3/16/2010 – Introduction:I’ve decided I will be sharing my experience working at and attending the South By Southwest Music Festival again this year, day by day. In case you don’t know, this is the largest music festival in the world and features over 1,000 bands in over 100 venues/bars/restaurants all over (mostly central) Austin. It all started Wednesday (3/17) and goes through Saturday (3/20).
This year I am working at the same venue I worked at last year called Headhunters (Headhunters – Austin, Texas). It is normally a punk/rock/metal venue and will be showcasing these types of bands along with some softer stuff for SXSW 2010. This is one of the smaller venues in Austin and unlike last year, I’ve heard that this year they will be using the inside AND the outside, which may provide for quite a different experience this year.
For volunteering to work at the festival I get the Music Badge ($750 value)!
My schedule so far:
http://my.sxsw.com/user/schedule/FireSka
Highlights for me this year will be: Broken Bells, Muse, Broken Social Scene, Rogue Wave, and Hole (yes, with Courtney Love!)
3/17/2010 – Day1:
It’s 2:54 a.m. and I just got home from an amazing day. So after doing some work this morning I headed downtown around 1 p.m. and instantly went over to the British Embassy (which they set up in a place that is normally a dance club) which I remembered having great food and music last year. Today was the day I especially wanted to check it out since they were showcasing bands from Northern Ireland. Upon arrival, the band And So I Watch You From Afar was playing so I grabbed some free snacks and free beer (it was an open bar, anything you wanted, as much as you wanted!) and checked out their last couple songs. Next up was Fighting With Wire, a Northern Ireland live favorite. This was my 3rd time to see them live (the 1st was supporting Ash in London at the Roundhouse 1977 show!). It is always interesting seeing a band that plays to large crowds in the UK in a venue where I can literally reach up and touch them if I wanted. They sounded great and did not disappoint.
Next, I decided to walk over to this venue Antone’s (an old blues/rock venue that has been around for a long time) to catch a SXSW kick-off party I had heard about earlier in the day which featured local favorite punk bands Krum Bums and Riverboat Gamblers (originally from Denton, TX). Both bands put on two of the most amazing punk shows I have seen in quite some time. The lead singer of Krum Bums was filled with energy as he violently moshed around the stage and entire room as he sung, occasionally jumping into the crowd and being carried by a group of fans above them around the room. At one point he picked up a ~6 year old boy who was there with his dad and held his hand up and let him sing along. It was pretty cool. He would also snatch random people’s beers from their hands and pour them all over himself as he sung. Riverboat Gamblers were also filled with the same level of energy. The lead singer was constantly moving and you could tell that the entire band was really into their performance. Two great shows!
Toward the end of the Riverboat Gamblers show a friend came downtown and met up with me and we went to an outdoor lounge to chill out and have a drink. Finally, it was time to head off to Headhunters and begin my first shift of SXSW 2010. It turned out to be a pretty fun night with quite a diverse variety of interesting bands. Here are my reviews of each one:
Fouled Out – While I don’t remember too much about this band’s sound or performance, they were by far the friendliest band of the day. I do remember the band being a straight up hard rock band and the band members were around my age or younger. After they performed they stuck around the venue most of the night and cheered on most of the other bands. Apparently they are from Texas but have lived in Nashville, TN for quite a while. We had some discussions about English beer (an English man who was there joined in on our conversation) and I helped them load and unload their gear. Probably a band worth checking out in a more sober state, since I was quite buzzed by the time I arrived to work.
Black Top Demon – From what I remember, this “band” was really only 1 person. He was a chubby man who sat on a stool and played the snare drum with one foot, the bass drum with the other foot, and the guitar with his hands while singing. He sounded pretty good and it was interesting to watch him play everything at once, impressive.
Broadway Calls – This band was straight up punk and one of the best sounding bands of the night. They were full of energy and drew quite a large crowd. This was the one show of the night with excessive moshing and just straight up aggression. It was a very enjoyable live show – recommended for anyone who likes good punk music.
You And Me – Basically these were two kids that looked like they were in high school playing out of tune instruments and singing poorly. It’s something that could have been interesting with awesome lighting and visuals, but they had none of the above. Worst performance of the night… not to mention that the only people watching them were me and the bartender…
Miho Wada – This band from Auckland, New Zealand drew a good sized crowd and was very impressive. The lead singer was a Japanese girl dressed in a very slutty outfit. The rest of the band were guys who were dressed in Japanese robes. The lead singer played a flute and sung. The style of music was really interesting, for some songs would be very atmospheric/worldy while others were straight up punk. They did this one awesome song where they would switch back and forth between the two styles constantly. Unfortunately I had to stand outside and watch gear during a lot of their performance, but what I saw was awesome… definitely not a style of music I hear every day. I certainly recommend them!
Hunx And His Punx – This is one of the most different punk rock bands I’ve ever seen. The entire band travelled to Austin from San Francisco, CA. The lead singer, Hunx, is a flamboyantly gay guy in his 20’s who dresses in leopard skin tights and constantly calls out people from the crowd and says they are hot and even goes up and makes out with a couple of them. He plays no instruments, only sings and dances. “His Punx” are all girls which play the various instruments (some in leopard tights as well). When I was helping them load their gear in one of the girls seemed like she was on PMS, so that was a downside. And to be honest, the music was not that great. It seemed as they were going for punk rock but it just didn’t turn out quite right. The band drew a huge gay crowd (“How many of you are gay!!?”.. everyone raises their hand)… in fact the venue was packed to capacity. Overall, this band put on an entertaining show, but pretty much sucked at making music.
Dikes Of Holland – This was a very awesome band from right here in Austin. The entire 5-piece band was completely trashed off alcohol and who knows what else and they played very loud noise-rock. Every band member played every instrument, for they would switch instruments every song, except the lead singer and only girl in the band who would co-sing each song with one of the guys. She was dressed in an interesting outfit and kept telling everyone how drunk she was. Before the show she came over to me and told me she was drunk and invited me to an after-party Friday night which I may or may not attend. During the set she would sometimes roll around on the ground while singing. The funniest part though was, despite telling everyone she was drunk several times, in the middle of a song as she kept singing she went to the back of the stage, grabbed her purse, and sung/danced her way over to the bar and obtained 5 beers, 1 for each of the band members. Then she took them all and set them on top of the synthesizer as she kept hitting her tambourine and rolling around on the floor. The great part about all of this is despite all of these antics, the music was actually pretty good! I told her I will have to go see them again since they are from right here in town. Great performance!
TarantisT – This band apparently is from Iran except some of the members could not get a visa in time so they were not able to make it to Austin. Because of this, there were a few American guys standing in. Their sound was straight up heavy metal and not bad. I’m not the biggest heavy metal fan, but I would recommend them. At this point I was kind of exhausted and was sitting down in an area where I couldn’t really see their performance.
Well, there’s day 1. Can’t wait for tomorrow! Now… off to bed!