SXSW Day Crawl Two

Morning (which starts at noon this time) was a little disjointed - went to 6th Street to Maggie Mae's Gibson Guitar Room where we'd planned to see a whole bunch of our local favorites as well as enjoy some free refreshment, but after riding the bus downtown, then walking 6 blocks to the venue, we were told that the party was for badges only - so we and some wristbanded folks were turned away. Oh well... considered the NPR party with Blitzen Trapper at the Parish but the line was *very* long waiting to get in... there were plenty more parties going on but nothing caught our interest so we hiked it back to the bus stop and went over to Whole Foods. They had Australian singer-songwriters playing by the main entrance, and that was not the only live music going on there. In the picture is a band playing at another entrance, right by the stacks of canned green beans and the shopping carts. Here are a couple of cute dogs that were on the patio. We chilled there a short while and had some healthy nourishment, and got back on the bus for South Congress.

After grabbing a free brewski at Yard Dog (Schuba's party) and watching a good band called Sleepercar, we went back to Jo's Coffee. Ben Sollee was playing there at 3:00PM, and we were so charmed by him that we bought a CD. He is sooo talented - wonderful cello player with a beautiful, soulful voice.

After Ben, our options were open so walked south through the shopping district, where you can find stuff you didn't even know you needed.

One of the many people playing music on South Congress:

Fran's Hamburger's was having a music party, and offering up free beer from Santa Fe (plus free hamburgers, which we don't eat). Saw 3 pretty good bands there (The Motion Sick from Boston, Static of the Gods, and Aimee Bobruk), enjoyed our beers with some excellent onion rings, and headed south toward the ME TX studios to catch a live taping. On the way there we ran across Peelander-Z playing outside Trophy's and there were absolutely the biggest hoot of the week.

 

They're a Japanese punk-rock band, and you don't even have to like punk music to enjoy the hell out them and their crazy antics, like climbing up into the trees. For their finale they took their instruments out into the middle of S. Congress and played there with cars going by on both sides. I caught it on video, below. The crowd is clanging some pots and pans that they handed out earlier, and it's muffled here and there when large objects passed in front (like cars for instance). It was a blast!!

Finished up the day at the ME Television Studios (Austin's own little version of MTV) where they had tapings all week, with the public invited. We got there in plenty of time, and enjoyed some free beverages (German Warsteiner Beer and a selection of wines served by a woman we knew from the wine tastings at the grocery store every week, plus soft drinks were available) and went in to watch Gomez from the UK. It was air-conditioned and had optimum sound quality in the studio. Really a treat. Walked outside and got on the bus right around sunset, got home to cranky cats and hurting feet, but a great day of music.