- Become a Member
- Join Now
- Sustaining Members
- Member Benefits
- Match Your Contribution
- FAQ
- Existing Members
- Member Discounts
- Member Benefits
- Change of Address
- Tax Information
- Newsletters
- /
- Podcasts
- /
- RSS Feeds
- /
- Mobile
SXSW round one... Wed night's roundup
Posted at 8:37 AM on March 19, 2009
by Jim McGuinn
Our first night is in the books... and while it wasn't a great SXSW night, it was a fun start to the weekend. After the typical arrival, check-in, badge procurement, random long-distance friend sighting, Melanie and I went to a fun dinner with some friends from LA, NY, and Boston where MEAT was the order of the day. They sure know their meat here in Texas. Finally at around 9:45pm we headed out to start seeing the rock. Here's my rundown of what I saw:
Port O' Brien: Folky rock music from Alaska. Definitely a good band, but not exactly "woo, we're here at SXSW let's rock."
Black Cherry: I had put them on my list of bands to *maybe* see, but honestly couldn't remember why, other than the fact that they'd toured with the Wombats, one of my favorite bands from last year's SXSW. But walking past the club, their road manager was in the street with a megaphone coercing people to come check them out. Caught a few songs... was kinda like what if Santogold fronted a punky indie rock band (which she actually did a few years ago, they were called Stiffed).
Robert Gomez: Atmospheric indie chamber pop - maybe a Texas version of Andrew Bird. Interesting lineup - keys, cello, violin, acoustic, French horn, and on one song - manual typewriter - the woman that played it was definitely the Hendrix of the typewriter...
Juliette Lewis: Still a better actor than rocker, and not that great of an actor.
Echo and the Bunnymen: Trench coats and sunglasses, even though it's 70 degrees and dark out in Texas - YES - that's what we want out of our rockstars!. Actually sounded great, especially compared to most of what passes for cool in indie rock these days. I stood next to Bobbie Gillespie of Primal Scream rocking out for this set - and they were great, probably better live than they were back in the '80s. Good times.
Delta Spirit: Tried to get in to see Ida Maria, but it turns out she hadn't made it to Austin - not sure if she got stopped at immigration or what, but she was a no-show, so booked over to catch the last song of Delta Spirit, and gotta say, it was the highlight of the night. Intense, involved, engaging for the band and the crowd, I wished I'd caught their entire set - but at least I was able to end the night on a high note. When these guys come back to the Twin Cities, try to catch them.
Minneapolis sightings: Well, since I'm still pretty new around here, it's a bit harder for me to recognize who is from the Twin Cities since I haven't met everyone in a band (yet!), but I did run into the band The Invincible Kids on the street, and wound up standing next to Gary Louris and Mark Olson at the Driskill bar at 2am... much much more rock Thursday...
Jim McGuinn at SXSW
| March 2009 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
| 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
| 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 |
| 29 | 30 | 31 | ||||
Master Archive
- Yeasayer give you a free tune!
- Monday Coffee Break: Short and Sweet
- Today In Music History: A Salute To Roy Acuff
- Honey-do: Power Pop tunes
- Random Vinyl 11/16-11/20
- Friday Coffee Break: Viernes No Ingles!
- Today In Music History: He Wrote The Religious Song That Wasn't
- The Chart Show Top 20 11-19-09
- Thursday Coffee Break: Second At The Mic
- Today In Music History: The Original Blue Suede Shoes
- Become a Member
- Leadership Circle
- Sustaining Members
- Member Discounts
- Become a Sponsor
- Tax Information
- Planned Giving
- Fundraising Credentials
- Vehicle Donation
- Donate Stock