee to see them play and they were only on stage for 20 minutes.
I didn't go to any official shows because they're always too crowded and they usually aren't all that great. I saw The Oh Sees in some guy's backyard. I've seen them at each of the last 3 SXSWs I've been to and they're always good. I saw Mark Eitzel at the Red-Eyed Fly and also at the Yard Dog. Anyone who likes music should go see this guy. He used to be the singer for American Music Club. I saw Freakwater at Yard Dog and they were great. I saw Eleventh Dream Day later (with the guy from Yo La Tengo on bass) and it was one of the best shows I've seen. John Langford (from the Mekons) and his band were super-duper high energy and a ton of fun. Sally Timms from the Mekons also showed up and sang a couple of songs with him. It was awesome. I saw The Body at Chaindrive and they were so super metal that I think I may have momentarily lost control of my bowels and I didn't even care and just went all \m/ \m/. I saw Barreracudas and Mean Jeans at Spiderland (I think) and both bands rocked my face off and were super fun. I saw Weird Weeds (a real cool band from Austin) at the Moose Lodge and it was spooky and good and Twin Peaks-esque. I saw a bunch of other stuff and got to hang out and get drunk with some of my good friends and it was overall a great week.
