I have some pictures to post from the last 5 or 6 shows I've been too, but I'll save that for later. Let's talk about
SXSW 2009 shall we?
I spent three days at the festival with my friends/workmates and had the most amazing time ever.
The Shakes were incredible! I saw them on four different occasions over those three days (twice on the 19
th, my first day in Austin) and each time they seemed to get better and better. How is that possible? That band is flawless live. I don't think it's possible for them to play a bad show. And that's definitely a good trait to have. For those of you who are fans of the Brooklyn (nope, they're not from Harlem) group, you can catch them on tour with Passion Pit next month. Dates
here. I'm going to be in Atlanta the same time they play Drunken Unicorn and I'm so excited for the show!
I also saw
COYH more than once during
SXSW and they didn't disappoint either. I caught sets from them at the Onion party at Radio Room, The
NME showcase at Aces Lounge and finally the Rolling Stone party at
Peckerheads. They were explosive! I think they played something like 10 shows over the
course of the festival which is amazing considering how energized each performance was. Since I love them so much, I also caught their set at the Ra Ra Riot show at Webster Hall last month. It was bittersweet as it was Brent's last show with the band (for at the very least a year).
He's taking time off due to a hearing problem. I hope he gets better so that he can come back to the band. I saw the band (with their awesome new drummer) last week at Mercury Lounge and they sounded stellar. I think this will be a great year for them.
Another band that blew me away at SXSW was The Love Language. Mike played them in the office pretty frequently for about a month so I was familiar with their music before SXSW. But seeing them live was a totally different ballgame. Their infectious pop song "Lalita" was made even better when one of their keyboardists jumped off the stage and began dancing in the crowd banging her tambourine. And the melodies on "Manteo" were gorgeous. I was hoping that they'd play "Stars" but they didn't, even though I saw them at Fader Fort AND Peckerheads. But no worries. They played "Stars," "Providence" and a wicked cover of "Hello Mary Lou" at their Bell House show a few weeks ago.
So yeah I saw a few bands more than once. But I was totally cool with that. I also got to see old friends (The Prids and Entertainment), wonderfully energetic and show stopping peeps from across the pond (The Future of the Left and Ebony Bones) and supa-dupa mega stars who love to blog and type IN ALL CAPS!!!! (Kanye "Gay Fish" West. jk Kanye). I made some new friends and ran into some old ones. I also had so many musicians sightings, my mouth was agape in amazement 40% of the time. I love that bands are just walking around freely at SXSW. For instance, when I was walking to the Driskill for a listening party, I ran into The Duke Spirit. And I mean THE ENTIRE BAND! I was too caught off guard to stop the entire band (Liela was totes gorgeous) but I managed to stop Olly. Amanda was with me and said, "Oh, so THAT's the Duke Spirit?" Anyone who knows me knows how much I love them. Hell if you read this blog, you definitely know. I also saw Amanda Palmer when we were coming back from the Gigantic Music showcase at Scoot Inn, Steve Aoki when I was killing time after seeing the Shakes at Cheers, Janelle Monae at a pizza place after watching Kanye at Fader Fort...I mean the list goes on and on. I also love the free EVERYTHING in Austin: Booze, food, portable fans, etc. And the burritos. Burritos are fantastic at 2 in the morning, if you didn't know. I managed to not have any barbecue though. I don't know how that happened but definitely next time.
So in conclusion, SXSW 2009 was awesome and I'll be going to Austin every March from now on until I die. Yep Yep.
I of course took a CRAP load of pictures in Austin and you can view them
here,
here and
here.
