SXSW Day 1

Okay I know you're gonna be sick of hearing about SXSW after this week if you aren't already. If you didn't go it must be torture, hearing all the great stuff that went on. Well...here's another turn of the screw.

So Wednesday there really wasn't a whole lot that I was geeked out about. I mostly stayed the day at Emo's (I'm under 21 so you'll notice my choices are severely limited) at the TagWorld party. It was a lot of local Austin bands and I didn't take any pictures. I'm not a great photo taker, that'd be my sister. She's got the experience. Anyway, saw a few great bands like What Made Milwaukee Famous, Ponys, Sound Team, I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness, Shearwater, Zykos, some band called Skeletons (I thought maybe it was Skeletons and the Girl Faced Boys but I was wrong. Or were they on Thursday? I don't know I'm all mixed up.If you didn't know, Matador sent out a list saying they were giving away tickets to their showcase and you had to have an Austin address. I used my friend's address but got an e-mail saying I missed the cut. However! my sister did make the cut. So we went to Stubb's to check out what was going on, but we didn't want to stay the night. If I'd been thinking I would've asked on here if anyone wanted in. Oh well. So we went in...looked at merch, took a few Belle and Sebastian and New Pornographers posters and left. Yeah lame.

Went down to The Parish to catch Envelopes but at the door they said it was 21+ that night. WTF? Didn't say anything on the door or in the pamphlet. The Parish really let me down this weekend.My Brightest Diamond

So we headed on over to Emo's Annex to see My Brightest Diamond perform. Poorly attended but what can you expect from a band that doesn't have much buzz. Shara was great, her voice really hits those spots you wouldn't think it'd be able to. She was playing on all borrowed gear and waas awesome.

Voxtrot

Then! headed over to regular Emo's to catch the end of Kiss Me Deadly (meh jumpsuit?) and all of Voxtrot's set. They were superb! Made me wsh I'd gone to their SLC show even more. I suck. But the guys looked like they were having a blast on stage so that's awesome.

Umm then I went to stand in line for Belle and Sebastian and watched their whole set (I missed the New Pornographers by a few minutes which sucked). I'd heard bad stuff about them live before but they had such stage charisma! Stuart was very charming and funny and a very likeable guy. My favorite dialogue between him and Stevie:

Stuart: So I see a lot of blokes here in the audience. A lot of beards...not too many ladies up here.
Stevie: Maybe some of the girls have beards in Austin.

I also liked that Stuart mentioned Sara (the keyboard girl) was a lover of dogs, burritos, and a boy named Something. Can't remember. Anyway they were very fun. No pictures, too far away.The Rakes

Then I can't remember at all what I did until 1 AM when I saw the Rakes play a very crowded Flamingo Cantina. BEST SHOW OF SXSW 06!! The boys were really amazing with a lot of power. Singer Alan Donohoe had the craziest dance moves that spawned a lot of copycats in the crowd. Amazing show, very powerful performance. Would recommend!

If you want one of those Matador Showcase flyers, they're laminates and I can send you one if you like. I have about four I could send out! So fi you e-mail/comment I'll send you one to the first four who contact me somehow.