SXSW Day 2 - March 13th, 2008

Day 2 of SXSW was just as much fun as the previous night. I got to see a bunch of bands that I didn't really expect to see....so that made it interesting. I ended up working most of the day so I didn't get downtown until around 4 p.m. or so. My first stop was the Convention Center where I met up with Dana at the artists showcase upstairs by the trade show. The Cool Kids were playing and Dana was checking them out so I stopped by. What a totally different show...I'm glad I caught the one that I did the previous day...because this set wasn't as great. The sound in the room was awful and the crowd had no energy. They did do a couple different songs though...and had a guest on stage with them that didn't play with them before. 

After that I went to the Fort where the Levi's Fader showcase was going on. They are a client of mine and we did all the passes and wristbands for it. Unfortunetely earlier in the day, the client emailed me because they had already gone thru 5,000 wristbands and needed more. It was too late in the day to make it happen, but we're printing some more for them today and will be delivered tomorrow. So between calling Jeff and texting my client, I was pretty wrapped up for the most part....but did make it out to the stage to catch some music. The theme was Lou Reed music, and they had several bands covering his songs. The bands were - What Laura Says, Thinks And Feels, Paper Route, Oh No! Oh My!, Ezra Furman & The Harpoons, Joseph Arthur, Dr. Dog, Mark Kozelek, Yo la Tengo, My Morning Jacket, Moby, Thurson Moore & The New Wave Bandits. I'm not sure who was playing when i first got there...but the 2nd artist I saw was Yo La Tengo.

Not too much later I caught up with Kevin and we drove over to another showcase at the Victory Grill. It was a cool New Orleans type themed bar/restaurant. Some of Kevin's friends were there and a local Austin band, Chickenstrut was playing. They were a Funky Meters type band....check out a video of their work:

After Chickenstrut, I headed back downtown over to Darwin's Pub for the Solution showcase. The bar was awesome and the place was packed. Solution blew the roof  off. I ended up filming the whole show with their video camera for them (tape will be circulating soon! I hope I did a good job)...so I did my best to take what pictures I could with MY camera...all the while trying to hold the video camera as still as I could...and fighting the urge not to dance my ass off. After the set, the crowd response was awesome. They handed out CD's and chatted up the folks. Here's some Solution vid:

Once we got their van loaded up and back to the hotel, I caught up with Dana once again at a bar called Volume for a hip hop showcase. I wasn't even gonna hit it up, but Dana was already there so I stopped in. Once again, I was stoked I did because I caught a great hip hop act outta California called Zion I. I saw them at the Treasure Island Music Festival the previous year, and they were great...so glad I got to see them again.

After Zion I we went to the Holy Fuck showcase at the Wave Rooftop. It was PACKED and we barely got far enough in to see the band. It wasn't really worth sticking around so we jetted off once again to a bar where Solution was hanging out at. It was pretty much the end of the night so we did last call and headed home shortly after. Once we got back, we annoyed Kevin for a bit...Dana tried eating ice cream in bed! Haha.....all in all it was an amazing evening. I was really stoked for the Solution boys...as their showcase was a total hit. Sorry for the poor writing...I'm trying to get this done so I can get back out there and see more music! So I raise my bloody mary to all my peeps out there that should be HERE. Which is all of you. Peace!

Here's a link to Day 2 photo gallery:

click here