We caught the in-store appearance of Blake Babies. Juliana Hatfield is the blurry silhouette on the right.

We still had a lot of time to kill before the BIG spectacular showcase at the Austin Music Hall, so we spent the next few hours at the very crowded, St. Patrick's Day Gingerman. 

Left to Right: Nice Folks, Jay. Ya know, I hate that, and I do it every flippin' time, I shake somebody's hand and they say "Hi, I'm (blank)," and I forget to save the data out of my short-term memory. One of these days it's going to cost me a promotion, I just know it.

So, the final showcase started with a powerful performance by Mark Eitzel.

Good news! He's using feedback again!

Next up was the Soft Boys reunion. Great, tight, powerful performance. Sure, I *like* Robyn Hitchcock's solo acoustic performances, but dammit, give the man a band and he's spectacular.

Milling about after the Soft Boys set, we nearly stepped on a guy sprawled out face-down on the floor, with his friend taking a picture of him. Was this a crime scene? Should I maybe take a picture too? Before I could even consider it, the guy jumped up and asked his friend to take his picture with me and Jay. I'm guessing that (A) he judged by our badges and fancy clothes that we must be celebrities or dot-com millionaires, or (B) he had never actually seen a real live nerd before. Whichever the case, I figured I'd have his friend take another one for me with my camera, too.

Left to right: Jay, Jim, Random Radical Dude from the Floor of the Austin Music Hall

Next up was Mogwai. What genre are they, trance-feedback?

Interesting, but painful. Droning feedback. Ears hurt bad. Picture is blurry because my eyeballs were bleeding. Pissed me off because the Soft Boys were sooo enjoyable, and I was expecting the upcoming Malkmus set to be sooo enjoyable, and yet here was all this pain sandwiched between. Poetic metaphor for life itself? Or just bad scheduling?

And speaking of Stephen Malkmus...

...man, I WANTED to stay for this set, I really did, but I'm a sedentary 35 years old, I've been on my feet for the last 4 days straight, I've just lost my hearing thanks to the previous act, and my contact lenses are dried out... We decided to cut bait. But the two songs I heard sounded pretty damn good.

The end.