Ok well technically this was actually day 2 of the music festival, but we were unable to make it down on Wednesday (hopefully next year) so we journeyed down early Thursday morning for our first taste ever of SXSW. I have been basically living in Texas for about 6 years and have never made the trip down for this festival, and there was kind of always an air of secrecy and insiderness to the proceedings so I really had zero idea what to expect. I would say with a few exceptions the festival blew my expectations away and was a total blast. There are certainly things I would try to do different now that I have a year under my belt, but all in all it was an awesome week.

So the first aspect of this tale is that our collective group (me and Jill for the duration, with Daigle coming just for Friday night and Saturday) were rolling sans badges and sans wristbands. I basically picked a hotel on the SXSW hotel shuttle route so we could get to and fro, but opted not to splurge on a wristband (it was a southbywristband hotel) or badge. I would say with a few high profile showcase exceptions this was zero problem the whole weekend and there really wasn’t any show requiring a badge or wristband (aside from possibly Metallica) that I felt would have really changed the fortunes of the week. I will get into that more as we go along though.

So we venture down, arrive about 11:30 to the hotel, get on the shuttle and are dropped at the convention center at about 12:30. I had heard really good things about this band Hockey playing over at Cedar Street so we decided to venture over there to check them out.

Hockey – Cedar Street Courtyard – 3/19/09

My experience with Hockey beforehand was some buzz about the interwebs and listening to their myspace music tracks during the day on Wednesday. These guys were really impressive I thought and an incredible way to kick off the festival. Now we did show up slightly too late for the free BBQ but regardless these guys tore it up. They have some very 80s infused jams that have a great rhythm and a great beat to them, and they really deliver it live very well. As you can see from the pics the stage was bathed in sunlight and it wasn’t really cold outside so I’m sure these guys were frying up there but they still tore it up. The lead singer also had a surprisingly incredible voice and was able to hit some big sections effortlessly throughout. I would highly recommend checking these guys out if you get a chance and I would say be on the lookout for further from them.

After getting an awesome patio set from Hockey to kick this bitch off, we decided to grab some Taco Shack and head over to give the Red 7 day party a go to see Hold Steady and No Age. In hindsight, I really wish we had done the Mohawk party since I never managed to catch Glasvegas (one band I really wanted to see), but the Red 7 party was pretty solid as well, and No Age was probably worth it. It’s also worth noting we walked down 6th street to see what the Paste party looked like (at Radio Room) and the line was like 2 blocks long so we said fuck that. Upon our arrival at Red 7 The Magic were on.

The Magic – Red 7 – 3/19/09

The Magic weren’t really bad or anything but they didn’t really blow me away at all. They had kind of dancey rock numbers that were perfectly serviceable but something about the whole package just didn’t really get me that excited and the crowd really didn’t seem to be too much into them. Fortunately it was nice on the patio (for the moment) so we just enjoyed the weather and some tunes, Human Highway hit the stage next.

Human Highway – Red 7 – 3/19/09

Human Highway is probably best known for being a project of Islands’ Nick Thorburn, and he was certainly there in full indie rock style – sunglasses, O’Douls and all. They were perfectly fine as well but also not particularly mind-blowing. The first 3/4 of the set was a lot of kind of folky slow numbers that had a few good hooks but were maybe a little too mellow for the setting. The last 2 songs they played really picked up the pace a lot more into the Islands territory and were quite good, but didn’t really change the set into anything that spectacular. After Human Highway we saw about 10 seconds of whoever was finishing inside (still not sure who it was) and then took up shop again on the patio for The Hard Lessons.

The Hard Lessons – Red 7 – 3/19/09

This was the first band at SXSW we were seeing totally cold who really brought it big time. It is apparently a husband/wife duo on the guitar/synths with a drummer (3 piece) and it is very riff heavy rock and roll. Kind of reminds me of something like the Black Keys or Black Mountain or something. Anyway, the guitarist was on fire, the band was incredibly tight and they just hit almost every song they had out of the park (there was a slow down number somewhere in there I wasn’t huge on). Every song pretty much involved a lot of stage moves from the guitarist and lots of riffs, hooks and solos, which were all spot on. These guys killed it, and was my first totally unexpected pleasant surprise of SXSW. They finished with the Neil Young noise/alt classic “Hey Hey My My” which was great. Neil Young songs are always perfectly setup for endless soloing and wanking so they ran with it. At the end of the song the guitarist tied his guitar to the stage supports, played it while it hung for a bit, then proceeded to monkey bar his way around the bars overhanging the stage and the crowd and swing around a while, before having a death defying leap back onto the stage (I thought he may seriously eat it face first into the ground). This was a killer set, just so rock and roll, great stuff. After that great set we kind of held our place outside in anticipation of Hold Steady, but up first was Lucero.

On a side note, before they came out, comic Andy Kindler (who apparently was “hosting” this thing) came out and tried some generally ‘rile the crowd up to boo you’ kinds of jokes. I thought it was pretty funny stuff but the crowd did not like it at all, but I think that was kind of the point. Good stuff.

Lucero – Red 7 – 3/19/09

Now this band was perfectly servicable and they didn’t necessarily do anything wrong but I really did not care for this band at all. Before these guys I was pretty excited about seeing Craig Finn rock my face off, but these guys were basically a redneck version of the Hold Steady and it was really not what I needed to see while waiting for Hold Steady. Pretty much every song has the same kind of structure and tone as the Hold Steady’s songs, but just with a Texas country/redneck kind of spin to it. I guess that it sort of makes sense these guys would open for Hold Steady, but it is kind of a buzzkill when a band that seems like they are parodying/emulating/ripping off the headliner is opening for such a great band as the Hold Steady. The Hold Steady’s songs have always had that humor and cleverness to go with all the partying that make them so much fun, but that was not really present with these guys. Plus it didn’t help that by this point it had become absurdly crowded and mega-hot under the hot tin roof over the patio at Red 7. It just became a very uncomfortable and kind of gross situation that I was not a fan of.

The Hold Steady – Red 7 – 3/19/09

The Hold Steady is always one of my favorite live bands to see, they always kill it live with pretty much no exception. They party, they make the crowd party, it is just a party. Though Lucero kind of killed my drive for Hold Steady we did still stay outside and watch the first 4-5 songs which were all fantastic as usual. We managed to get out from under the mega hot roof fortunately. It was actually way cooler in the direct sunlight than under the roof. Anyway, after Finn & Co. gave me a little bit of that party rock that I needed we headed in to catch uber-buzzband No Age.

No Age – Red 7 – 3/19/09

I have always heard great things about these guys live but had never been able to catch them. I heard their set at Pitchfork last year was really good, but I was elsewhere catching Dinosaur Jr. at the time I believe (another theme this weekend as well). Anyway, they certainly lived up to the hype in my mind live. Their album is obviously a very noisy deconstructed punk rock affair and so you kind of wonder how that works live, but these guys were on their game. It is largely a wall of noise for most of the songs but the subtleties of it come out enough to where it gets everyone going. The crowd got fired up into it and pretty much every song was an incredibly high energy rock out. On the last song the guitarist even crowd surfed (see photo at the top of the post) which is always a sign of live greatness. These guys killed it and I was incredibly impressed with their live show. I think the type of music they make can lead to a very hit or miss live show (see Wavves), but these guys were all hit and no miss. Great show and a great end to our first afternoon in Austin for our first SXSW.

Up next I will dive into the details of our Thursday night escapades which ended with my favorite face-melter of all time at the Mohawk. Stay tuned……

Be sure to check out all of my photos from Thursday’s action (day and night) here in our Gallery!

Hockey – Too Fake – From Too Fake
The Hard Lessons – See and Be Scene – From B&G Sides
No Age – Teen Creeps – From Nouns