As expected, I woke up late on the first day of sxsw. I got a text msg from Amanda asking when I was going to be downtown, but as I couldn’t even remember where I was (common problem for me in the morning) I didn’t have a good handle on the situation. I knew I had to pick up Kat’s car, so I was sure it would be a while.
I finally met up with Amanda and Mike at Casino el Camino and had a hotdog, since there was no way I was waiting over an hour for a burger, no matter how good it was. I hogged down a footlong hotdog and we headed over to Emo’s just in time to catch the last song by some band I didn’t put in my notes.
After our brief stay at Emo’s we went to Red Eye Fly in hopes of getting in on some free beer action. No luck, but the jukebox was good. Pela was playing outside, so this marks the third time I’ve “seen” them and every time has been in the same situation, they played while I was drinking in another other room. Some day I’ll catch them and be upset with myself for missing it the first three times. At some point Brian msg’ed and tried to meet us, but the door had started checking for RSVPs and he was denied entry. The whole RSVP thing sucks, I ran into it a million times at CMJ and it sucks to see that sxsw is going the same way now too.
Eventually the Octopus Project started and we went outside to watch. Any time Red Eye Fly is at capacity it sucks to watch shows there; you can’t see anything and there is no room. I still liked at least hearing them. I can’t believe how many times I passed on watching them when I lived in Austin.
After the Octopus Project, we went to Room 710 to see the Woggles. They have a Galaga machine at Room 710, so I bummed a quarter and played a round. That was the best part of the show. I’m not a fan, though they were entertaining for the first five minutes.
Now we hit the lull between day shows and night showcases. With nothing to do, we hit Mugshots for the first of many visits. I love that place.
After getting a number of drinks in me, we headed to Hoak’s for a slice before hitting our first night show – the Comas at beauty bar. They were pretty boring though when they brought the rock I thought it was acceptable. Amanda and Mike left early to get in to Blond Redhead, Brian and I stayed a little longer then left to catch Best Fwends inside. Best Fwends were just, themselves. My best decription of watching their show would be like watching a youtube video while it happened. They crack me up.
Unfortunately though, watching their show completely fucked my chances of seeing Blond Redhead because the line was atrociously long. I eventually gave up when Beruit started. Brian, Amanda and Mike left the show, though they were already in and came with me back to Mugshots for a round of shots and some drinks.
From there, Amanda and Mike went home (another unfortunate theme for the weekend) and Brian and I went to Mowhawk to catch Rob Crow, othwise known as the singer from Pinback. The Twighlight Sad was playing before them and their singer was doing his best Jim Morrison impression, never facing the stage. The rest of the band was equally unlively and I wanted to go to sleep.
Rob Crow finally started and I was glad we got to catch it. Some guy in front of us kept requesting Pinback songs throughout the entire set, which I found humerous. Rob Crow is great.
It was 1am by the time Rob Crow was finished and with no other plans I decided to part ways with Brian and catch up with Thomas, who I hadn’t yet seen, though I was staying at his house all week. He was stage managing at Red7 so I stopped in to hang out. There was some kind of Australian record label showcase going on and the last band playing was pretty good (the band was The Mint Chicks – bad name, decent show). Thomas said that all of the bands were pretty good so I’m going to have to check them out. You know, during all that free time that I have. Right.