south by southwest madness, part 2. at long last.

ok. having made my way home from the queens of the stone age show (a minor miracle in itself), i slept and slept and slept. in the morning i headed over to meet jo divestar at the kemado suite, where we lounged around and tried to figure out what to do that day. we were just about to head over to the spin party (where bloc party and 2/5 of the new york dolls were playing) when our friend keith ran in and said everyone was going to an adult swim party at some place called the victory grill. that meant a free ride, so we went.

the victory grill, it turned out, was this awesome basement bar that felt like it was in the middle of the caribbean, possibly because of the rasta bartenders but more likely because it was approximately 1000 degrees inside. and it was packed.

it was so hot that i paid for water instead of drinking the free red stripe. anyway, i'd been expecting to hear cheeseburger, but instead a band called hot chip played, and they absolutely wrecked it. i don't know how to explain their live show really. five random white guys standing in a row with various instruments of musical destruction in front of them, all bobbing up and down in unison and producing some of the catchiest party music you've heard in ages. really, really fun and the crowd went wild. here's a lame photo that doesn't do them justice. i blame the humidity.

really really loved their performance and we wanted to stay at the party, but it was getting totally swampy, so we had to get some air. we headed outside, where we met up with. . .

this character!

a giant bong. sort of par for the course at sxsw, but still remarkable. turns out he was promoting this random movie, which in case you couldn't guess, has something to do with smoking weed. which i of course can not condone. after we were done getting to know the giant bong, all twenty of us headed for the van, convinced that that would be our funny costumed encounter of the day when we spotted. . .

these guys!

and this guy!

clearly, it was one of the more awesome moments of my young life. the only thing funnier? hearing my awestruck friend evan murmur, "I love Frylock. . .Frylock, I love you. . ." as we drove past. ps: if you don't recognize the above celebrities, you'd better tune into the cartoon network and start catching up on all the hijinks you've missed. i'm just saying.

next, our packed van headed over to the whiskey bar to see an austin stoner rock band (that's metal, for the uninitiated like myself) called the sword. it was totally our lucky day, because they kicked major ass. i wish i could describe their sound, but since i'm a metal moron, i can't. suffice it to say that everyone at the bar was totally stoked and in thrall the entire time, including me. huge sound, amazing technique, the whole nine. my friend johnny took this picture.

if you're into that kind of music, be sure to check them out. oh! and i almost forgot that the band employed one of the awesomest marketing tools i've ever seen: logo'ed paper bags for your beer. read that again, because it rules. here's my pretty friend roanne modeling one:

after the sword show the womenfolk headed back to the hotel, where we chilled for awhile trying to figure out what to do next. before we knew it everyone (plus most of the members of diamond nights as well as a new zealand band called the mint chicks) had come back to the hotel and we ended up partying there for awhile.

morgan eating salad and talking to one of the mint chicks.

people kissing.

evan being gross.

dave chatting up a mint chick (i wish i could remember their names but there were like six of them! and i think they were scared of us).

seth and me playing with our cameras.

and so on and so forth. at this point it was getting late and i wanted to go see spoon or any number of other awesome shows that were happening, but everyone else wanted to go to a party in the suburbs that vice was throwing, so i lost the vote. and here's where our night went sharply down hill. we piled into my hot dodge neon rental and set out for the party. of course our directions were completely retarded and we got hopelessly lost. skid row on the radio helped, and so did the super-friendly people working at walmart, where we stopped to get new directions. nonetheless, it was very late when we got to the house. i have to mention how awesome the house was. . .huge backyard, hot tub (!), etc. but after such a long trek, we were expecting an absolutely kickass, all-hell-breaking-loose kind of thing, and we were sadly disappointed.

1. all the bands had already played. there was a lame DJ spinning lame records, but that's about it.

2. the first drink manicmess opened was a sparks—scratch that—a DIET sparks, about which it must be said that there is no more vile concoction on the face of the earth. i reached for another drink to watch the wretched taste out of my mouth, only to find a tub full of more sparks, and more sparks after that! and that was all they were serving. ugh. vice must be slipping.

3. remember those parties in high school where nothing fun happened, and you drank beer after beer but you did so too slowly to ever get drunk? that's what this felt like. UNLESS, of course, you were one of the many people in attendance who were doing cocaine in the bushes. they were having a splendid time, of course. as did the member of our expedition—we'll call him the Ass Magnet, to protect identities—who stumbled upon a pile of the aforementioned drug as soon as he walked in the house.

here's jo and sara from L-D section one debating what to do about the piss-poor situation we found ourselves in.

and here's what happens when you try to take my picture while i'm driving home from a shitty party. that's my middle finger, in case you can't tell.

it had taken us a billion years to get there, so most of the good stuff in the city was already winding down. with that in mind, we (with the exception of Ass Magnet, who partied til dawn) decided to go home and sleep so we'd be well-rested for what was definitely going to be most kickass event of the entire weekend. . .the vice/kemado party at rhizome collective with cheeseburger, lansing-dreiden, bloc party, go team, and diamond nights! stay tuned. . .

Comments

hey thanks again for your continual 411. had a shitty day of work yesterday and got shitfaced at duvet thanks to you.

-someone you don't know

[sara]

rad. i was there too, actually! i hope you stole some slippers and handcuffs...

yes, i definitely took some handcuffs and whips. and then left a whip in a cab on purpose because it amused me to think that somoeone would find it there.

[kirker]

Although I usually think you're right on the money, I have to strongly disagree with the Vice party at Rhizome Collective being the most kickass of the weekend. That prize goes to the Spin afterparty held Friday night at some dude's house in South Austin. Idlewild played IN A FUCKING LIVING ROOM, and a small one at that. That was by *far* the highlight of the weekend (and yes, I did go to the Vice party too).

[sara]

well, that's certainly possible and i guess i wouldn't know if i wasn't there! :) bummer. oh but wait that's a different one than the one i posted about, right?? too many parties-so confusing! (wish that was the case all the time...)

i would have definitely loved to hear idlewild. sigh.

[Ben Brown]

No, he's talking about the same party. You just missed all the fun by showing up late. But I mean, come on, there was a dance party in my living room until 5:30AM! How is that not fun?