Festival Crashers welcomes @DoctorCollins steps back for his second guest post to cover three shows at Stubbs Friday night. @ZackTeibloom considered a crash and made it as far as the door, but wasn’t feeling it and @chrisinaustin had another adventure in mind. Thanks to @doctorcollins for letting us know we missed a lot. They even took @supercooleric’s 16-year-old brother’s concert V-card*.

@DoctorCollins Take a moment to think about the first concert you ever went to**. Mine was Jimmy Buffet at Fiddler’s Green in Denver. One friend’s first was Sugar Ray, featuring a before-their-prime Smash Mouth as the opening act. Other answers to that question included New Kids on the Block, Weird Al, and a Swedish death metal band (I didn’t even know that was possible). So the fact that a @supercooleric’s little brother got to experience a smattering of up-and-coming local bands as his first concert ever, I’d say he is off to a pretty good start. Sure he tripped over some stairs and poured half of his Coke on a guy’s crotch but he was also instinctually moving closer to the stage every time he saw an opening in the crowd. It was fun to glance over and witness him taking everything in for the first time – made me appreciate all the shows I’ve been spoiled rotten with by living in Austin. Read the rest of this entry »

@ZackTeibloom This show is from New Orleans Jazz Fest in May ’09. For some reason, I never finished it until Thanksgiving Day. I’m so thankful for being at this show I felt compelled to finish it today. Enjoy.

A perfect 10. I honestly wasn’t sure I’d ever see one. A perfect 10 requires everything to be just right on stage and just right from where you stand.*

On stage you need: a tight band with a immense stable of songs to pull from. A front man who knows when to keep it tight, when to sprinkle in banter and when to solo. A well-paced set filled with crowd favorites, but not a best-of catalog, building to a dynamic finish and epic encore.  Read the rest of this entry »

@ZackTeibloom It’s Thanksgiving, and even though I’m spending the holiday alone at my desk with $20 worth of BBQ from Rudy’s, I really do have a lot to be thankful for this year. I have the coolest, most supportive, loving dad and sister in the world, a wonderful extended family, incredible friends in Austin and Chicago and all over the festival world and my life is full of music. I’m a lucky boy. Since I won’t be at a table making awkward thanksgiving toasts, I wanted to count my musical blessings here with you.

I’m thankful to be living in the “live music capital of the world” where festival season runs from March’s epic SXSW (where bars I’d never set foot in turn into three stages worth of rock) through November’s Fun Fun Fun. It’s Where ACL lives to bring Dave Grohl and Jack White to me with a new band every year. Where Fun Fun Fun happens on my birthday and is short a few hundred funs in its title. Where Stubbs has brisket tacos to go nicely with everyone (from Andrew Bird to Metallica to TV on the Radio to Animal Collective to Spoon) and there’s so many colored wristbands I can collect, I don’t have to pay for one show. Where Mohawk has the back door always propped open just enough for me to crash. Where Emo’s lets me get on stage to sing with Bang Camaro. Where Scoot-Inn lets me dance on stage with Neiliyo and The Hood Internet. Where everyone I know is a DJ or concert photographer or blogger or thinks they are. Austin, I love you. Read the rest of this entry »

@AndyShore Often when my roommate sends me a link to a concert or event he thinks we should go to, I disregard it immediately. Half the time I can’t even tell if he’s serious or not, since his music tastes parallel those of a tween girl. It wasn’t even the music that attracted me to the LXM Pro, though. Shooting Akon did seem like it would be cool, but I wanted to see the lacrosse. The LXM Pro was to be a lacrosse all star game of sorts, with a music twist. Akon had to withdraw from the event due to a death in the family, and 3OH!3 and Drake were added to the bill. A day or two prior to the event, I found out there was supposed to be decent celebrity turnout and there would be a red carpet. This raised my excitement level greatly. Read the rest of this entry »

@AndyShore Not having a television has rarely bothered me the last few weeks. There have really only been a few instances where I even noticed. One is when the Bulls played on TNT. Another was not being able to watch football on Sundays. Last night, it was not being able to watch the American Music Awards. That and I was at a friends watching the Bears suck. I’ve heard bits and pieces about the goings on of yesterday evening. I’m gonna add my $.02 with a “live blog.” Read the rest of this entry »

@ZackTeibloom ”I’d have to be in the hospital to miss a Gil Mantera show” @den_mom told me as she fought off a double ear with a beer before the midnight show at Emo’s. That’s dedication. Me? I actually bought a ticket.* Yes, it’s worth risking your health and deepest beliefs** to go to a Gil Mantera’s Party Dream show. A three piece like you’ve never seen. Unmatched sexual energy, ridiculous costumes where they start looking like ninjas and end up in thongs with girls groping licking their stomachs and throwing their bras at them. It’s a party dream all right. Read the rest of this entry »

@DoctorCollins Austin’s recent brush with brisk weather and the Mountain Goats’ ability to draw out the coolest of the cool kids gave Antone’s the feel of a hip mountainside ski lodge after a day on the slopes. The calm, sweater-clad crowd gathered around the stage as if it were a crackling fire, patiently waiting for the bands to provide them with warmth through their musical stylings. The Mountain Goats and Final Fantasy were happy to oblige (pictured right). Their brand of intimate, thoughtful song writing offering welcome respite from the increasingly chilly weather. With colorful scarves draped carefully around their necks, the polite concert-goers broke their manners only to yell out song requests or compliments bathed in adoration. Read the rest of this entry »

@ZackTeibloom When I saw Sugar and Gold play “Slice me Nice” at Fun Fun Fun Fun Fest, I thought “Wow, that would be perfect for a bris mix.” If you don’t know, a bris is the ceremony when a jewish family comes together on the 8th day of a young man’s life to cut the foreskin off his penis. Such an event should have music! (Real quick- who is this asian girl at the bris throwing up the rock sign and why isn’t she my BFF?!)

I’ll tell you a couple things about Bris’. There aren’t many things more embarrassing than someone telling you “You know, I was at your bris.” What they’re really saying is “I was at an event you couldn’t possibly remember and I’ve seen your penis. When it was really, really small.” Good times. Also, in college my roommate and I joked that we would start a “bris bus.” It would be like bang bus, but instead of paying women to have sex, we’d perform bris’. We’d also have a brisket bus that would have questionable meat. I know. I’m really ridiculous.

Anyway, here’s the mix. It’s not set in stone. I hope not to have a son for, at the very least, five years so let me know if you have other songs to throw in the mix. L’CHAIM! Read the rest of this entry »

@ZackTeibloom The first SXSW bands are out. They’re all international and, odds are, you haven’t heard of them. That’s OK. We’ve got four more months of SXSW prep work to do. I don’t know if there are any festivals until March¹, and the full band list is going to be jaw-droppingly large, so lets get started now. There will be several hundred acts on the list before everything’s said and done. Depending on how big a nerd you are, you’ll know between 5% and 15% of them. Any more than that and you probably book bands for a living.

In realizing that I hadn’t even heard of these bands, I decided to come up with a grouping of how intimately we know bands. I broke them down into six categories from your all-time favorites to the guys you’ve never heard of. Why? It’ll all make sense at the end. I think. Read the rest of this entry »

@ZackTeibloom Festival Crashers have been super into mash-ups lately. We’ve been Girl Talk crazy forever, danced on stage with Hood Internet and Car Stereo (Wars) this month and my car stereo is being dominated by Hood Internet mix tapes.

Audio mash-ups are great, but the Phish Festival 8 video montage that Electric Method put together is something we had to talk to them about. You can all watch it, but I’ll let Andy let you know what it was like to be there.

“A video that began with “Thriller” turned into a whole mashup of the albums, songs and videos involved with the original 99 albums. As fans recognized different faces and songs throughout the video, roars would erupt for their favorites. Personally, I was just trying to figure out what tricks Phish had up their sleeve and whether or not they were actually playing the Rolling Stones. Alas, the video ended with the Stones and I could start breathing again knowing that I was about to get my “Rocks Off” with Exile on Main St.” -@andyshore Read the rest of this entry »