SXSW Day One: Off to a Rough Start

 

my bus stop

 

If I had to guess, Wednesday was going to be a bad night. Things started  out ok, caught the bus downtown, walked to my first show of the night, got in without having to stand in line. But then I discovered I had forgotten my ID at home. The ultimate party foul. It was in a pair of jeans I had worn out to St. Patrick’s Day. Doh! After a little sweet talking and promising that I am in fact over 21, the door guy let me in. I think I coughed up by CostCo card (and that seemed to do the trick).  I caught a performance by the aforementioned Thrift Store Cowboys. They were great, and I think a packed house of what seemed to be alt country music lovers agreed. But there wasn’t much time to hang out as I was headed deeper into downtown for the rest of the night. I decided to take my chances sans ID and it all worked out. Thank you door guys (you know who you are). 

On my quick walk down 6th St. I ran across some interesting characters. There was some hair band from Japan all dressed up in spandex mugging for photos in the street. Some dude with a giant light bulb on his head, and this thing walking around on stilts. Gotta love sxsw freak watching.

Next up was The Seedy Seeds. This quirk duo from Ohio mixes folk with electronic pop. They play banjos, accordians and kazoos, along top of electronic drumbeats.  It’s just the right mix or nerdy weirdness that I like. I first heard them on My Old Kentucky Blog’s show on Sirius. The crowd was small, but dug the happy music that The Seedy Seeds were able to provide. I snagged a CD before I left and enjoyed overhearing people from up north talk about how great the weather is in Austin. Haha, I live here.

Another quick walk down Red River St. got me to Stubb’s where I was hoping to catch The Decemberists. But once I saw a huge line that snaked down the sidewalk and around the corner, I figured it would be impossible. So it was on to my backup, Club DeVille for a showcase put together by another blogger, Brooklyn Vegan. I’m glad I made it. I caught and unplanned, yet awesome, set by Those Darlins. The girl band from Tennessee had tons of energy with the honky tonk tude of Loretta Lynn and the playfulness of drunk Dixie Chicks. It’s their first SXSW and it was nice to see a band super excited about the experience. “We plan to Slut it up real good,” one of them said. Apparently I wasn’t the only person that enjoyed the show.

I was getting sleepy at this point (I did have to get up and go to work the next day). So I headed out to catch a cab home. But on my way by Stubb’s I noticed that there was a short line to get in to the Decemberists and I figured, what the heck. I had only missed maybe 20 minutes of the show really. The band was performing its entire new album, The Hazards of Love. The new disc is a rock opera concept album with a story line and characters. It also was broadcast on NPR. You can listen to it here. I’m not really sure where all those people went who were standing in line earlier. But Stubb’s really wasn’t that full by the time I got there. I don’t know if people didn’t like the weird concept, or maybe had to get up and go to work the next morning, but I was able to get up fairly close.

I enjoyed the show, and it was awesome to see and experience something so unique.

 

 

 

So, tonight is Day 2. I’m pretty tired….but I do have Friday off from work. I’m sort of playing it by ear tonight, with really no set plans. We shall see where the night takes me.