SXSW 2005

SXSW07

I've just returned from my sixth (semi) consecutive trip to the South By Southwest Music Festival, where my friend Jay and I go and see all the cool new bands and flash our badges around and pretend that we're music industry bigwigs. Was this the greatest SXSW festival I've attended? No. Was it the worst? No. Was it in the middle? No... I grow weary of your questioning! Silence!

The shows I saw are in bold, and the ones that were on my radar but missed are grayed out.

Wednesday March 14

4:00 PM Robyn Hitchcock Day Stage

9:00 PM Emma pollock Emo's Main Room

9:00 PM Imperial Teen Antone's

9:00 PM The Automatic Stubbs

I got a late start on the festival, partly because I was a little put off by the whole Jay-missing-his-flight thing, and partly because HBO was showing one of the original three Star Wars movies, the one with all the teddy bears. So I was watching that in the hotel room, thinking, eh, the only thing I have as a must-see on my schedule tonight is Lily Allen. But I don't wanna wait too long and not be able to get into the venue. So I waited until Luke took off Darth's mask, and then I headed out to Stubbs. And I got to see most of the set by The Automatic, which was pretty good. I did recognize their song "Monster," so that was a plus, I guess.

10:00 PM Jamie K & the Pacemakers Stubbs

I liked this band a lot. Visually, the guy reminded me of Tim Finn, and it was kind of the same quirky, early-Split-Enz vibe. Good stuff, and I intend to seek out some of his music. I've already asked to be his friend on Myspace.

10:00 PM Grand Champeen Room 710

11:00 PM Lily Allen Stubbs

I've heard the buzz, I saw her on SNL a few weeks ago, and I have illegally enjoyed her album, so I wanted to see this little spitfire in person. She went on late for her scheduled start time, but when she showed up she was holding a Budweiser bottle in one hand and a cigarette in the other, which I thought was pretty cool. She also giggled a lot and repeatedly called the sponsers of her showcase "assholes" and "cunts". On the whole, I'd give her +5 points for spunkiness, +5 for her natural cuteness, and +2 for substance.

12:00 AM Willowz Flamingo Cantina

Pleasant surprise of the fest #1. I was there to see Har Mar, but this band turned out to be the best performance of the evening. Pretty straightforward rock, but done with a passion that bumped it up several notches. I bought a CD. Initially I wasn't sure if they were really that good or if I had just been drinking too much and had fallen in love with their bass player, but I listened to the CD in my car on the ride home from the festival and they are, in fact, that good.

12:30 AM Peter, Bjorn & John La Zona Rosa

12:45 AM Blonde Redhead Emo's Main Room

1:00 AM Sahara Hotnights Blender Bar at the Ritz

1:00 AM MxPx Spiro's Amphitheater

1:00 AM Har Mar Superstar Flamingo Cantina

Har Mar has been on my radar ever since I heard the shoutout from Spoon in their song "Small Stakes" a couple of years ago. The only thing I had heard about him is that he puts on a bizarre spectacle of a show. If I would press for further information, people would fall eerily silent, express extreme discomfort, and quickly change the subject.

Now I know why.

Picture Jon Lovitz singing karaoke, wearing a speedo.

1:00 AM Hayseed Dixie Momo's

1:00 AM Spoon Antone's

Thursday March 15

1:27 PM Screamin' Jay Lyall San Antonio Airport

I picked up Jay at the airport in San Antonio and we drove back to Austin. Coming into town on I-35, traffic was already a nightmare at, like, 3PM. I *hate* getting stuck in traffic. At home, I either travel on foot, or else I only drive to places within 5 miles of my home base. I fricken' HATE sitting in traffic. I HATE it. God DAMMIT, how I hate it! Er, sorry.

So, I had had a late night on Wednesday, and Jay had text-messaged me around 8AM Thursday to let me know that he had made his flight, and then around 8:10 AM I got a page from my workplace that I had to respond to, and then around 8:30AM there was a knock on the hotel room door.... "Housekeeping!" I forgot to hang the "Do Not Disturb" sign on the door.... anyway, I was ready for a nap this mid-afternoon. So I was going to drop Jay off at the Austin Convention Center so he could pick up his badge (I spent 90 minutes in line for my badge on Wednesday), and then I would immediately head back to the hotel room to catch a little catnap.

Right. So, I dropped Jay off at the convention center, and then continued in my car on what I assumed would be a quick way back to the hotel. But no. There were no quick ways back to the hotel. If you were in your car ANYWHERE around the SXSW music festival, you were going to be SITTING IN TRAFFIC.

Long story short, Jay got his badge, watched part of a performance by Robyn Hitchcock and Peter Buck, and walked all the way back to the hotel, BEFORE I MADE IT BACK IN MY CAR.

3:00 PM Lily Allen Waterloo In-Store

6:00 PM Badly Drawn Boy Cedar St. - Filter Mag day party

6:00 PM Pete Townshend La Zona Rosa

We're at the Gingerman drinkin' and plottin', and Jay gets a text message on his phone. He signed up for these SXSW-special-event-announcements, and this one says that Pete Townshend is going to be playing at a showcase at 6PM. We go, and sure enough, there he is.

8:00 PM Alejandro Escovedo & Friends Austin Music Hall Ballroom, Austin Convention Center

9:00 PM Bob Mould Buffalo Billiards

9:00 PM Thomas Dolby Elysium

10:30 PM Starsailor The Parish

11:00 PM Badly Drawn Boy The Parish

11:00 PM Champion Maggie Mae's Rooftop

Jay wanted to see Les Breastfeeders at 1:00 AM at this showcase. I was determined to split off and see Menomena at 1:00 AM, but for now I was okay with checking out the earlier bands at this Montreal-specific showcase. And I am damn glad I went, because hooWEE, this here "Champion" band was Pleasant Surprise #2 of the festival, and quite possible the winner of the coveted webnuns.com BEST of the FEST award. Oh, and it's pronounced "shom-peon". It's a DJ thang, with pretty much a full band, though. A powerful vocalist. A driving beat. The unending urge to jump up and down in place.

Kinda scary on the rooftop at Maggie Mae's, though, since the entire floor was undulating under the bouncy enthusiam of the crowd like the Tacoma Bridge.

Jay did manage to score a free Champion CD by working his charms on the cute bass player.

12:00 AM Bloc Party Stubbs

12:00 AM Aqueduct Buffalo Billiards

More like, Aqua SUCKED! HAHAHAHA!!1!! Er, no, I'm sorry, I can't honestly dis them, I just wasn't paying much attention during their set. I was there to see Menomena at 1:00 AM, and Jay and I were chatting with a girl we had met over at the Champion show who also happened to be there.

12:30 AM Tom Morello The Parish

1:00 AM Menomena Buffalo Billiards

This performance wins my least-coveted, Biggest Disappointment of the Fest award. I *love* their new album, and I ranked their SXSW05 performance as one of the best-of-the-fest, but tonight, they had the headlining 1:00 AM slot, and they didn't get started until like 1:20 or 1:30, and they only managed to squeeze in 3 or 4 songs before the club shut them down.

On the plus side, they did have goody bags for badgeholders that contained a commemorative Menomena t-shirt, so that was nice.

Friday March 16

11:30 AM Lunch Threadgills

Excellent collard greens. Decent chicken fried steak.

2:00 PM Thomas Dolby Day Stage

Boring new song, boring new song, boring new song… and "She Blinded Me with Science"! Woohoo! Big fun right there at the end!

2:00 PM Metro Riots BBC America Party @ Brush Square Park

Energetic. Good rockin. Free beer, free t-shirts. Can't be bad.

3:05 PM Hoodoo Gurus Australian Music party @ Brush Square Park

In this battle of the Aussies versus the Poms I have to give the edge to the Aussies. The Hoodoo Gurus are still tight and fun. And the fact that I can see them at 3 in the afternoon and free up a conflicted slot later tonight makes me very happy. The free Australian Coopers beer was quite nice too.

3:00 PM Peter Bjorn & John Waterloo In-Store

4:00 PM Bob Mould Emo's Annex

I saw Bob Mould when he toured for his first solo album, "Workbook." ~20 years later, it's nice to see that he still puts on an impassioned performance, and he hasn't yet suffered an aneurysm.

5:00 PM Muzak Day Party Brush Square Park

Jay was able to score us badges for the Muzak day party. We were hoping this might be another opportunity to see Pete Townshend, since he seemed to be following Rachel Fuller around quite a bit, and she was supposed to be headling this party's lineup. But when we got there it was lame, lame, lame. Rachel Fuller (and Pete Townshend) had cancelled. All the bands played elevator music. The free food was milk toast, and the free drink was seltzer water.

We did get some cool free Muzak t-shirts, though.

6:00 PM The Stooges Waterloo In-Store

7:00 PM Andy Hersey Gingerman

I liked him. It was just him and his guitar. Country/Alt country.

8:00 PM Thurston Moore Mohawk

8:00 PM Public Enemy Town Lake

9:00 PM Clem Snide Buffalo Billiards

Clem Snide is my perennial favorite SXSW band. They are always *right up there* in the Best-Of-The-Fest strata. But this time around, it was a scaled-down version of the band. The lead singer and writer, Eef Barzalay, apparently plays fast and loose with the Clem Snide moniker, and I suppose he is entitled to do so, since he probably *IS* the primary creative force behind the band. So anyway, this was more than an Eef Barzalay solo show but less than a proper Clem Snide show.

Be that as it may, this was still a damn good performance, and it still ranks up there among the best of the fest.

10:00 PM Robyn Hitchcock Dirty Dog Bar

11:00 PM Gruff Rhys Bourbon Rocks

11:30 PM Thurston Moore Mohawk Patio

11:30 PM Badly Drawn Boy Stubbs

I can't claim to be a *big* Badly Drawn Boy fan, but I think I can safely claim to be a little one. I enjoyed this performance quite a bit, and his closing song surely wins the coveted "Best Cover Song of the Fest" award… Journey's "Don't Stop Believing."

11:30 PM dios Red Eyed Fly

11:40 PM Hoodoo Gurus Blender Bar at the Ritz

12:30 AM Polyphonic Spree Austin Music Hall

12:30 AM The faint Eternal

12:45 AM The Good the Bad & The Queen Stubbs

So this was my must-see performance of the night. Damon Albarn of Blur/Gorillaz, Paul Simonon of the Clash… it's GOTTA be good, right?

Well, it was okay. At least I can tell my grandchildren I saw Blur and the Clash.

1:00 AM The Redwalls Bourbon Rocks

1:00 AM Apples in Stereo Dirty Dog Bar

Saturday March 17

12:00 PM Peace March State Capitol

We figured we'd march for peace. Nuthin' else on our schedules, so what the heck.

12:30 PM Balkan Beat Box Day Stage

2:00 PM Beer Little Woodrows

There was an Onion AV Club day party scheduled from noon to 6, and we figured we'd be able to catch Apples in Stereo there at 5PM, so we had some time to kill. This being St. Patrick's Day, we figured we were being smart to avoid the Gingerman and that neighborhood which would have the streets blocked off for a city-sanctioned street party. Turns out Little Woodrows was packed with all the folks who were interested in the NCAA basketball championship.

2:30 PM Gruff Rhys Day Stage

3:00 PM Attempted Beer Gingerman

Yeah, we tried, but it was too full of St. Patrick's Day revelers. Okay, screw this, we should head back to the Onion AV club party and get a good spot for Apples in Stereo.

4:00 PM Attempted Apples in Stereo Red 7

Gah. The line stretches around the block. We're not getting into this. Let's head back to the hotel…

Sometime after 4 Menomena Mohawk

Hey! Menomena is playing a day party for somebody. We can't get in, but we can stand outside the fence and listen! And it sounds like the show I would have liked to have seen a couple of days ago!

7:00 PM Star Wars - The Phantom Menace HBO

HBO is running the suckiest Star Wars movies back-to-back tonight. Amazingly, this has some appeal, as Jay and I are both pretty much exhausted from the festival already. We agree that the only "must-see" show for tonight is Iggy Pop and maybe Spoon, and both of those are at Stubbs, which is just a couple of blocks away. We agree that we can chill for awhile with batshiat-crazy George Lucas.

8:00 PM Buzzcocks Emo's main Room

9:15 PM Meat Puppets Emo's main Room

9:15 PM Electric Apricot w/Les Claypool Opal's Divine Freehouse

10:00 PM Mew La Zona Rosa

10:00 PM Kings of Leon Stubbs

A little before 10PM I suggest that maybe we ought to head down to Stubbs, since the 10PM act, Kings of Leon, has a pretty decent following, as does Spoon, and if we wait too long we might not be able to get into the venue. We pack up our essentials and head out.

And when we get there, the badge line is already down the block on Red River, and snaking its way down 8th street. And it's not moving, because the venue is already filled to capacity. Dammit!

Well, if we are screwed here, we might as well just go walk along 6th street and see what we can see.

10:00 PM The Draymin Maggie Mae's Rooftop

Eh, not too bad. Scottish rock band. But we weren't hooked, so we moved on.

10:00 PM Todosantos Exodus

Ah! Now this is interesting! From Caracas, Venezuela. It's a DJ/dance thing. So the band consists of one guy at a DJ thingy, and another guy doing vocals, and a girl with a wearable keyboard and a couple of Mac Powerbooks, and a videoscreen that is pretty well synchronized to what they're playing. It was a tiny crowd at Exodus for this gig, but Todosantos got them spewing forth enough energy to fill the room.

10:00 PM Johnette Napolitano 18th Floor at Hilton Garden Inn

11:00 PM Lesbians on Ecstasy Exodus

With a name like "Lesbians on Ecstasy," you can't go wrong. I hope I'm not jumping to conclusions here, but I'm inclined to think that this is a band of actual, real-live lesbians, and while I was a little disappointed that my threesome+ fantasy wasn't likely to materialize tonight, they did put on a damn good show. Highlight for me was their hardcore cover of the Indigo Girls' "Prince of Darkness". What? Yes, I know some Indigo Girls songs. So what? They're a good band!

11:00 PM Spoon Stubbs

11:00 PM Aberdeen City Red 7 Patio

11:00 PM Graham Parker 18th Floor at Hilton Garden Inn

11:00 PM Grupo Fantasma Emo's Annex

This is another band who's name I've been hearing for quite a while but I've never actually seen. We were heading back toward the hotel, ready to call it quits for SXSW07, and we heard some band doing a cover of War's "Cisco Kid". It was cool enough to warrant stopping in, and sure enough, the band's original compositions kept us there. It also didn't hurt that the most beautiful girl I had seen at the festival was salsa dancing in front of us. And as I watched, a most interesting human drama played out. This most beautiful girl, I'll call her Ashley Judd. So, Ashley Judd was salsa dancing in place next to Heather Graham, and they were cool with each other, much like one might imagine lesbians on ecstasy to be. Anyway, they're having a great time at this show, until Crispin Glover shows up. Now, Crispin Glover doesn't seem to have any particular attachment to either of these girls, but for some reason they both seem to be vying for his affections. Heather Graham seems to have the initial edge, but drunken Ashley Judd is salsa dancing, and gat-DAMN she looks good doing it. Soon Ashley is dousing Crispin in salsa, and he is powerless to resist. Heather takes notice of this, and there is apparently a verbal fight. Ashley disappears into the salsa mosh pit, while Heather and Crispin hang back and "communicate."

Before too long, Ashley Judd is back, and all three are chums again, and they head out into the night, and Jay and I are left wondering if that lucky bastard is going to have a threesome with Ashley Judd and Heather Graham.

11:45 PM Charlie Sexton Antone's

12:00 AM Presidents of the USA Maggie Mae's Rooftop

12:30 AM The Stooges Stubbs

So, we've given up. We're spent. Festival's over. We're going back to the hotel. But we have to pass by Stubbs on the way back. Well, turns out that Iggy & the Stooges are onstage right now, and the line that was around the block is gone, and they *will* let us into this venue that is just about filled to capacity. Sweet! So now I've seen Iggy & the Stooges. I can die a happy man.

Wednesday March 14
	4:00 PM	Robyn Hitchcock	Day Stage
	9:00 PM	Emma pollock	Emo's Main Room
	9:00 PM	Imperial Teen	Antone's
	9:00 PM	The Automatic	Stubbs
		I got a late start on the festival, partly because I was a little put off by the whole Jay-missing-his-flight thing, and partly because HBO was showing one of the original three Star Wars movies, the one with all the teddy bears. So I was watching that in the hotel room, thinking, eh, the only thing I have as a must-see on my schedule tonight is Lily Allen. But I don't wanna wait too long and not be able to get into the venue. So I waited until Luke took off Darth's mask, and then I headed out to Stubbs. And I got to see most of the set by The Automatic, which was pretty good. I did recognize their song "Monster," so that was a plus, I guess.
	10:00 PM	Jamie K & the Pacemakers	Stubbs
		I liked this band a lot. Visually, the guy reminded me of Tim Finn, and it was kind of the same quirky, early-Split-Enz vibe. Good stuff, and I intend to seek out some of his music. I've already asked to be his friend on Myspace.
	10:00 PM	Grand Champeen	Room 710
	11:00 PM	Lily Allen	Stubbs
		I've heard the buzz, I saw her on SNL a few weeks ago, and I have illegally enjoyed her album, so I wanted to see this little spitfire in person. She went on late for her scheduled start time, but when she showed up she was holding a Budweiser bottle in one hand and a cigarette in the other, which I thought was pretty cool. She also giggled a lot and repeatedly called the sponsers of her showcase "assholes" and "cunts". On the whole, I'd give her +5 points for spunkiness, +5 for her natural cuteness, and +2 for substance.
	12:00 AM	Willowz	Flamingo Cantina
		Pleasant surprise of the fest #1. I was there to see Har Mar, but this band turned out to be the best performance of the evening. Pretty straightforward rock, but done with a passion that bumped it up several notches. I bought a CD. Initially I wasn't sure if they were really that good or if I had just been drinking too much and had fallen in love with their bass player, but I listened to the CD in my car on the ride home from the festival and they are, in fact, that good.
	12:30 AM	Peter, Bjorn & John	La Zona Rosa
	12:45 AM	Blonde Redhead	Emo's Main Room
	1:00 AM	Sahara Hotnights	Blender Bar at the Ritz
	1:00 AM	MxPx	Spiro's Amphitheater
	1:00 AM	Har Mar Superstar	Flamingo Cantina
		Har Mar has been on my radar ever since I heard the shoutout from Spoon in their song "Small Stakes" a couple of years ago. The only thing I had heard about him is that he puts on a bizarre spectacle of a show. If I would press for further information, people would fall eerily silent, express extreme discomfort, and quickly change the subject. Now I know why. Picture Jon Lovitz singing karaoke, wearing a speedo.
	1:00 AM	Hayseed Dixie	Momo's
	1:00 AM	Spoon	Antone's

Thursday March 15
	1:27 PM	Screamin' Jay Lyall	San Antonio Airport
		I picked up Jay at the airport in San Antonio and we drove back to Austin. Coming into town on I-35, traffic was already a nightmare at, like, 3PM. I hate getting stuck in traffic. At home, I either travel on foot, or else I only drive to places within 5 miles of my home base. I fricken' HATE sitting in traffic. I HATE it. God DAMMIT, how I hate it! Er, sorry. So, I had had a late night on Wednesday, and Jay had text-messaged me around 8AM Thursday to let me know that he had made his flight, and then around 8:10 AM I got a page from my workplace that I had to respond to, and then around 8:30AM there was a knock on the hotel room door.... "Housekeeping!" I forgot to hang the "Do Not Disturb" sign on the door.... anyway, I was ready for a nap this mid-afternoon. So I was going to drop Jay off at the Austin Convention Center so he could pick up his badge (I spent 90 minutes in line for my badge on Wednesday), and then I would immediately head back to the hotel room to catch a little catnap. Right. So, I dropped Jay off at the convention center, and then continued in my car on what I assumed would be a quick way back to the hotel. But no. There were no quick ways back to the hotel. If you were in your car ANYWHERE around the SXSW music festival, you were going to be SITTING IN TRAFFIC. Long story short, Jay got his badge, watched part of a performance by Robyn Hitchcock and Peter Buck, and walked all the way back to the hotel, BEFORE I MADE IT BACK IN MY CAR.
	3:00 PM	Lily Allen	Waterloo In-Store
	6:00 PM	Badly Drawn Boy	Cedar St. - Filter Mag day party
	6:00 PM	Pete Townshend	La Zona Rosa
		We're at the Gingerman drinkin' and plottin', and Jay gets a text message on his phone. He signed up for these SXSW-special-event-announcements, and this one says that Pete Townshend is going to be playing at a showcase at 6PM. We go, and sure enough, there he is.
	8:00 PM	Alejandro Escovedo & Friends	Austin Music Hall Ballroom, Austin Convention Center
	9:00 PM	Bob Mould	Buffalo Billiards
	9:00 PM	Thomas Dolby	Elysium
	10:30 PM	Starsailor	The Parish
	11:00 PM	Badly Drawn Boy	The Parish
	11:00 PM	Champion	Maggie Mae's Rooftop
		Jay wanted to see Les Breastfeeders at 1:00 AM at this showcase. I was determined to split off and see Menomena at 1:00 AM, but for now I was okay with checking out the earlier bands at this Montreal-specific showcase. And I am damn glad I went, because hooWEE, this here "Champion" band was Pleasant Surprise #2 of the festival, and quite possible the winner of the coveted webnuns.com BEST of the FEST award. Oh, and it's pronounced "shom-peon". It's a DJ thang, with pretty much a full band, though. A powerful vocalist. A driving beat. The unending urge to jump up and down in place. Kinda scary on the rooftop at Maggie Mae's, though, since the entire floor was undulating under the bouncy enthusiam of the crowd like the Tacoma Bridge. Jay did manage to score a free Champion CD by working his charms on the cute bass player.
	12:00 AM	Bloc Party	Stubbs
	12:00 AM	Aqueduct	Buffalo Billiards
		More like, Aqua SUCKED! HAHAHAHA!!1!! Er, no, I'm sorry, I can't honestly dis them, I just wasn't paying much attention during their set. I was there to see Menomena at 1:00 AM, and Jay and I were chatting with a girl we had met over at the Champion show who also happened to be there.
	12:30 AM	Tom Morello	The Parish
	1:00 AM	Menomena	Buffalo Billiards
		This performance wins my least-coveted, Biggest Disappointment of the Fest award. I love their new album, and I ranked their SXSW05 performance as one of the best-of-the-fest, but tonight, they had the headlining 1:00 AM slot, and they didn't get started until like 1:20 or 1:30, and they only managed to squeeze in 3 or 4 songs before the club shut them down. On the plus side, they did have goody bags for badgeholders that contained a commemorative Menomena t-shirt, so that was nice.

Friday March 16
	11:30 AM	Lunch	Threadgills
		Excellent collard greens. Decent chicken fried steak.
	2:00 PM	Thomas Dolby	Day Stage
		Boring new song, boring new song, boring new song… and "She Blinded Me with Science"! Woohoo! Big fun right there at the end!
	2:00 PM	Metro Riots	BBC America Party @ Brush Square Park
		Energetic. Good rockin. Free beer, free t-shirts. Can't be bad.
	3:05 PM	Hoodoo Gurus	Australian Music party @ Brush Square Park
		In this battle of the Aussies versus the Poms I have to give the edge to the Aussies. The Hoodoo Gurus are still tight and fun. And the fact that I can see them at 3 in the afternoon and free up a conflicted slot later tonight makes me very happy. The free Australian Coopers beer was quite nice too.
	3:00 PM	Peter Bjorn & John	Waterloo In-Store
	4:00 PM	Bob Mould	Emo's Annex
		I saw Bob Mould when he toured for his first solo album, "Workbook." ~20 years later, it's nice to see that he still puts on an impassioned performance, and he hasn't yet suffered an aneurysm.
	5:00 PM	Muzak Day Party	Brush Square Park
		Jay was able to score us badges for the Muzak day party. We were hoping this might be another opportunity to see Pete Townshend, since he seemed to be following Rachel Fuller around quite a bit, and she was supposed to be headling this party's lineup. But when we got there it was lame, lame, lame. Rachel Fuller (and Pete Townshend) had cancelled. All the bands played elevator music. The free food was milk toast, and the free drink was seltzer water. We did get some cool free Muzak t-shirts, though.
	6:00 PM	The Stooges	Waterloo In-Store
	7:00 PM	Andy Hersey	Gingerman
		I liked him. It was just him and his guitar. Country/Alt country.
	8:00 PM	Thurston Moore	Mohawk
	8:00 PM	Public Enemy	Town Lake
	9:00 PM	Clem Snide	Buffalo Billiards
		Clem Snide is my perennial favorite SXSW band. They are always right up there in the Best-Of-The-Fest strata. But this time around, it was a scaled-down version of the band. The lead singer and writer, Eef Barzalay, apparently plays fast and loose with the Clem Snide moniker, and I suppose he is entitled to do so, since he probably IS the primary creative force behind the band. So anyway, this was more than an Eef Barzalay solo show but less than a proper Clem Snide show. Be that as it may, this was still a damn good performance, and it still ranks up there among the best of the fest.
	10:00 PM	Robyn Hitchcock	Dirty Dog Bar
	11:00 PM	Gruff Rhys	Bourbon Rocks
	11:30 PM	Thurston Moore	Mohawk Patio
	11:30 PM	Badly Drawn Boy	Stubbs
		I can't claim to be a big Badly Drawn Boy fan, but I think I can safely claim to be a little one. I enjoyed this performance quite a bit, and his closing song surely wins the coveted "Best Cover Song of the Fest" award… Journey's "Don't Stop Believing."
	11:30 PM	dios	Red Eyed Fly
	11:40 PM	Hoodoo Gurus	Blender Bar at the Ritz
	12:30 AM	Polyphonic Spree	Austin Music Hall
	12:30 AM	The faint	Eternal
	12:45 AM	The Good the Bad & The Queen	Stubbs
		So this was my must-see performance of the night. Damon Albarn of Blur/Gorillaz, Paul Simonon of the Clash… it's GOTTA be good, right? Well, it was okay. At least I can tell my grandchildren I saw Blur and the Clash.
	1:00 AM	The Redwalls	Bourbon Rocks
	1:00 AM	Apples in Stereo	Dirty Dog Bar



Saturday March 17
	12:00 PM	Peace March	State Capitol
		We figured we'd march for peace. Nuthin' else on our schedules, so what the heck.
	12:30 PM	Balkan Beat Box	Day Stage
	2:00 PM	Beer	Little Woodrows
		There was an Onion AV Club day party scheduled from noon to 6, and we figured we'd be able to catch Apples in Stereo there at 5PM, so we had some time to kill. This being St. Patrick's Day, we figured we were being smart to avoid the Gingerman and that neighborhood which would have the streets blocked off for a city-sanctioned street party. Turns out Little Woodrows was packed with all the folks who were interested in the NCAA basketball championship.
	2:30 PM	Gruff Rhys	Day Stage
	3:00 PM	Attempted Beer	Gingerman
		Yeah, we tried, but it was too full of St. Patrick's Day revelers. Okay, screw this, we should head back to the Onion AV club party and get a good spot for Apples in Stereo.
	4:00 PM	Attempted Apples in Stereo	Red 7
		Gah. The line stretches around the block. We're not getting into this. Let's head back to the hotel…
	Sometime after 4	Menomena	Mohawk
		Hey! Menomena is playing a day party for somebody. We can't get in, but we can stand outside the fence and listen! And it sounds like the show I would have liked to have seen a couple of days ago!
	7:00 PM	Star Wars - The Phantom Menace	HBO
		HBO is running the suckiest Star Wars movies back-to-back tonight. Amazingly, this has some appeal, as Jay and I are both pretty much exhausted from the festival already. We agree that the only "must-see" show for tonight is Iggy Pop and maybe Spoon, and both of those are at Stubbs, which is just a couple of blocks away. We agree that we can chill for awhile with batshiat-crazy George Lucas.
	8:00 PM	Buzzcocks	Emo's main Room
	9:15 PM	Meat Puppets	Emo's main Room
	9:15 PM	Electric Apricot w/Les Claypool	Opal's Divine Freehouse
	10:00 PM	Mew	La Zona Rosa
	10:00 PM	Kings of Leon	Stubbs
		A little before 10PM I suggest that maybe we ought to head down to Stubbs, since the 10PM act, Kings of Leon, has a pretty decent following, as does Spoon, and if we wait too long we might not be able to get into the venue. We pack up our essentials and head out. And when we get there, the badge line is already down the block on Red River, and snaking its way down 8th street. And it's not moving, because the venue is already filled to capacity. Dammit! Well, if we are screwed here, we might as well just go walk along 6th street and see what we can see.
	10:00 PM	The Draymin	Maggie Mae's Rooftop
		Eh, not too bad. Scottish rock band. But we weren't hooked, so we moved on.
	10:00 PM	Todosantos	Exodus
		Ah! Now this is interesting! From Caracas, Venezuela. It's a DJ/dance thing. So the band consists of one guy at a DJ thingy, and another guy doing vocals, and a girl with a wearable keyboard and a couple of Mac Powerbooks, and a videoscreen that is pretty well synchronized to what they're playing. It was a tiny crowd at Exodus for this gig, but Todosantos got them spewing forth enough energy to fill the room.
	10:00 PM	Johnette Napolitano	18th Floor at Hilton Garden Inn
	11:00 PM	Lesbians on Ecstasy	Exodus
		With a name like "Lesbians on Ecstasy," you can't go wrong. I hope I'm not jumping to conclusions here, but I'm inclined to think that this is a band of actual, real-live lesbians, and while I was a little disappointed that my threesome+ fantasy wasn't likely to materialize tonight, they did put on a damn good show. Highlight for me was their hardcore cover of the Indigo Girls' "Prince of Darkness". What? Yes, I know some Indigo Girls songs. So what? They're a good band!
	11:00 PM	Spoon	Stubbs
	11:00 PM	Aberdeen City	Red 7 Patio
	11:00 PM	Graham Parker	18th Floor at Hilton Garden Inn
	11:00 PM	Grupo Fantasma	Emo's Annex
		This is another band who's name I've been hearing for quite a while but I've never actually seen. We were heading back toward the hotel, ready to call it quits for SXSW07, and we heard some band doing a cover of War's "Cisco Kid". It was cool enough to warrant stopping in, and sure enough, the band's original compositions kept us there. It also didn't hurt that the most beautiful girl I had seen at the festival was salsa dancing in front of us. And as I watched, a most interesting human drama played out. This most beautiful girl, I'll call her Ashley Judd. So, Ashley Judd was salsa dancing in place next to Heather Graham, and they were cool with each other, much like one might imagine lesbians on ecstasy to be. Anyway, they're having a great time at this show, until Crispin Glover shows up. Now, Crispin Glover doesn't seem to have any particular attachment to either of these girls, but for some reason they both seem to be vying for his affections. Heather Graham seems to have the initial edge, but drunken Ashley Judd is salsa dancing, and gat-DAMN she looks good doing it. Soon Ashley is dousing Crispin in salsa, and he is powerless to resist. Heather takes notice of this, and there is apparently a verbal fight. Ashley disappears into the salsa mosh pit, while Heather and Crispin hang back and "communicate." Before too long, Ashley Judd is back, and all three are chums again, and they head out into the night, and Jay and I are left wondering if that lucky bastard is going to have a threesome with Ashley Judd and Heather Graham.
	11:45 PM	Charlie Sexton	Antone's
	12:00 AM	Presidents of the USA	Maggie Mae's Rooftop
	12:30 AM	The Stooges	Stubbs
		So, we've given up. We're spent. Festival's over. We're going back to the hotel. But we have to pass by Stubbs on the way back. Well, turns out that Iggy & the Stooges are onstage right now, and the line that was around the block is gone, and they will let us into this venue that is just about filled to capacity. Sweet! So now I've seen Iggy & the Stooges. I can die a happy man.