SXSW: Saturday, March 20 wrapup
As I said, Saturday my favorite concert buddy had to get up & leave for the airport... which I have to admit left me sad and it took me a little bit longer to get out of bed knowing I wouldn't have him to enjoy my last night there with. But hey, distance makes the heart grow fonder, right? We'll be very excited to see eachother when he returns from his Germany/Ireland/Paris trip :)And I was happy that Lane and them were still there so I still had people to go to shows with! :) So around 4 I met Lane over at Emo's Annex for a ROCKIN Ted Leo & The Pharmacists show!!! This made me wish Rick was there too - cuz I know he wanted to see him the other night... and this set was particularly rockin. I was dancing up a storm and sweatin my ass off in the heat to boot. His set was really long and just fantastic. At one point he spotted someone singing all the words to his song & brought a few of them up on stage to finish it up - it was really fun!!
After that Lane and I walked around and popped in quickly to the American Music Club show and watched a few songs there... and then decided it might just be a good time to catch a bite to eat before the evening really began. I was seriously craving salad (after the night before's gyro slump!) so we went & had oriental salads at PFChangs. Really yummy! It was cool to get to know Lane better too and hear about the companies he's been a part of & just how he got where he is today.
By 8pm it was time to go see if the rumor Lane had heard was true or not: The Pixies at Stubbs?! Could it be?!?!?! Unfortunately, after showing up and waiting we found out it wasn't true. poop!! That woulda been cool! So we took off & headed over to the end of John Vanderslice's set at Friends. He was great!! I was psyched to finally see him play live - and would definitely go see him again. He's local so I'm sure I'll see him play sometime again soon. His CD's are great & he's even better live. Very cooL!
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I left out that breifly in between these two things, we were killing time trying to figure out what to do, and we stopped in at The Hard Rock to see if the band that was going on before On The Speakers was any good. It was some Australian band, who are apparently huge over there. We ordered drinks and played with the dumb glow in the dark Miller Light thingys they were passing out. I went upstairs & while I was checking out the view from overhead, I ran into Ian from On The Speakers. Unfortunately he said he'd come down with a cold... but we chatted for a bit & he was impressed at how many times I'd seen them (lets not use the word groupie just yet, alright? :) and I told him how Jen's going to send me their EP cuz they had a few laying around their office (his management company) which I'm waay psyched on, I'll be getting it before it's released!! And yadda yadda. Anyway - there's a few photos from the Hard Rock, so it reminded me. Thank god for my digital memorY!
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After that we cabbed over to see Mike Doughty (lead singer of Soul Coughing) play a solo set over at Mother Egan's. He was AMAZING!!!! I absolutely love his voice & his lyrics. Totally excellent performer - I can't wait to get some of his solo stuff - he's awesome!!
By this time it was about 10:40 and we had to head over to get into the club Har Mar Superstar & The Hives were to play. We got in with no problem (although only 15 minutes later there were lines around the block - even for badges! Lines form because they'll let people in 1 by 1 as people come out, to avoid max club limits). Har Mar is a total joke. I might have had a different view of him had the circumstances be different - but bottom line is that I had no idea he was going to be THAT ridiculous. We're talking "You've got to be KIDDING" ridiculous. How is this guy getting booked? His songs are idiotic and he's just disgusting, rubbing himself and then flinging sweat and pubic hair on people. He's a total joke and I am a bit bummed the hipster/indie music community has even let him in. blech.
We moved our way up to the front for the Hives and found ourselves about 3rd row, where initially I was a little scared for my knee and my feet getting crushed because I knew the crowd was going to just go absolutely nuts once they got started. And they did!! But it turned out to be totally manageable after the first couple major rushes and I was psyched to be way up there enjoying the show. It was HOT!!! They rocked out and the whole crowd, including me, was dancing and rockin out to them hard. I got some great photos and enjoyed their set immensely. We were DRIPPING SWEAT by the time it was done. Good fuN!!!
At this point it was Lane, Ben, Neil & I - and since we were all pumped up from that show we decided to go hit another rockin show. However, a song into the Young Heart Attacks, I decided they were a little too metal hair band or something for me - so we left and called it a night for shows as we'd definitely had an awesome day & night of shows!!!
