sxsw: day 3

Today started with a bang and a blast of what 94 degrees feels like. For you Northerners who may have forgotten -- it's bloody hot. Maybe even haaaaaawwwwwt. The day also started with my introduction to the Texas cockroach which is so big it practically shakes your hand and tips its hat. For a Canadian girl, it was quite traumatizing so God bless my hero Carlos who came and took it away. Sweet baby Jesus...that was a tough one. We followed the giant dino-bug incident with a mediocre Mexican breakfast downtown. With a start like that I was pretty thankful that the day got better and it got better fast.

We kicked off the day with some great panels, one on blogging that made me feel both part of something innovative and cool and yet undeniably nerdy. Bloggers are weird and I've never seen so many PDA's, laptops, Blackberry's, iPhones, etc being used in one room at the same time. Nerdy with a capital nerd.

Post nerd-fest we headed off to the Tony James, Mick Jones interview which was hilarious and confusing all at the same time. Mick Jones is not unlike a drunk old man and a 9 year old boy who likes to shout out things like "My pants are tight! I like dinosaurs!" at any given moment. The poor interviewer had zero hope. He kept his notepad out though despite the fact that he should have just thrown it over his head and given up completely. I will also say that Tony James is aging very, very well. Talk about a silver fox. Yum. They're here with their new group Carbon/Silicon.

After that the plan was to see The Lemonheads after we missed them the other night but alas they cancelled. We were lucky enough to catch the Bodies of Water showcase and that was fantastic. We then hauled our cookies clear across town to the Caswell house for the big NXNE/ Manitoba Music party where we FINALLY got some BBQ. We got to chat with some fellow Canucks and catch up with some folk and see my new fave, Basia Bulat. Her voice kills me -- it's kinda got a Tracy Chapman feel to it. This set was good but her set later on at Antone's was a lot better. I took a video of her doing "Before I Knew" which I'll post up here later and on my Facebook.


After 82 years of trying to get a cab we finally make it back downtown only to be turned away from the Phantom Planet show because I have a camera, even though they let Dennis in. Confusing and hugely annoying to say the least. But chin up and onwards to Antone's, Autin's legendary blues club. They are a marketing machine there at Antone's a merch hound like me was in awe of all the choices. Awe aside, I managed to walk out of there without buying anything really which is a bit of a feat for me. Besides oogling merch, we also caught the Vampire Weekend set which was pretty freaking fun. Maybe not as much fun as the tremendous people watching that was happening, but pretty great. These guys should be the band for any high school house party ever.


Post Anton's, we run over the The Parish for the show I've been waiting for all week -- She and Him. As mentioned last week here on the blog, it's the Zooey Deschanel/M Ward project and I cannot wait for this record to come out. It's like Carly Simon meets 60's girl group do-wop, with dreamy M Ward to boot. Every woman should have this record this year. I loved it and posted a video on my Facebook account (which I'll also post here when I get home).

Here's a bad picture of 6th street here in Austin to give you an idea of that this city is like during SXSW. It's about 6 city blocks completely closed to traffic, music in every bar (which is almost every building on the street) and people as far as the eye can see. It's pretty incredible.

From one great showcase to yet another landmark showcase for Tara -- Thurston Moore. Talk about something I've been waiting forever to see!!! No it wasn't Sonic Youth but still. I do think that the drummer was the SY drummer though. I need to check that out when I get home. Great set from an amazing man. I even got my bum patted. Not by Thurston though unfortunately.

What a day! This festival is besting me every day with more 3AM's than I've seen in a long while. But I will carry on!!! I still have my voice which is a blessing I suppose. I am missing Marc pretty hardcore though and that just gets worse every day. Thankfully I have great music to drown my sorrows in.