SXSW Day 3

Slow going this morning....it wasn't a hangover clanging a gong between my ears, it was the lack of sleep. The Airstream is delightful,there's just not enough time to use it. There's music to see. Today I didn't get on the bike until 2 pm,

Shaved the beard. i didn't like smearing the taco juice off off the hair above and below my lip....on to the music,,,

The first band of the day was The Bronx  - a rip roaring, fire breathing blast of brash LA punk. Sweat roaring off the bald singer's forehead, greasy dudes from metal shop on guitar and bass. Lots of fists flyin', tattooed forearms raised in praise.

I walked down the hill to the second stage at this event, called Mess With Texas(MWTX) and was psyched to see 5 gaunt and ghastly white Brits called the Jim Jones Revue blazing through a set of uptempo rockabilly/rock stomps. Piano reminiscent of The Killer, used as a weapon, shiny guitars and shoes, The photos I got were great, the beer lasted me through three songs.

Next up was a short walk to the Scoot Inn to see canuck metall-ers Voivod, I was mildly impressed, not really with their set of semi dischordant metal sung in a French Canadian accent, but with the plethora of angels on their guitars, You could put an eye out with that thing. The Scoot Inn looked like a metal family playground. Lots of  pre teen skate kids running around and their mothers chasing them in sleeveless denim vests with  tats on their necks and Lone Star tall boys in their hands.

Walked back to the bike, which was entangled in a cyclone aftermath of bikes. Got free and headed over to the Austin Convention Center to check out the Flatstock Poster Show. Austin, Like SF before it, is well known for its poster art scene. Every show at SXSW had an artist producing a silkscreen poster of it. I walked around, imagining my mini mansion's walls being covered by fantastic rock posters instead of pictures of cats.  A voice from the PA awoke me from my distant dream, notifying the wanderers that they were closing for the day.

Short hop over to Trinity Street to the Pure Volume House. Stood in line to get my "badge", went in to watch a band called Happy Clay People..sort of messy rock from long haired(but not too long) college kids who seemed to be dressing down and out of their element to me, but some of their set was enticing enough. They did a spot on cover of Life On Mars(Bowie)..and a s I was singing along, I saw a woman in a purple shirt sashaying around with a tray of Taco Bell tacos raised above her head. I was ashamed, but I took two.(ok, 3)..... Taco Bell tacos in Austin TX. That's not right.   But free is good, besides it was dark in there, and nobody knew me.

Sat down on 6th street for a bit and planned my night. I noticed a huge shift in the crowd from previous days.. College must have let out. it looked like spring break. A bunch of clean cut kids flew in for the weekend on Dad's dime to get a chance to see XX or Surfer Blood and text each other from different waits in different lines. The Beardos weren't digging them and neither was I.

Went over to Red Eye Fly to see Trampled By Turtles, a bluegrass Americana band from Duluth. This was the first show I had to pay to see. Oh well. I had interviewed the band and loved the speed and intensity of their songs. It's like bluegrass shredding at times. Beards, overalls and knee slappin' good times. However, the Badge brigade started filling the place up. The Badge Brigade is made up of industry people with comfortable shoes, clean jeans and tucked in shirts with their companies logo on the front, and maybe an earring or ponytail. They are all over 6 feet tall and little old me could not see, so I left.

Quick pizza break and then right next door to Headhunters for another metal showcase.  So packed I could only hear (not see)  the bands Salome and Yakuza. Head spinning from a tall boy, from talking to members of the band Bison, and mad at the tall dude in front of me standing with his arms crossed,  (there's one at every show) I had to leave before I started to heckle the tall guy with my tall boy.
It was then I had realized I had hit a wall...I went briefly to the Hype Machine's ongoing party at Vice,but all of those party kids from the college scene were twittering and dancing...this was a ten minute stay and my last stop of the night.

Got back to the trailer before midnight.   Wall was hit.