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Sizzlin Saturday @ SXSW

Posted at 1:31 PM on March 15, 2008 by Lindsay Kimball

This is Mark Wheat, stealing Kimball's ID! First I want to give a huge shout out to her, and all the behind the scenes people who have made this possible. It's a wonderful crew of people to work with under stressful conditions, putting on so much live music to a tight schedule in this heat. I hope you're enjoying the results!

A scorching set from The Heavy just started my day...yeah I know it's early afternoon but I had a long night! These guys are one of the big buzz bands of the whole festival and now we all know why, check out their sampling of "I Put a Spell on You" on the archive of the sessions. Another delight was their attitude, full of joy and energy and very grateful to be playing even though their schedule, like many here, is jam packed.

I had some glorious highlights during my gig hopping last night :
The Ruby Suns from New Zealand had a few 'technical difficulties' but managed a wonderful sense of improvisation. The 3 members swapped instruments punching samples in and out, bashing on stand up drums intermittently and furiously strumming their various guitars. They convinced me they were making it up as they went along until their final song 'Tane Mahuta' which we've been playing from their debut.They nailed it as tight as could be!

We all seem to agree here that 'Does It Offend You, Yeah?' is one of the best new band names. So I thought I would check them out at the legendary venue Emo's which is two rooms linked by an L shaped outside area. The place was jammed to witness some nearly death defying dancey rock grooves. The lead singer was swinging from the rafters and throwing himself around the stage crashing into equipment . He knocked both the keyboard and a mike stand into the crowd. If you like the Rapture or even Prodigy, check these guys out, they're not just a good name band!

I camped out towards the end of the night at a venue with a cool name, Red Eye Fly!
So many of the shows get too packed to get into late in the night and I didn't want to miss CLOUD CULT after hearing the new album last week. It might sound bizarre to go to see a local band amoung 1600 groups from all over the world, but because of my schedule on the air, I hadn't seen these guys in a long while. The only disappointments were the shortness of the set, and the fact that I couldn't bid on the painting that they made while they played, it wouldn't fit in my suitcase!

Another tradition here seems to be bumping into band members on the street and finding out about small shows that have been added since the official schedule was released. So I'm shooting off now to catch Earl Greyhound after bumping into Matt of the band who immediately recognised me as the guy who was on the video clip with them, recorded last time they came thru the cities. They promise to have new hooj tunes, I can't wait...see our appetites are still not sated, crazy huh?!?!?

Seeya back home next week, stay safe and be peaceful to each other!

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