For day 2, I left relatively early for downtown but once I got there I ran into a clusterfuck for parking. The I-35 lot I parked in the pervious day was totally packed and the road closures made it difficult to circle back to the pay lot that Amanda found.

After circling twice, I finally got situated in a $10/day lot (a fucking rip off, but I was more interested in just getting out of the car rather than how much I was paying), we headed over to Flamingo Cantina for free beer and possibly free shoes. The free shoes were gone, which was alright because they sucked anyway. They looked like the nike sneakers the Heaven’s Gate cult were wearing when they were found; no thanks. The free domestic beer almost made up for one of the worst acts I’ve ever heard. I don’t even want to look up their name they were that bad. After their tortuous set ended, Headlights started playing and they were really good, though I can’t be sure if that is a good assessment of them or if I wad just over-compensating for the previous band.

We left their show early to catch Land of Talk at Emo’s. They were better than I remember them being at CMJ. I talked to the singer after and told her how much I liked the CMJ show (I actually saw them by accident because they were on just before Tokyo Police Club). She told me that people had given her bad reviews of that show, saying they were “underwhelming”. Fuck all that, they totally rocked it.

After Land of Talk, we tried to go to Habana to catch the Little Ones, but ended up at one of the other stages by accident. Some crappy bands were playing, but free bbq and beer kept us there until it was time to go back to Emo’s to catch Tokyo Police Club, who were also fantastic, even if they are all under 21.

Unfortunately we had to leave the show early to catch Fujiya and Miyagi at ACL Studios. This is the second year I’ve made it out to ACL for the KEXP broadcasts, and I must say they are totally worth it, even if the shows are on 20-30 minutes. Something about seats and air conditioning that are nice after drinking all afternoon. Fujiya were very impressive though, so much so that I ended up seeing them again the next day. I guess I can’t get enough.

Since we were up by campus we decided to take advantage of our location and grabbed a real meal at Kerby lane, checking off one of the places I really wanted to eat at during the trip. After Kerby we stopped in the Hole in the Wall to grab a drink while we waited for Apples in Stereo to start. I have to admit that in all of my time in Austin, I never made it out to the Hole in the Wall. It’s actually a decent bar and it has some kickass pinball to boot.

We (sadly) had to leave before my pinball game was finished to head back to ACL studios for the Apples in Stereo show. The first time I saw the Apples was at the Tenacious D afterparty during CMJ. They sucked, badly. I think we left early. I was really disappointed too because I had heard them on the internets and thought they sounded good. This time was much better. I’m not sure if I was just feeling cranky at the first show or if they were really that much better this time, but it was good. Their singer is crazy spastic. He was talking a million miles an hour with no real focus to his speaking. We wondered if this was normal for him.

After the show we headed back to Emo’s to catch Sage Francis, who was really good until he reverted back to his slam poetry. That was the point where I had to go. We decided to go to Flamingo early to wait for 120 days, who I was giving their final chance to not annoy me. But before them was Lozen, a female two piece metal act. They weren’t good. They were so not good that we went to Mugshots and had some drinks instead of sitting through their show.

We made it back to catch 120 Days and while they proved that they can play, they are still douches and I have no interest in ever seeing them play live again, even if their hit song does sound like the one from Revenge of the Nerds. Until they add an electric violin or have a special guest appearance by Anthony Edwards, I’m done with them.

At this point everyone went their separate ways, Amanda and Mike went home and Brian went to some show I couldn’t get into. I made the long walk over to the tap bar to see the Trucks. By the time I got there (15 minutes before their scheduled time) I saw on the marquee that one of the early bands cancelled so they moved up all the shows. Retarded. I missed it entirely.

Having missed my show, there was only one thing to do; go back to Mugshots and drink more.

At 1am I decided to go to Mowhawk to see Oklahoma’s own Evangelicals. I had heard them on KEXP a few weeks prior and thought they were good. They didn’t impress me live. Tired and uninterested in looking for a backup show I made my way home.