@ZackTeibloom I haven’t made it to the festival yet today and it’s almost 5:00 p.m. That’s not good. It can be hard to balance writing and seeing shows, especially when trying to cover a festival alone (yes, I miss Andy.) I’m now a full day behind on posts, but it’s Friday night. Go out. Have a good time.

When we’re all nice and hungover Saturday we can talk about the Cold War Kids and M. Ward shows at the lovely Auditorium Shores and the night sets from Gomez, Andrew Bird and Ben Harper at Stubbs. Until then, follow me on Twitter (hoping I get service) and we’ll meet back here tomorrow.

If you’re dying for something to read from SXSW, here’s everything I’ve written so far.

@ZackTeibloom I’m a sucker for bands playing albums in their entirety, but I can’t stand The Decemberists’ lead singer Colin Meloy’s voice.

I’d heard The Hazards of Love was a sprawling concept album and figured I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see it performed in its entirety the day after it was released.

Could the addition of My Brightest Diamond’s Shara Worden bolster the whiny Meloy enough to make it a classic show like NPR hoped when they streamed it live? Almost. Read the rest of this entry »

@ZackTeibloom Funky, jazzy, good times all around at Black Joe Lewis. I’m excited this is an Austin band and plan on seeing them as often as possible.

Their keys player is a bearded maniac, Black Joe Lewis is fierce on the guitar and vocals and his horn section keeps it tight and funky. We only saw a few songs, but it was enough to win me over.

I do wonder how they get away with calling themselves Black Joe Lewis. Can I start a band called White Larry Bird? Am I missing something? Joe Lewis was black…

Photo by Chris Robinson

@ZackTeibloom Ben Folds five had three members. Five For Fighting had one member. Ben Harper and the Relentless 7 has four. What’s up with that?

I don’t expect Blink-182 or 311 to call in a few hundred extras for their next tour. Having a number in your band name doesn’t have to relate to the number of members. God forbid the 10,000 maniacs try to live up to their name.

I just think if the name of your band is the lead singer’s name (and the adjective #’s) why not get the number right?

Ben Harper joked that three of his band members are invisible. Ben Folds’ said “I think it sounds better than Ben Folds Three.”

I feel like I’m missing some really good examples of bands with numbers that are false. Anyone wanna play?

@AndyShore Welcome to the hangover show. At least that’s how Jeff Austin introduced it. A forlorn Austin and Brendan Bayliss took the stage Wednesday night at Shuba’s, struggling to recall the events of the night prior.

30db, which is Austin of YMSB and Bayliss of Umphrey’s McGee, thanked the crowd for being able to get off the couch after the St. Patrick’s Day show from the night before. The two whispered into the microphones, promising a quite show that would not worsen any headaches.

Bayliss admitted to being so drunk that he left his girlfriend at the bar. Austin owned up to a drunk dial to his girlfriend at 4:30am. They asked the crowd to refresh their memories of the night before to see if they’d been good boys. Read the rest of this entry »

@ZackTeibloom According to Rolling Stone, “Ticketmaster accidentally put its allotment of four-day passes to Phish’s upcoming Red Rocks shows up for sale nearly a week before the show’s March 26 onsale date.

Word quickly spread through the internet and hundreds of fans were able to purchase tickets to the group’s first Red Rocks dates since 1996. Internet rumors ranged from a simple internet glitch to an official radio promotion presale to a conscious effort on Phish’s behalf to avoid scalpers.”

Ticketmaster sucks.

Actual West Coast Phish Dates.

@ZackTeibloom I’ve been excited to see there’s a crashing spirt alive and well in Austin. The night of my first Austin crash at Mohawk, I saw a handful of guys in the alley trying to figure out if they could climb the wall. I don’t know if they ever made it, but I’ve seen a couple much worse crashes since then:

Unsuccessful Crash #1: A couple minutes after I took this picture with the Energizer bunny, a guy ran up to the costumed bunny, started humping him from behind, and quickly ran the other way as if he was going to be chased. No one cared.

Unsuccessful Crash #2: Tuesday night, walking from Beauty Bar to our car to drive over to the Speak Easy, I see a guy playing acoustic guitar on the street. I recognize him as the 20 year-old at my pool party the week before who wouldn’t stop begging for someone to get him high. I mistakenly said “Don’t you live at Longhorn Landing?” Read the rest of this entry »

@ZackTeibloom Meet Yelle, Juliet Budet, the adorable French pixie who has the distinction of being the only performer I’ve ever seen get a room full of hipsters dancing before happy hour. Not just nodding heads. Shaking it.

Yelle is a feminized version of the acronym YEL, “You enjoy life.” Spend any time at her shows and you certainly will. The packed room at Maggie Mae’s was only treated to half hour of enjoying life due to the difficulty of getting a 12-piece band off-stage before her three piece dance party, but the half hour was the highlight of the day.

Coupled by two guys in her bands wearing black shirts with pink writing saying “DANCE OR DIE,” Read the rest of this entry »

“Just tell me where I have to show up and Rock ‘n’ Roll.” That’s the attitude Jaylinn Davidson, keyboard/synth player, has about SXSW where her band has 12 shows this year.

“Every year, SXSW is the most exciting time of the year. We moved here for SXSW,” says lead singer/guitar player Paul Waclawsky, who had to change shirts after sweating through his at their noon performance at Maggie Mae’s.

“Austin is a magnet,” he said. “It’s like Rock ‘n’ Roll band camp.” Read the rest of this entry »

@ZackTeibloom Ezra Furman hid behind a full beard in the backyard stage at Creekside Lounge, but put himself out there, as he always does, sounding confident as ever.

Always a fan of wordy intellectual t-shirts, he was sporting an Einstein quote “You can not simultaneously prepare for and prevent war.”

The short set was filled with charming Ezra banter, who seemed happy to be playing early in the festival. “I’m glad we met before we got jaded after 5 days of this s***,” he said to a giggling crowd. Read the rest of this entry »