SXSW Day 3, Friday

The Beautiful Boy and his Beautiful Lady

Started the day on Friday at the Hilton Hotel lobby for KUT radio's morning live broadcasts. We were the first people there and because of that we got to sit in the only padded armchairs available. That was the payback for the 5AM alarm. We were mainly there to see Old 97's [event picture and video link] who played an acoustic version of their high-energy cowpunk rock or whatever you want to call it. Also saw Bobby Long and Tristen, didn't know either of them, they were good too. We were expecting to see Middle Brother there but there had been a schedule change. We ended up not seeing Middle Brother at all this week. It's really hard to see everyone you want to see.

After the Austin radio broadcast, we went to a high-end bicycle shop called "Mellow Johnny's" for Seattle's KEXP live broadcast of Steve Wynn & The Miracle 3 [KEXP's coverage and photos here]. We really like Steve Wynn and band, but the inside of that bike shop was a terrible music venue IMO. Acoustics were bad (which I guess doesn't matter on the radio, it's only the soundboard that matters) and there was no elevated stage so you couldn't see the whole band at once unless you were a photographer. Mellow Johnny's had a patio outside that was party-ready, and might have been a better spot for it.

The highlight of the day, without a doubt, was the lawn party at the French Legation Museum. I had never been there before and was trying to imagine it based on Google satellite and street views. As it turned out, it was just as imagined... green grass lawn, a few shade trees... picturesque. The stage was a foot-tall platform with a cloth canopy and handmade flag banners made from scraps.

John Vanderslice played shortly after we got there, and we really liked him but want to see him another time when the sound conditions are better. The sun was starting to beat down hard on us so we moved right up next to the stage to be in the shade of the speakers so we got sub-woofed pretty bad but the shade and the breeze were glorious. Despite the thump, we completely enjoyed seeing Sean Lennon and Charlotte Kemp Muhl (a.k.a. Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger). Sean, of course, strongly resembles his father, and I must say that I'm not sure I've ever seen a more attractive woman (in person) than Charlotte (Kemp Muhl) who is a model as well as a musician. Also... Yoko Ono was there. She was standing a mere few feet away from us and watching her son play.

Someone was handing out sampler CDs from Sean's label (Chimera) so we were able to get one signed by them (not Yoko, though). We liked the music a lot (I would describe it as melodic, jazzy, sweet, pop and/or eclectic but never as rock 'n' roll), and were absolutely enchanted by the whole experience.

We walked to Koriente after their show, and had another wonderful (late) lunch in a restaurant which not only has the framed Rolling Stone cover of naked John with Yoko, but also a mural of it on the wall. It was all a little surreal, almost dreamlike.

Some more sights on 6th Street on the way to the bus stop: There a couple of beautiful chalk drawings.

More buskers with a doggy.

Yeah.

Funniest band name of the week.

It was back down south to Home Slice Pizza where they were finishing up their party with one more band to go, Rural Alberta Advantage.

Home Slice had a Google theme to their decorations.

3 days down, 1 to go. Stay tuned.