Did I mention I was going to the South by Southwest Music Festival again this year? Well, I was, and I did, and now I'm back.

This is the fourth consecutive trip to SXSW my friend Jay and I have taken, where we spend big bucks on official festival badges so we look like music industry bigwigs and can get into all the shows without being hassled by The Man.

Unlike festivals of years past, this one really didn't have any real "must-see" performances for me, but also unlike years past, this one had a lot more "Hmm-I've-Heard-Good-Things-And-I'd-Kinda-Like-To-See-Em" showcases, many scheduled at exactly the same time in different parts of the city. So in an attempt to convey the overwhelming sense of... overwhelmitude... of it all, I'll present my entire list of bands as it stood in the beginning, with all the possible choices. The ones in bold are the ones I saw, and the ones grayed out were missed.

Wednesday, March 17, 2004
Performances:
8:00 PM	Julie Delpy @ Friends	Jay sees this listed and says (I'm paraphrasing from memory here), "Hey, that's that French chick from those Linklater movies. The one that Homer used to have the hots for. She was in Killing Zoe. You really need to rent xxxx, she gets nekkid in that one." Well, she didn't get nekkid, and she sounded a bit too much like Marlene Dietrich for my tastes. We left and went next door after a couple of songs. I read in the paper the next day that we were rubbing elbows with Richard Linklater and Ethan Hawke in the audience. And I mean that literally, as the place was packed to the point of discomfort.
8:00 PM	Tangiers @ Hard Rock Café	Good, energetic. Canadian. Hard-rockin, poppy fun. I was impressed enough to buy a CD. It'll be on Webnuns Radio soon.
8:50 PM	Goldrush @ Hard Rock Café	Not bad, but didn't keep us glued. We moved on to Stubbs.
9:00 PM	Division of Laura Lee @ Stubbs	Swedes. Not bad, not great. Just regular Swedes.
10:00 PM	The Von Bondies @ Stubbs	Hah! Now I know why Jack White kicked this guy's ass. He really is annoying. If *I* was Jack White, and I saw him onstage doing *my* shtick, I'd be fightin' mad, too.
10:30 PM	Need New Body @ La Zona Rosa	They started out with some bluegrassy banjo and bicycle percussion, and before ya know it, the leader has ripped off his shirt to reveal that he is, in fact, a very scary-looking tattooed goatboy. Then the thrashing began. Interesting. Very interesting. Think Mr. Bungle crossed with the Soggy Bottom Boys. Unlistenable at times, but very interesting.
11:00 PM	Grand Champeen @ Club de Ville	About this time, Jay and I realized we were both too jet-lagged and the acts weren't really compelling enough to go on any longer. So we crapped out early.
11:00 PM	Schrodinger's Cat @ Cedar Street Courtyard
12:00 AM	Joan Jett and The Blackhearts @ Stubbs
1:00 AM	Modest Mouse @ La Zona Rosa
Thursday, March 18, 2004
Panels:
10:30 AM	Keynote - Interview with Little Richard	Wooooo! Shut up! 'Bout what you'd expect. He's a funny guy. And it's good to know that "Good Golly Miss Molly, she sure likes to ball" wasn't supposed to be as dirty as it sounds today.
2:45 PM	Conference - Robyn Hitchcock, Ron Sexsmith, Charlotte Martin on songwriting	I'm a big fan of Robyn's "Egyptians" music and his clever, occasionally twisted lyrics, so it comes as no surprise that he's a really funny and likeable fellow in conversation. All of the panelists were quite likeable, in fact.
Performances:
8:00 PM	The Sleepy Jackson @ Exodus	Didn't know what to expect, but we started here because of multiple recommendations in the local Austin papers. We squeezed in, and saw what may have been the most passionate, raucus performance of the fest. So raucus, in fact, that they blew the club's breakers twice within a ten minute span. They were seriously kicking ass, man. I intend to seek out their music soon.
9:00 PM	Seachange @ La Zona Rosa	I have it in my notes that I saw them, but I don't really remember anything about them. Not a good sign, I don't suppose. I think we bailed early to get a good spot for Cake at the Austin Music Hall.
9:00 PM	Jack Ingram @ Austin Music Hall	…And this guy was playing when we got there. Not bad, just kind of vanilla rock. Does anyone remember the Michael Stanley Band? Or John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band? Same thing. Good, tight playing of straightforward, non-threatening rock. At one point, he introduced a song about a car, and started playing his guitar riff, and Jay says, (paraphrasing from memory again), "That riff is in EVERY song about cars."
10:00 PM	Cake @ Austin Music Hall	Cake is good. I've seen 'em a couple of times before, and they can't put on a bad show. But this wasn't one of their greatest shows. They played a couple of new songs from their forthcoming album, and unfortunately, I think they're starting to fall into a bit of a Star Trek movie pattern: the EVEN-numbered albums are going to be AWESOME, while the odd-numbered ones are for whatever reasons not quite as satisfying.
10:00 PM	Glen Phillips @ Texas Union Theater
10:00 PM	Preston School of Industry @ La Zona Rosa
11:00 PM	Little Richard @ Austin Music Hall
11:00 PM	Pretty Girls Make Graves @ La Zona Rosa	Once again, didn't know what to expect, and was pleasantly surprised. Pretty girl, kicked ass, and I bought the CD. Listen for this in rotation at Webnuns Radio, too.
12:00 AM	50 Foot Wave @ Momos	This is Kristin Hersh's (of Throwing Muses) new band. I think it would have been a pretty good performance, but it was a bad-sounding mix, and the venue is kinda small for a large crowd. We bailed after a couple of songs, but I bought the CD anyway.
12:00 AM	The Church @ Elysium	Damn this jet-lag, I just can't shake it.
12:00 AM	The Walkmen @ Exodus
1:00 AM	Blues Traveler @ Austin Music Hall
1:00 AM	John Wesley Harding @ Tambaleo
1:00 AM	Southern Culture On The Skids @ Continental Club
1:00 AM	The Wrens @ Friends
1:00 AM	Art Alexakis @ The Vibe
Friday, March 19, 2004
Panels:
3:30 PM	Interview - Wayne Coyne	Wayne is the coolest guy in the world. No, really. If you are familiar with the Flaming Lips, you might expect an interview with Wayne Coyne to consist of a whole lot of awkward silence as he zones out while gazing at his hand. But he's not like that at all. Very intelligent and entertaining. One important quote that would later prove to be our motto (paraphrasing again, of course): If your band is scheduled to go on at 9 PM, you need to freakin' go on at 9 PM, and anything less is just rude and disrespectful to your fans.
Performances:
12:45 PM	Robyn Hitchcock @ Tradeshow Day Stage	A solo acoustic performance by Robyn Hitchcock. As an addendum to my comment above about being a big fan of Robyn's "Egyptians" band, I should also point out that when he is sans-a-band the odds are much greater that I will be bored out of my skull. But not today. Good, lively performance. And afterwards he stuck around to sign autographs and chat. Naturally, I had nothing clever to say to him, but I did get an autographed CD, and a good warm feeling inside from being in the presence of greatness.
2:00 PM	Petty Booka@ Tradeshow Day Stage	And the good warm feeling continued as two cute-as-a-button Japanese girls dressed in Patsy Cline cowgirl gear took the stage with their ukeleles serenaded the crowd with "Rainy Night in Georgia," "I Fall to Pieces," "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun," and more. I impulse bought a CD, and they signed it for me: "Petty" and "Booka". Sigh. Good times.
4:30 PM	Endochine@ Tradeshow Day Stage
5:15 PM	Dramarama@ Tradeshow Day Stage	Dramarama is one of those 80s/90s rock bands that should have been bigger than they were. But they disbanded a decade or so ago, and that would have been the end of it had not VH1 recently come a-knockin'. They reunited for a TV show, and decided to give it another go. This makes me very happy. Unfortunately, the sound mix at this performance was awful. Dammit, I'm not satisfied.
8:00 PM	Patrick Park @ Stubbs	Saw some of this guy's performance simply because we got there too early for the 9 o'clock unannounced "Special Guest." For those of you who haven't been going to SXSW for the last 4 years I would point out that "Special Guest" could turn out to be anything from the club owner's momma to The Rolling Stones. Sometimes it's worth it to take a gamble on these. So anyway, we got to see this guy, who wasn't bad.
9:00 PM	Metric @ Stubbs	Metric was the "Special Guest." You might be saying, "who?" but for me this was a treat because Metric is another hot up-and-coming Canadian band who I had already marked as a potential must-see for Saturday, so it's good that I can see them now and relieve a little bit of schedule pressure tomorrow. And they ROCKED! I may even give them my coveted "Best of the Fest" award. They're fronted by a girl who reminds me of a much-more-accessible Kim Deal, and they put on a spirited, energetic performance.
10:00 PM	David Cross @ Emos
10:00 PM	Snow Patrol @ Stubbs	Waiting… waiting… don't remember much, but I didn't hate them. Jay and I are killing time now until the midnight show by They Might Be Giants, and I am hoping that the next band will be "How's Your News?" which I've been reading about in the local papers. From the official SXSW band summary: "We promise you've never seen a band like this. This group of adults with mental and physical disabilities ranging from Downs Syndrome to Cerebral Palsy, write and perform uninhibited, joyful, unpretentious, funny, rockin', music. These are the stars of the acclaimed film, [How's Your News?] (debuted SXSW '01)." Jay has reservations. He's afraid it will be an awkward show where we feel guilted into applauding. Me, I'm hoping it kicks ass so I can review it using a line derived from "There's Something about Mary": Damn those goofy bastards could ROCK!
10:00 PM	Glenn Tilbrook @ Momo's
11:00 PM	Broken Social Scene @ Stubbs	The next band turns out to be Broken Social Scene, not at all funny, but pretty good. Jay likes 'em enough to buy 2 CDs. I will have to save my goofy bastards line for another day.
12:00 AM	How's Your News? @ Stubbs
12:00 AM	J. Mascis @ Cactus Cafe
12:00 AM	They Might be Giants @ Parish Club	We got to the Parish Club, and hey! There was Robyn Hitchcock just hanging out, waiting to see the show. How cool is that? I attempted to offer to buy him a beverage, but there was some miscommunication and I think I spooked him. He probably figured I was a stalker or something. They Might Be Giants came out and kicked into a rockin' good show, but I didn't stay for all of it, as I had one of my must-see shows beckoning me....
12:45 AM	The Polyphonic Spree @ Stubbs
1:00 AM	The Gourds @ Cedar Street Courtyard
1:00 AM	American Music Club @ Bigsbys	…and this was it. American Music Club. Another great unheralded band of the 80s/90s was back together, and I had to see this. And it was a great and powerful performance. If you like your angst with amplifiers cranked to eleven and your pain expressed in wails of feedback, this was the show to see. Really, really good angst here, folks.
Saturday, March 20, 2004
Miscellaneous:
5 PM-ish	Stalked Mike Doughty for a while.	Mike Doughty lead one of my favorite bands of all time, Soul Coughing. Jay and I spotted him on the street, so we followed him for a while until he managed to give us the slip.
Performances:
2:00 PM	The Sleepy Jackson @ Waterloo Records	As regulars of the Houston Little Woodrow's at West Alabama Street, we had to check out the new Austin incarnation of Little Woodrow's Icehouse.
3:00 PM	How's Your News @ Tradeshow Day Stage
8:00 PM	Siva @ Lava Lounge Patio
8:00 PM	Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players @ Soho Lounge	We tried, we really tried to see this show. I've read about this "band," and I think I even saw one of their performances on one of the late-night talk shows (Conan? Dave? Jimmy Kimmel?) It's an actual, honest-to-God family, and they acquire photographs and slides from random garage sales and then write songs around them. Mom runs the projector, dad does keyboards and vocals, and the little girl plays drums. They were a big hit at SXSWs past, and unfortunately they had generated so much of a buzz that when Jay and I got to the venue, it was packed to fire hazard capacity, we couldn't even see the stage, and we were constantly being elbowed back even further by freakishly tall people. We aborted and bailed.
9:00 PM	Handsome Boy Modeling School @ Austin Music Hall	We tried, we really tried to see this show. This is Dan the Automator and Prince Paul. We were there promptly at 9 PM. In fact, we were there early enough prior to that to hear them play almost the entire Gomez album "In Our Gun" over the PA system. That's a damn good album, and it was nice to hear it over the giant speakers, but as 9:15 rolled around on the busiest night of the festival, we decided that Handsome Boy Modeling School had failed the Wayne Coyne test miserably. We left.
9:00 PM	Robyn Hitchcock @ Rockstars
9:00 PM	Liz Phair @ La Zona Rosa	It's always nice to look at Liz Phair. The show wasn't anything spectacular but she looked fine.
9:00 PM	Metric @ Momos
10:00 PM	Mike Doughty @ Mother Egans	Too many shows, too little time. Here, Jay and I diverged. Jay stayed here, and reported that Doughty put on a good show, but it was just him and his guitar, and was probably not as spectacular as what one might see when he actually has a band together for his new album, which should be soon.
10:00 PM	Miss Murgatroid & Petra Haden @ Buffalo Billiards
10:00 PM	Sam Roberts @ Momos	Me, I went across the street to check out Sam Roberts, yet another Canadian. I'd been looking forward to this show, because his CD, "We Were Born In A Flame," while not entirely consistent, has some really spectacularly good stuff on it. The performance elevated the really spectacularly good stuff even higher in my opinion. This is a damn good, tight live band.
11:00 PM	The Crystal Method @ Austin Music Hall	Still divereged. Jay went to see this and reported back that this was his "Best of the Fest". Dammit.
11:00 PM	Graham Parker@ Antones
11:00 PM	Michael Penn @ Cedar Street Courtyard	…meanwhile I went to see Michael Penn at a tiny, crowded venue where most of the people were chatting and laughing and shouting at each other while the guy on stage is armed with nothing but an acoustic guitar. Needless to say, this was seriously impeding my ability to enjoy the performance. I left after a few songs to try to salvage my 11 PM slot.
11:00 PM	Har Mar Superstar @ Emos	I tried to get into Emo's to see Har Mar, but sadly, even with my official festival badge I could not get in because the venue was too full. It's already 11:30ish now. I can stand in line and wait for people to leave, or I can move on. I decide I'll move on and go catch the end of Britt Daniel's set. I'm a big fan of his band, Spoon.
11:00 PM	Britt Daniel @ Red Eyed Fly	Britt Daniel finished his set about 5 minutes ago.
11:50 PM	Cracker @ La Zona Rosa
12:00 AM	The Hives @ Emos	Met up with Jay again, waiting to get in to see the Hives. Emo's is still too full. Dammit! Maybe we can catch the tail end of "Japan Night" at Elysium.
12:00 AM	Bleach @ Elysium	We catch the tail end of "Japan Night" at Elysium. We see Bleach, which is a girl band, consisting of cute-as-a-button girls who proceed to scream and thrash and work the room into a frenzy. Seriously, these girls could mop the stage with your average Limp Bizkits or Slipknots. They farking ROCKED, and the one has a scream that is nothing short of satanic posession. I don't even *like* this type of music, and I was nearly driven to buy their CD.
12:00 AM	Los Lobos @ Stubbs
12:50 AM	Camper Van Beethoven @ La Zona Rosa
1:00 AM	Dramarama @ Elysium	Redemption! This time the mix was right, although the volume was a bit high. What? I said the volume was a bit high! This is a damn good band, and now that they're old guys like me, it's even cooler to see that they are still a tight, rockin machine. Note that even though they are not Japanese, they played the last gig at the "Japan Night" showcase. This performance was made slightly more cool by the fact that Petty and Booka were hanging out in their Patsy Cline garb, watching Dramarama as the night wound down.