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!