ye olde sxsw post.

i have seriously been dragging my heels on part 3 of my sxsw report for no good reason. too much nocturnal activity and not enough discipline! anyway, without further ado, an entry about my third and final day at sxsw.

on sunday i woke up at a reasonable hour due to my failed partying attempt the night before. i headed straight downtown in an effort to catch tom vek at an island records party that my old friend james friedman had tipped me off about the night before. sadly, tom had just finished playing, so i grabbed some free booze and bbq and headed over to some little bar (bigsby's?) where my friend jada was hanging out.

here's a shot of her with one of the cute french guys she was staying with.

all of her french buddies were in a band called turzi and they were very french and funny. apparently if they can get one gig in new york, the french government will pay for their flight out. so let's get cracking on that.

anyway, the bar was serving jello shots. we took some. then we tried to listen to this next band, which was sort of a hard rock-meets-honky tonk band, if i'm remembering them correctly. they weren't very good.

after they played we were just about ready to head over to the fader/levi's trading post to try and catch feist, when it started downpouring. like, BUCKETS. so we were forced to stay and watch the witnesses, of whom i've never been a fan. they're fun to take pictures of though. how much do you think the singer got beat up in high school?

we drank some more, and finally the rain stopped, so we headed over to the fader party where, suddenly, they weren't letting anybody in even if they had wristbands. typical. but we made friends with some members of the fame (who are very nice and even have little 'the fame' business cards! so cute) and by sheer force of will, made it inside. a band called the magic numbers came on next. they were fantastic! shiny, happy la-la music out of london. one of the singers even played one of those keyboard-horn things. several people i've spoken to thought that they were one of the stand-out acts of the entire festival. if you're into mellow pop like the doves, you should check them out. don't hold their hairy hippie look against them.

after some more red stripe and mingling, cloud room took the stage, at which point i was astonished to discover that their keyboard player used to work at my office! his name's ben and i had no idea he was even into music. here he is.

it's always funny when you see someone from your so-called real life out at an event like that. kind of like ten years ago when you'd be at a rave and you'd see the guy from your mail room and be like..."you...?" and he'd be all "you...?" and you'd both be like "NUH UH!" anyway, they were easy to like. they have a song called 'hey now now' that i've written about somewhere on here before. the song is actually kind of annoying because they really overdo the "hey now now" thing, but it makes me think people might like them because it kind of sounds like not-so-gothy interpol. anyway, some more photos...

after they were finished, it was time to head back to my hotel to freshen up before the night's festivities. i then headed over to the hippie compound-slash-wild turkey farm where kemado records were having their big bash. i got there earlier than most people, but unfortunately i wasn't early enough to arrive, realize i wanted hard alcohol, and make it to the liquor store before it closed....at 9 PM!!! they should seriously put a public service announcement in the ginormous sxsw gift bags they give you when you check in, because the city of austin has the lamest liquor laws ever. i mean, seriously. i've barely had my morning juice at 9pm.

but anyway, enough whining. i decided to embrace the festivities and kicked off my night with a sparks, of all things. someone should have warned me that i'd have sparks mouth all night, like so.

actually, it appears from this picture that someone *was* trying to point it out to me, but i may have been too retarded to notice. anyway, we hung out for awhile getting our sparks on and waiting (multiple times--damn alcoholism!) on the ten-million-mile line for the three porto-potties they'd rented. the space was awesome. the bathroom situation was not. luckily james f*!%ing friedman and steve aoki (aka kid millionaire) were doing an awesome job DJing and getting everyone pumped for the bands. here they are.

anyway, finally the first kemado band, cheeseburger, came on. i have to admit that i don't LOVE them (just not my style), but they always put on an awesome show. three different people in the crowd asked me about them, which is a good sign for them. anyway, some pictures.

after cheeseburger my absolutely FAVORITE new band came on. diamond nights. they'd already played like five times over the weekend even though i think they'd only been scheduled to play twice. seriously, they are so, so good. if you haven't heard 'the girl's attractive', you will soon. i like to describe their sound as harder, more rhythmic led zeppelin-y rock with an eighties edge. jada referred to that last bit as "billy idol swagger". rockstarific!

after all that jumping around, i headed outside to cool down. ran into jo divestar and alana of the fame. they were way drunker than they look in this picture.

after that everybody headed inside for...BLOC PARTY!

now, if you've never seen bloc party live you may not understand, but they RIPPED. IT. UP. period. go see them in june at webster hall. tickets are on sale now. they had tons of energy, were technically on point, and completely psyched to be playing. not to mention that the lead singer kele is totally cute. i'm just saying.

the party was at this point reaching a fever pitch. i went outside for a minute and there was about a million people waiting on a looooooong-ass line to get in. at one point a big group of guys actually bum-rushed the flimsy entrance gate and *almost* made it in. there was quite a to-do, as you can imagine. anyway, right around then, lansing-dreiden, or rather the lansing-dreiden cover band, went on, which was a good thing because they sort of calmed down the crowd, who was getting a little out of hand. they took the stage and commenced with their zombified art rock thing. people were totally into it. i partied with sarah (on the left) the night before and she's totally not as scary as she looks.

as they were finishing up, i was about to head over to pick up another pabst (i'd thankfully abandoned the sparks by then), when i had. . .my first elijah wood sighting! check it out. totally frodo.

anyway, then the go! team came on, and they absolutely wrecked it. i know that some people think their live show leaves something to be desired, but i thought they were awesome just for the sheer fun factor of it all. people LOVED them and the warehouse where they were playing turned into a giant fucking dance party in no time. people got completely crazy, and i'm pretty sure that's what happens every time they play. here's jinners getting her party on. to her left is this guy jonathan who i used to know in college and hadn't seen in about six years, whom i'd randomly ran into while trying to snag the above picture of elijah wood. now he's a lawyer in austin, and when i first saw him he was wearing a windbreaker that was covered in a map of the former soviet union. true story.

here's one of my new austin friends, nathan, who was rocking out to my right.

at this point the party was pretty much a drunken free-for-all, and since no more bands were playing (seriously, how AWESOME was that lineup? thanks, kemado!) everyone felt free to run around, chug beer, make out, etc. suffice it to say that we raged and raged and raged, although i failed to take any more pictures. here's a closing shot that i jacked from my friend jada of the crowd around the DJ booth. note the crazed arye dworken in black on the right. that pretty much sums up the party.

AND. . .thus ended my experience at sxsw 2005. an awesome, awesome time and everyone must go next year. no excuses!

Comments

[kirker]

Cool synopsis of the final SXSW night (and I fucking WISH I'd made it to the Kemado Records party before the line got too crazy-long), but I don't get the comment about Austin liquor laws. Liquor stores close at 9pm and on Sundays. That's the same as NYC, yes?

[sara]

hell no! nyc liquor stores are open until 10 during the week and about midnight or so on weekends, sometimes later. and as of this year, most of them are open on weekends too!

so you can understand my dismay. . .

[Nathan]

Jo has allowed me to view this seeing as how my picture made it into your coverage. Twas a pleasure to meet you and I would like to add that the ferocious pseudo mullet I sported has now been surgically removed. Take care, and we expect to see you again next year....nathan

[Nathan]

Jo has allowed me to view this seeing as how my picture made it into your coverage. Twas a pleasure to meet you and I would like to add that the ferocious pseudo mullet I sported has now been surgically removed. Take care, and we expect to see you again next year....nathan