South By Southwest: Epilogue

Andrew WK's set was short (which was forgivable seeing as he started at 4 AM) so by 4:30 everyone was leaving. The room was THRASHED.

Somewhere in there is my vomit.

I accidentally walked out the Band Only exit to find just about every band I had just seen schmoozing with each other. Sam Urbani (old friend/ perpetual run into buddy/ lead singer of Friends), was there too, and I saw her get violently kissed by the dude from Doldrums. The drummers in both Friends and Ganglians lied to me about which bands they were in, and I really tried to creep and talk to Grimes, but, of course, I was being solidly out creeped by Pictureplane, who had her full attention.

I eventually gave up and began the long walk home. People were going out for their morning runs at this point. Eventually I took off my sweat and vomit soaked shirt and the Austin night air felt amazing on my disgusting skin. I took a couple pictures of spots around town as I walked as well, afraid I might not even again get the opportunity.

A porno store I never went into!

A video rental store I went into all the time!

I got to bed at 7: 30 AM.

My whole week of no sleep & beer prized over food came to a head on Saturday, and even though SXSW was still very much going on I took the day & night off, resigning to hang out with a recently arrived Lia Jean, her boyfriend Zach, and their adorable puppy Iowa.

Yo girl!

Iowa!

I did manage to see Mike Venmen again and, with him, went to see my friend Henry play his second solo show ever (I think?) under the name Ultra-Gal & Fantasy Closet. He played bass accompanied by electronics and sang about tacos. It was great. I wish I had some pictures of it. I miss that guy.

All in all SXSW was one of the best weeks of my life, Bar None. I can fully understand why someone who had never experienced Austin would fall in love with it from going to SXSW. I spent approximately $35 the entire week and saw so many bands and had so many wonderful times. It was utterly beautiful. I can't say I miss Austin exactly yet, as their were plenty of very good reasons for me to leave, but I can say with no doubt that I will never forget my time there, or regret my going. It was a hell of a time.

South by Southwest: Day 5

When Emily and I arrived at the co-op there was not yet anything going on, so we hung out talking with various acquaintances and sippin' on our Lokos. Some local bands began to play on the small stage that was set up outside, and eventually Emily and I noticed that Dustin Wong was intently watching them. We, with our Loko fueled energy, approached him to tell him how much we loved see him a few nights before, and how his was the best performance we had caught at SXSW. He seemed genuinely surprised and touched and thanked us profusely. Then, as most "celebrity" encounters I have had do, our conversation devolved into not-sure-what-to-say-next awkwardness, and we eventually wandered away.

A line was already forming to get into the upstairs room, where all the madness was to take place, so Emily and I decided it best to finish up our Lokos in line. Immediately upon entering the room (which was fully painted with images of things like trippy warped versions of the Simpsons and very faithful Jack Kirby-esque renderings of the Fantastic Four, a wave of heat and sweat hit us. This served as a nice preview of the absolute filth and grime that would be as much a factor in my evening as the music would be.

(It should be noted that, starting about now in the narrative, the order of the myriad notable events that this night contained gets a bit blurry in my memory. Finishing a 4 Loko and going immediately into a 40 will do that.)

I am certain, however, of how the show portion of my night began- being right up front for the sweaty, beatific, two man punk mess that is Japanther.

Just pretend that thumb isn't there.

I got shoved nearly into the drum set, while wondering how the drummer could possible be comfortable wearing a sweatshirt when sweat was already in insanely high supply in the room, but marveling at his willingness to never move the bandanna that had fallen from the top of his head and was completely covering his eyes, all while clutching onto my half drank 40 for dear life.

When they had finished, and my body movements were again up to me, I took a big victory gulp of my 40. And thanks to body heat and the oppressive sweat  fueled humidity of the room, my 40 was not only warm, but straight up HOT. 40s are no taste sensation to begin with, so, this being a hot 40 and me having already consumed a 40 Loko, this 40 gulp brought a swift vengeance upon me. I could feel it beginning to fight its way back up my throat, and I wandered to the back of the room to try and wrestle it back down. I was simply not winning this battle however, so my hand needed to provide the final barrier, which it did did, with mixed results. On the one hand, there was no dramatic scene of me just opening up the internal floodgates and vomiting all over the room. On the other hand, I most certainly puked all over my hand, my shirt, my shoes, and finally the floor. And in contrast to my initial belief otherwise, what I was doing was very apparent to anyone around me with working eyes. This was made that much more clear when one of the guys from the co-op that were monitoring the even came up to me and, motioning to the puke all over the floor not far from me, asked "Did you do this? Some people are saying you did this, and man, we have too much to deal with tonight already, so you've really got to leave."

I nodded and said I would and walked away from him. But no way was that happening. This was, of course, a commitment to saying in my already super sweaty and puke tainted shirt. But so be it! The coming music was more than worth it.

At this point though, a new dilemma was developing, in the form of a swiftly filling bladder. With a policy being enforced that no one could leave the room and come right back in without waiting in the (very ample) line forming outside, I was really not sure what to do. For a brief moment -VERY PROUD MOMENT ALERT- I put my penis into my forty bottle in the back of the room and attempted to pee, relying on the darkness of the room and the fact that everyone was focused on watching Zorch play to try and get away with it. Try as I might I just could not get up the courage to really let myself empty my bladder into a bottle in the back of a room filled with people (Go Figure!) so I finished my 40 (jk), threw it out, and decided to try my luck at leaving and getting back in. And I was successful! Just had to hope a wall that none of the other mooks in line knew about and I was able to cut most all of 'em!

I did have to wait in line for a little while though, and thats when a very effeminate twentysomething man motioned for me to come over to him. He asked if I was a "natural redhead" and told me his friend thought I was hot. I was pretty confused about what was going on, and surprised that he didn't immediately send me away when he noticed what had to be a strong scent of sweat, piss, and vomit on me. Then a kid appeared next to me with a magazine sticking out of his pants with an artsy picture of a flaccid penis on it and I only got more confused. I was then asked if I had "anything special going on down there" and I got self conscious and said "I don't know, maybe" and left. It wasn't until later, inside the show, that it finally occurred to me that these people wanted to take pictures of my peen and for their zine! I was offered a contract by the same kid, but lost it in all of the excitement. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing...

Caught this band Doldrums next who were, to me, a kind of boring retread of (you guessed it!) electro tribal post-AnCo hipness. They were supposed to be playing some sort of three way jam with Pictureplane and Grimes, but this did not seem to be happening.

Pictureplane went on next, whose electro pseudo-spooky dance music I feel somewhat guilty about totally loving. But love it I do. Watching this guy "play" was not exactly thrilling though, partially because he looked and was dressed like a bit of a douchenozzle and partially because he really wasn't doing much besides pressing play. "Goth Star" still killed it though.

For the whole of PPlane's set the incredibly cute and shy-looking Grimes was chilling in back, giving me a nice place to look instead of Pictureplane's ugly mug. She even made eye contact with me for a moment (OMG LOL). But, alas, she did not preform! I didn't know why at the time, as she certainly didn't seem to be doing anything else, but I later learned her throat was messed up. A shame!

Hey Grimes!

It was now about 3:30 AM and Dan Deacon was setting up. This was the third time I was seeing Dan Deacon's solo show, and so, honestly, it was a bit 'meh.' He cycled through all of his songs off of his ipod, and big fan that I am, I recognized the start of every song he played. He was just about to play the unreleased song "Silence Like The Wind" that he memorably played when I saw him for the first time in Burlington years ago (still one of the funnest shows of my life) but, due to time constraints, he nixed it to close out with "Wham City." He dedicated it "Anyone who ever put up bands in their house and let them play shows." And, I thought, thats me! And dammit if "Wham City" is not still one kickass song.

It was about 4 AM when Dan finished and I was truly exhausted and so sweaty I no longer felt like a solid. But no way was I going home. Because ANDREW WK was about to start. And boy did he start. He came out in his signature all white uniform with the burliest beardiest backing band possible, all wearing shirts saying something about Partying. His wife was there as well, dressed in awesome Spandex, singing back up vocals and fist pumping just as hard as Andrew, who also rocked out at a piano. Perhaps my single best moment of SXSW happened to me during that performance too, when Andrew saw me getting shoved around, but still emphatically screaming along to "Party Hard," and he gave me the ol' two finger two eye back and forth gesture. Validation! From the King of Partying! And why not? I did party fucking hard that night.

South By Southwest: Day 5- Prequel

Friday was the big one.
Friday night was the night I had been looking forward to for over a month, from the moment that Claire told me of the free secret show that would be happening in her Co-op. A free show consisting of, among many others, Japanther, Grimes, Pictureplane, Dan Deacon, and capped off with a performance by none other than Mr. Party himself, Andrew WK.
In Middle School, at the height of Mr. WK's popularity, and at the age where logically I should have been most into him, I really had no time for Andrew WK. Sure, I downloaded "Party Hard" on Limewire, but once I noticed that every other Andrew WK song sounded pretty much the same as "Party Hard" I lost interest. Where were all the sad impenetrable lyrics that I could pretend to understand and pretend to apply to my very difficult middle school life? "Oh I was so much older then..."
These days, the more irreverent and ridiculous a thing is, particularly music, the more likely I am to like it. Especially if it is made with a lot of enthusiasm. And Andrew WK has ridiculous and enthusiastic down like no one else. So, needless to say, I was quite excited.

The day started slow, because my old friend Josh and my new friend Saul had stayed over the night before and were into chilling during the day. Myself and the two of them went to Man Bites Dog, a gourmet hot dog place a very short walk away from my house, where Saul bought a Cartoon Dog for the three of us to share.

It had Peanut Butter, Jelly, and Captain Crunch on it. It was delicious. 

Afterwards we snagged Emily, dropped Josh off at a friends house, and then Saul dropped Emily and I off down on 6th Street (the premiere Bar/Club/Bro/Bro-ette street in Austin- which is pictured at the top) so that we could sip on concealed Franzia and see the chaos that SXSW had surely wrought. And we were not disappointed. 

Amongst the MASSIVE crowds of people there were, not surprisingly, a higher than normal amount of buskers of all kinds, including, quite surprisingly, a two person metal band shredding in the street in front of Death Metal Pizza (exactly what it sounds like). I tried to snap a picture of them, but they finished right before I could. So instead I snapped a picture of these people, doing something less awesome than playing a Flying V guitar:

Humanity's special friend was also there:

After walking the streets got tedious Emily and I headed to the Co-op where the show was going to be held. This was when Emily succeeded in her plan to convince me that we should both get 4 Lokos. I was convinced no good could come of it. So I bought a 40 too.

Next: What Comes Of It.

South By Southwest: Day 4- Part 2

There are my friends Renée and Claire, before we went to go see Deerhoof and Of Montreal. The three of us, plus Claire's buddy Marshall, piled in Claire's car and off we drove to this enormous new-ish venue Emo's East. Oddly, this was the first concert of the week that really made me feel like I was Going To A Concert, probably because of the size of Emo's East and that it was far enough away that we had to use a car to get there, which were the two main requirements of near any show I managed to see in High School.
Once we arrived we were given bracelets and told that they would get us in for free at both that show and whatever show was going on at the Beauty Ballroom, a venue that shares a parking lot with Emo's East. It seemed like we would have awhile before we Deerhoof was going to play, so we decided to mosey over to the Ballroom to see what was going on there. And, as it turned out, it was a hip hop show! Specifically, a showcase for the label Fool's Gold, and it was a damn fun time. Saw a bunch of rappers and DJs, most of whom I never really caught the names of. I can't pretend that at times I did not feel a bit uncomfortable and out of my element, what with intoxicated people dancing all around me and me without the money to spend on anything but 40s (and there were none to find at the bar, believe it or not) and so feeling a bit sober and awkward. But it was still refreshing to be at a show where people were actually moving and engaged, rather than just standing, arms crossed, staring (even if thats still what I was doing).
This showcase also provided a rare SXSW experience for me (rare both because of the shows I was deciding to primarily go to and because of the nature of SXSW these days, which seems more interested in already established bands than legend says it ever was) in seeing a band I knew nothing about that absolutely blew me away. Cubic Zirconia were a four piece, with two guys on keyboards, one on drums, and perhaps the sexiest and most powerful front woman I've ever seen. Her attitude, voice, willingness to scream with said voice, red dress, and the body that was under that red dress all had me mesmerized. I fell in love immediately. Their bands sound could be described as Soul, but their was also plenty of hip hop elements, as well as rock tempos and pretty crazy breakdowns (which lead to the aforementioned screaming). They were extremely confidant, and the crowd ate them up. One of the keyboardists knew it too, proclaiming himself the "coolest white guy in the world," presumably because he was the only white person in the band. 

This picture I took does in no way do this lead singer justice, so here's another one I didn't take:

 I hope those guys really break out. Or, at least, I hope I get to catch them again.

After Cubic Zirconia we headed back over to Emo's East, where Japandroids were finishing up, or, more accurately, trying hard not to finish up, as the guitarist in the band was passionately arguing with the sound guy that they could NOT end with a new song, and that they had to do an old one for the fans (of which their were many), and eventually they got their way. I kind of wish Teengirl Fantasy had done that when they got caught off early, but that could perhaps be credited to the difference between a laptop based show and a good ol' fashioned rock n roll concert.

Renée and I pushed close the front for Deerhoof, which unfortunately meant, because this was a BIG venue, we were rubbing up against a pair of overweight middle aged lovers, very keen to both make friends with all of us, and to prove their love for each other (via- making out, caressing, and even some lovely motor boating.)

I had never seen Deerhoof before, or even listened to them too much, and, unsurprisingly, they ruled. They played in a straight line on the edge of the stage, all dressed awesomely. They seemed to be just straight Grade-A weirdos. The guitarist was just making hilarious frog faces throughout the whole show, the other guitarist was wearing a suit that depicted a battle between bull and matador, and the drummer displayed an amazing about of noise and dexterity for a kit that was amazingly small. I was a little confused as to how this strange band could possibly command such a large crowd, especially one that includes middle aged motor boaters, but I chalked it up to the fact that it was free, and the fact that the older members of the audience probably wouldn't have been bothered if it was Lightning Bolt up on stage so long as it was something that made them feel young.

Of Montreal came on after and, having seen them once before at UVM, I kind of knew what to expect. This time they were going for a sort of Lawrence Welk vibe, with each member of the band (at least 9 of them!) behind his/her own little bandstand. This fit the music well, which for the most part was quite dreary and slow, and which also took your already very sleepy narrator even more out of it. They did have some cool costumes/ light shows, and their guitarist did look amusingly like this muppet, but it just wasn't enough to keep me engaged. At least they ended with Gronlandic Edit.

Tomorrow, Friday, was the biggest and most crazy night of SXSW for me. 

Get ready.

South By Southwest: Day 4- Part 1

Thursday was a day of, as usual, beginning to end music, as well as a day of running into friends from many different points in my life. Phase 1 of Thursday took place at what had become one of my more frequented bars, the Spiderhouse, and the venue attached to it, the 29th Street Ballroom. For SXSW those running the both places managed to cram a total of six stages both inside and outside, with near constant music on all of them and, naturally, all for free. Renée and I walked there at about noon (during which I saw my first non-internet "Seapunk"), and I met up with my old buddy from Burlington, Mike Venmen. Turns out Mike's life was taking an almost exactly opposite turn from mine (he was chasing a girl down from Burlington to Austin, and I was planning on heading back to Burlington from Austin for a girl) and somehow we happened to meet in the middle.
Not long after see Mike I ran into Lesley Hann, esteemed bassist for the previously mentioned "hot" Brooklyn band Friends, and someone who I rode around smoking with in High School. She greeted me with a big smile and a big hug because she is a really great human being. I still regret never seeing her band.
Another throwback at Spiderhouse came a little later, when the band Quilt played. I had seen them years ago surrounded by friends in Scituate Massachusetts, at my friend Olivia's barn, when all they had was a demo out. I remember very much liking the song "Falso Eto," but not pursuing them much past that. These days they are popular enough to have put out their debut on Mexican Summer, and be playing many shows around SXSW. I liked them more at Olivia's barn.
After that was Prince Rama, who i originally got my mind snapped by freshman year in Winooski, VT and who I next saw playing in the basement of the Wedge. They've lost their only male member since then, and are now a sisters only two piece, and this seems to have changed their vibe quite a bit. Though lacking none of their ferociousness, both vocally and behind the drums, they do now wear an awful lot more makeup/ glitter and wear far skimpier outfits. It also comes as no surprise that they have recently put out an Excercise Video, as their last song found them singing and doing a synchronized dance to a backing track. All of this sort of dismayed me at the time, as I saw it as a diminishment of Prince Rama's primal POWER, but my thoughts on it have since softened. The songs, crucially, were still there, and thats what matters in the end, right?
The highlight of Thursdays daytime shows was most certainly R. Stevie Moore, and not just because I happened to be standing next to a beautiful girl who was actually smiling. (I could write a whole other essay trying to analyze what the deal was with all of the model-level  beauties who invaded Austin for SXSW, but never looked as though they were enjoying a second of it. But why would I bother?)

R. Stevie was dressed awesomely, with sunglasses and a sort of hat/do-rag/turban thing on his head. His band were, for the most part, very average looking, which sort of added to the strangeness. Some genius at the Spiderhouse had him playing outside under an all Movie Character mural, perfectly situated under the two grumpy hecklers from The Muppets. These guys were actually perfect signifiers for how the show was going to go. R. Stevie is one grumpy, and hilarious, old man. Between making fun of the (awfully small- but enthusiastic!) crowd, quoting Lil B, and taking a moment to text mid-song, it was kind of a wonder he managed to actually play anything. His curmudgeonly nature only endeared him more to us though, and damn if "I Like To Stay Home" didn't sound awesome.

After shows at the Spiderhouse were winding down Renée and I struck out for our good buddy/ ex-roommate Claire's abode, because she was going to drive us to see Deerhoof & Of Montreal!
I snapped this picture of Renée on the way there. I wanted to capture the giant American Flag that was behind her at the time, but all I got was my finger:

South By Southwest: Day 3- Part 2

I left Red 7, on my third day of South By Southwest, and walked in the lovely sunshine further east to a house show, where a slip and slide was promised. Turned out it was more of a yard show, and a super great one at that. There were beachballs bouncing around the crowd, ok to good bands playing, and, though no one was utilizing it, there was a slip and slide. Also, very few Iphones out, and no mention of Tumblr in sight.

 

 Plea for friendliness or strict penis advice?

Renée got to see her beloved El Ten Eleven, who were rocking a double neck guitar (!), and I got to snap a picture of this little badass, whose mom, in what was part of a much more prominent Local Pride movement I noticed during SXSW, was wearing a shirt reading "Welcome to Austin, Please Don't Move Here"

 

I stayed later than the rest of my crew, and got to see Zorch, a local Austin two piece who ahve a sort of less-bewildering more electronic Lightning Bolt vibe. Zorch had the crowd play games with the beachballs that were already everywhere in the yard while they played, and it was a really good time. I took this picture to try and capture this, but it doesn't do a very good job:

A very long, and admittedly 40 fueled, walk back to the Spiderhouse followed, where I got to catch Javelin, a duo whose self released debut Jamz n Jemz was one of my favorite albums in 2009. I hadn't really been following what they had been up to since, though I know they signed with Luaka Bop and put out an "official" debut, but I had not heard it. From seeing their show, I can surmise that they took some of the usually short instrumentals from Jamz n Jemz and extended them into real songs, with choruses and everything. Some of the vocals, previously sampled, were even sung by one of the guys in the band. This all made me a little confused and I was not totally sure I was on board. My confusion only increased upon hearing them do a, unsurprisingly pretty awkward, cover of A Milli. All in all it was ok, but kind of a let down thanks to my high expectations for seeing them.

Dollars Spent So Far (primarily on bus fairs and forties):
TEN!

South By Southwest: Day 3- Part 1

Wednesday started early, with a couple of shows planned. I took the bus down to Red 7, a kind of OK but not super great medium sized venue in downtown Austin. Once off the bus, I spied what at first I thought was simply a large group of very formally dressed people wearing helmets cruising en masse down the sidewalk on sequeways, and what I later realized was an Austin Sequeway Tour. I couldn't help but laugh in their faces.
A lot of up and coming bands were playing for free on the two stages at Red 7 that day, which assured many up and coming people attending. Further, this guaranteed even more Am-I-Here-Without-An-Iphone? moments. On that topic I observed:
-A wall of touch screens immediately upon entering the venue, with a seemingly endless amount of attractive girls fiddling with them.
-Very large groups of beautiful people looking only down, despite some, at times, great bands playing
- A dude tweeting that his ears were "being RAPED by the kindergarten music of Dent May." (To be fair, they did sound like a somehow more banal Deathcab For Cutie.)
-The absurd thought-I-would-only-see-it-on-the-internet beauty of someone taking pictures with an Ipad.
All of this served to make me feel very foolish for texting people on my flip phone, snapping pictures with my disposable camera, and writing things down in a boring old pad (no I!). Some vindication did come later in the day, when a girl in high heels came up to me on the street asking in a desperate voice if I knew where the Fader Fort was. When I told her I didn't know exactly, but I thought she was going in the right direction (she was) she said, looking angrily at her Iphone, "Ugh! I know! The SXSW App isn't working for me either!" I didn't bother explaining to her just how little the SXSW App had been working for me.
As for the music at Red 7  on Wednesday, it was a bit of a mixed bag. Highlights included Youth Lagoon, aka Trevor Powers, whose record was one of the few albums labeled as "chill wave" that I found any real appreciation for. It uses the chillwave aesthetic (hazy synths, bedroom level production, singing that sounds like its coming from another room) to make something actually emotionally resonant, rather than just "chill." Live, the emotion that went into the album was even more apparent, as all it was was Powers on piano and vocals and a guy accompanying on guitar. Without the bedroom induced distance of his record, Youth Lagoon sounded quite naked, and his songs were much more resonant for it.
Another highlight was catching Unknown Mortal Orchestra cover Can's "Vitamin C." I wasn't entirely sold on their original material, but UMO's odd voiced singer and fine drummer made this a very appropriate and enjoyable cover.
A would be highlight was catching Teengirl Fantasy, one of my favorite trippy dance-ish outfits going right now, but thanks to stupid Red 7 scheduling they only got to play for ten minutes, and they seemed just as dismayed as the crowd. They played tons of shows during SXSW, but I only had time to see them that one time, so that was a disappointment.
I also took a picture of this girl from Widowspeak, who was very cute, but whose band is pretty boring:

On the other end of the things were the aforementioned snore fest Dent May and the Foo Fighters-lite RAWK of The Airborne Toxic Event. This show also had the distinction of showing me a band that somehow out-douched Bear In Heaven- Korallraven. These guys, in all of their flower-in-ear, silly hair style, totally white outfits "glory," hold the distinction of being perhaps the worst band I saw all week. Merriweather Post Pavillion jacked beats/vibes were not nearly enough to save their look, and only induced yawns where were supposed to be...I guess...dancing? (I hear they are from Germany though,which might help explain away the look.)
I took this picture after I left:

Next: A Yard Show!