Mockingbird Airbag: SXSW Day 1 and 2

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

SXSW Day 1 and 2

Thursday 3.16

I arrived in Austin late, mostly because of my procrastinated packing, and managed to find the party right away. See, I was one of the lucky 150 people to win a South by Stereogum badge to gain entry to this party. Let me just say, you can't beat free Fat Tire beer to complement Rogue Wave and Ted Leo and the Pharmacists. As I was telling one of my new friends, Rogue Wave keeps impressing me more and more. I keep waiting for them to a) sound bad, b) write a bad song, or c) appear in a sex tape with Scott Stapp, but these guys just keep on truckin'. The sound was pristine and the performance made me forget all about missing out on Aloha, Thunderbirds are Now, and What Made Milwaukee Famous. Up next was Ted Leo and wow, did that guy bring it or what.... I had no idea he put on such a good, tight show. They absolutely rocked the Parish.

R.W.

Ted Leo

About the whole weekend, I was the official Wee Demon SXSW Festival Correspondent, and I managed to see some good shows and run into important people (by that I mean I saw Sam Machkovech walk by me). In order to fulfill my job to the fullest next year, I will need a hotel room, internet access, a laptop, a per diem, an official SXSW wristband, gummi worms....(are you listening, boss?)

I managed to run into an old friend at the party, one I had only seen once in a couple of years - Luc, man, good to see ya.

After the party, I managed to get some food at Paradise on 6th St. The Queso Catfish is highly recommended - and that brought an end to Day 1, but I was off to a great start.

Friday 3.17

Started the day off right with a great breakfast at Kerby Lane Cafe and met up with some D-town friends, including a couple of hobos, Jobo and Soapy, who happen to play music in a local band. We walked the drag, killed some zombies, found a sweet sale, requested music from a street clarinet player, and finally found a place to hang and see some bands. Cream Vintage was hosting a free show along with free beer (Shiner, even). Needless to say, we stuck around....at least until we got our uh....2 free beers. Actually we saw a decent band from Oakland, CA called Heavenly States. We then split up and I left with the gals to try and catch Band of Horses at Pok-e-Jo's. Unfortunately, we got there a few minutes too late, but got to see The Essex Green, kind of a mellow folk-pop band AND we got another free beer.

Then it was off to the Waterloo Icehouse to catch some singer-songwriter types, including Austin Collins and Tody Castillo. I was in a huge hurry to leave and catch my favorite buzz band right now, Holy Fuck back at Cream and it turns out we should have left even sooner than we did, because we caught the last song as we were walking up. More about HF later.

Off to Bar Austin to hang out and sit for a bit before The Most Serene Republic played at Spiros. If bands had siblings, TMSR would probably be Broken Social Scene's younger brother. That's the best way I can describe a band who's lead singer plays trombone, they have 3 guitarists, everyone sings (all 7 of them), and cant quite fit the stage they're on. These guys hail all the way from Milton, Ontario and they brought it. Also playing outside at Spiros was a NY rock band called Soft.

How can I forget the evening's last party - an extravagant affair on the balcony of the Driskill Hotel that somehow Liz got us into, where we managed to meet the lead singer and guitarist of Dashboard Confessional, and some other marketing/promo people.

8 bands in one day - not bad for a quality Day 2.