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Mar 24, 2009 - 12:38 AM |
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SXSW '09 Day 1 |
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South by Southwest, for those of you have never heard of it, is a massive week-long movie/music festival that occurs annually during Spring Break in downtown Austin, Texas. I was mainly concerned with the music portion: 1,500+ bands over the course of the last 4 days. Everyone from an unknown band from San Diego, to some of the biggest names show up. And they're EVERYWHERE: restaurants, parks, churches, hotel ballrooms are all converted into venues. Walk around and pop in somehwere and there is likely to be someone performing. It's fantastic.
Anyway, this was my first year to attend, and I had a fucking blast. It was pretty amazing how many awesome groups I got to see in the course of just a single day. What follows is a shit load [some] of pictures of (most) everyone I (and frequently Thud) got to see [the first day].
Right off the bat, the first big act we see is local legend Daniel Johnston, seen here performing with The Hymns who came out near the end of the set. Really, as sad as it is to say, it's suprising to still see this guy out and about. He has an extensive history of mental illness, and while he was shaking a bit while singing (and may have been crying at one point), he still sang his ass off. He finished the set with Rock N' Roll EGA! It was a blast.
The heads of the girls on stage are not important because their band was awful. But! In front of the stage, I spotted a Bernard Black look-alike amongst the crowd. I didn't want to be obvious about taking a picture right in her face, so I just took a picture of the back of her head, making a mental note to myself to assure you that she really did look like Bernard Black a lot.
Next big act we saw was Nellie McKay, playing in a church. She was cute and funny, but all-in-all, in comparison with later shows, her performance was the low point of the day (sorry Nuhaul).
MEAT PUPPETS
Holy shit. Amazing show. One of the highlights of the week. I don't care if you knew them or not (most of the people around me didn't, sadly), these guys rocked the place out. They played what had to be an 8-minute version of Up on the Sun, which was fucking amazing enough, only to follow it up with an equally long version of Lake of Fire as the finale, played at what seemed like double-speed--I was blown away.
Giddy with excitment, and thinking that couldn't be topped, Thud and I eventually made our way to a local mexican restaurant for the final show we hoped to catch that night...
King Khan and the Shrines
So... I was wrong about Meat Puppets not being topped. This was absolutely the funnest concert I've ever been to. Nine musicians--two sax players, a trumpet player, a keyboardist, two percussionists, a guitar player, a bass player, the singer--plus a cheerleader, who did nothing but shake her ass and pom-poms for an hour, all crammed on to a tiny stage that barely fit the previous act of four dudes.
The stage was a mess of bodies as shit was set up was quickly as possible--electrical fires and equipment falling into the audience was a very real concern.
There's no way I can effectively get across what made this show so great. Most of all they were just so much fun. Multiple band members had synchronised dance moves; they had matching outfits and accessories; the cheerleader sprinkled glitter on the crowd, while King Khan jumped down into the crowd, spat beer, laughed like Dracula, and frequently shed layers of clothing. He got the crowd screaming "hallelujah" during one song, and then healed a few people by grabbing their faces. The audience burned dollar bills while they sang a song called "Welfare Bread."
It was also just funny as fuck. He had some long song about climbing into his wife's vagina a limb at a time (but first he took off his shoes--that's what Indians do), with the horn section blaring each time a little more of him got in. So awesome. There couldn't have been a more perfect ending to the first night!
I'd hope to do the whole event all in one entry, but it's late, and I have to get up early. So, uh, I guess I'll do days two and three tomorrow! Goodnight!
| Currently Playing: King Khan & the Shrines - Burnin' Inside |
Response entries:
Entry Part II, Part I by Ah! Amoeba
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