Tuesday, March 23, 2010

SXSW day crawl - Fri, day 3

Day 3 and beyond... Started the day again at the Hilton for Elliot Brood (Toronto, Canada), followed by the legendary John Hiatt:

...and 2/3 of the Dixie Chicks (Martie & Emily), with their side project, Courtyard Hounds:
Now I have seen all of the Dixie Chicks perform, just not at the same time. After the Hilton morning, the day continued down the road with Bobby Bare Jr. and more local female musical goodness with Sarah Jarosz highlighting yet another Paste party, co-sponsored by Vanguard (Sugar Hill). We are acquainted with Sarah and her parents, they are all wonderful folks and it's great to see Sarah blossoming into a rising star. She has the talent.

We sat with a nice Canadian couple (about our age) who had driven down from Ottawa -- we were getting pretty comfy on an upper deck with free intense coffee drinks and hard ciders, with a view of the band, and working on a good old sunburn for awhile. Hit the pavement again to go down to Momo's for their party, and got to see a couple of local bands we hadn't seen (although the band members are ones we are pretty familiar with). There was Drew Smith/TED (I don't know what TED means), The Coveters (shown below) featuring Suzanna Choffel, Ed Jurdi and Warren Hood. After them there was a nice long set from St. Cloud. Momo's had great music (as it always does) and we saw lots of people we knew there, but decided to hit one more spot for the day. The Sin City Social Club party at Maria's Taco Xpress had Jesse Dayton on stage when we got there, followed by the band we went to see, The Trishas. I'll tell you what - just check them out, it's 4, sometimes 5 young Texas women with a lot of soul, great vocals, songwriting, fiddle, guitar, mandolin. Love them. They need to be famous.

Maria's was packed to the hilt and it was time to home to the cats, and we proceeded to have the only transportation screw-up of the week when we got on the wrong bus going the wrong way and it took a couple of hours to get home.

After 3 gorgeous weather days, the rain and cold, cold wind moved in on Saturday - and we were pretty much wound down by then anyway. The Cactus Cafe was having free music (acoustic singer-songwriters) from 4-midnight, best listening room in town. We saw Chris Masterson and Eleanor Whitmore, Matt The Electrician, Dana Falconberry, Mike Schoenfeld, and Graham Weber. They were all amazing. Only ended up with one pic from Saturday: Dana Falconberry

This is the last year for the Cactus Cafe. A boneheaded bureaucrat (who has the power over the building where it resides) wants it closed, and even if the forces of "Save The Cactus Cafe" manage to keep it open, it will be run in a completely different way. Either way, it's killed. If you've never been there, hit it before the end of August.

Festival regrets: managed to miss faves Or The Whale and Band of Heathens, and the never-seen-before Watson Twins and Black Prairie despite opportunities. This is merely from lack of super-powers and super-human strength. Later.

That's it for 2010's SXSW day crawler coverage from the Blueberry pit.

{addendum: Statesman gallery Day 3}

6 comments:

Debra She Who Seeks said...

So after taking the wrong bus and getting home late, did you find Jax and Henry tapping their paws and looking at their watches in an accusing manner?

Blueberry said...

Absolutely. It is not allowed to break the routine.

yellowdoggranny said...

dang..how many bands?...wow

Blueberry said...

close to 2000 official bands, and nobody know how many unofficial.

Professor Chaos said...

Hey, don't miss Atlanta's own Gringo Star. I don't know where or when they're playing, but I heard they're going to be there.

Blueberry said...

Prof, yes they were there. Someday I will see them. I just added links to the local paper's photo galleries for each day and now seeing even more bands I wish I'd caught.