SXSW: A Recap

I have made it back safely from Austin, Texas with plenty of great experiences to report. Boy, Austin is a strange city. Since last week's blog post, I have discovered that the swarms of ominous-looking birds are actually called grackles, and the terrible noise they make really wears you down. It's kind of like telephone line hiss combined with nails on a chalkboard combined with digital distortion, with a little trill on the end. Here's some more detailed info on these birds if you're interested. We also had a very strange experience when buying donuts one morning. My friends went out to get them and came back with a bag of complimentary items from the baker. I took a look inside and they were hot dogs wrapped in donuts! Apparently, they are called kolaches and are very popular in Texas.

But I bet you're less interested in my fascination at cultural and environmental differences between us and Texas, so I'll get straight to the good stuff. Here's a recap of the shows and bands I saw perform at #SXSW:

Alice Russell
This was one of the first shows I saw during this year's SXSW festival and it was absolutely amazing. Just before the show I recognized Alice and her sequin-soaked black dress in the bathroom and I almost died. My gut reaction was to just stare open-mouthed and drool as she walked past me into the stall. For the performance, I was front and center, almost close enough to touch the gorgeous British singer with the surprisingly powerful voice. Then, as she was covering The White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army" all the power went out in the club. She kept on singing and the drummer kept playing and the audience has to fill in the "bahhh, ba, ba, ba, bahhhhh, bahhhhh" part. The power came back on just as we finished up our jam session. Amazing!

PJ Harvey
I couldn't believe I got in to see one of the most influential female rockers of the 90's. Although the crowd was kind of douchey and frat boys were smoking cigars (not even cigarettes!) in the middle of a packed crowd, the show was still amazing. Check out that fabulous headdress!

King Khan and the Shrines
Perhaps he's not the most progressive person, (he performs with women dressed as cheerleaders whose sole duty is to dance the monkey for 45 minutes straight), but King Khan sure puts on an entertaining show. His soul/funk inspired rock tunes create the perfect party atmosphere that you can't help but rock out to. By the end of the night he was down to nothing but his skivvies and a gold cape. The last song devolved into nothing but a tireless jam session with band member crowd surfing while playing their instruments. I honestly don't know where he gets the energy because every show is like this and he played like 10 shows in the four days of the music festival. He's not the most attractive shirtless man in the world, but you've got to appreciate his spirit.

This entry was posted by Lady Amy, on Wednesday, March 25, 2009. You can leave your response.