March 15
With the heat hitting the mid 90's what could be possibly better than going to an outdoor day party in the early afternoon? Filter Magazine hosted a great line up yesterday, including Born Ruffians, Shout Out Louds from Stockholm who put it all in to context by saying it was snowing back home and Los Campesinos!
Filter did host a great party but it was time to move across to the other side of 6th Street to catch The Evangelicals, who would have been great but I just didn't like the lead singers voice. So I popped into another venue a few doors down to see a band called The Whigs who are getting a lot of attention here and not hard to see why. The three piece from America played a high energy indie rock set with ‘Right Hand On My Heart’ and ‘Like A Vibration’ sounding like impressive songs. Will be seeing them again at another day show on Saturday.
After The Whigs I found myself at the nicely air conditioned Convention Centre nursing a drink while sitting on a most comfortable sofa. Did manage to get up in time to catch a band that was recommended to me, The Little Ones, a pop quintet from Los Angeles. At first I didn't think I was going to enjoy them but by the end of their set I ended up dancing and still don't know how that happened.
After the Little Ones it was off to see Be Your Own Pet to see if they could redeem themselves. After two tracks it looked as though we were never going to find out as they managed to blow the sound desk up! After what seemed an age, everything got fixed and they came back on to play there usual version of Art House meets Punk. Worryingly for those who were planning to see BYOP on their UK tour starting next week, guitarist Jonas Stein announced he had lost his passport and their flight to the UK was tomorrow!
After BYOP the tone was brought down to a slower pace with J Masics, of Dinosaur Jr fame, playing a short acoustic set. Following that it was good to see Thurston Moore, from Sonic Youth, with a backing band playing his solo stuff. The Crowd at Mohawks certainly enjoyed it.
Saturday sees the final full day of SXSW, although it does officially carry on into Sunday, but it is no where near as busy as it has been so far this week. Again it's another glorious day here, sun tan lotion is definitely needed again today, although probably not as much as Gareth from Los Campesinos! splashed
on during their outdoor show while showing off his "great" physique.
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