So I never did get around to writing up SXSW 2008. And now that I’m trying to go through my notes to remember what bands I saw, I see that I didn’t even write down all of the bands that I saw. I did write some short lists though:

Top three austin meals

• Polvo’s
• Enchiladas y Mas
• Rudy’s

Top three disappointments

• A Place to Bury Strangers day show at red eye fly. Yes, I understand that playing loud is your deal, but it sounded like shit there. Oddly enough, I saw Holy Fuck later in the afternoon and they were a million times louder and better.
• The triumphant return of hoaks pizza. As crazy excited as I was to see the return, the new girl completely sucks at getting the pizza to customers. Too fucking chatty. You can’t be chatty and listen to death metal, so I expect her to be gone by next year.
• Devtochka at cedar street. Not that it has anything to do with devotchka, but rather the venue. Cedar street sucks when you can’t get near the stage. All you can hear from the middle is the conversations from the back. Not the best concert-going experience.

Best shows from bands I had never seen before

• The Helio Sequence - Since there are only two of them I would say that the show was a bit boring, but I really like their album so it was fine by me.
• The Forms - I can’t even remember what they sound like now, but I know I was pleasantly surprised by how good they were.
• Holy Fuck - HOLY FUCK they were loud.
• Spindrift - they get double points because I had never even heard of them. Jack and I just stopped to see what they sounded like because they had the hugest band and most eclectic set of instruments I’ve seen in a long time I double-neck guitar/bass? Steel string guitar? Some kind of electric harp? Weirdo accordian box thing? Let’s throw in two drummers to complete the sound.

Oddest SXSW moments

• Pouring a lonestar tallboy on the drummer from monotonix during their set
• Watching Icelandic metal
• Watching Wing perform “Back in Black” by AC/DC.

I’m slowly working my way through the SXSW 2009 list, but April has already taken a first stab at the list. Maybe I’ll get off my lazy ass and post something over there about my love of the Dead Milkmen or at least the shows I’m thinking of seeing at SXSW this year.