SXSW 2008: Thursday, March 13

I started my day off on Thursday with Seattle's Best bagel, which is definitely worse than even New York's Worst bagel. It was chewy and doughy and the cream cheese was watery. Yuck.



I headed over to Filter's party over at Cedar Street Courtyard, where I enjoyed the free BBQ while listening to the first band. It was kind of a grey morning with a gentle cool breeze. Perfect for a casual sit-down.

No Age @ Mohawk for Rhapsody Rocks Party


Peggy & Shirley of New York Noise @ Mohawk for Rhapsody Rocks Party


Then I decided to go with friends to hit No Age at the Mohawk for the Rhapsody Rocks party. They are a two-piece punk outfit signed to Sub Pop, who I felt bad for because it was a sucky crowd who either weren't awake enough to be at a punk show in what No Age called the "light time" or the crowd didn't have any sense of humor or energy. It was probably a combination of these. I think maybe it would have been better in some basement where the kids were sweaty and drunk...

I also saw Motorhead at Stubbs for the Vice/Scion party. There was a long line but it moved quickly. It was awesome to see that instead of clapping after and during songs, this crowd was pumping metal fingers. Rawk. When the band played "Ace of Spades," the audience started going more apeshit and finally started to throw beers on stage. I love it when that happens. That means you don't care about getting drunk, you care about living in the moment.

Yo La Tengo at Fader Fort for Lou Reed Tribute


Afterwards, I shot over back to the Fader Fort to try and get into the Lou Reed tribute going on over there. I have big love for the Velvet Underground and Lou Reed. I missed his screening of his Berlin concert, so I wanted to try and catch this. I wondered if he was there. Is it painful to hear different versions of his songs? We got there as Ezra Furman went on to do a cover of "Heroin" that had punk 'tude, but I really didn't need to hear Joseph Arthur's version of "Pale Blue Eyes." Yo La Tengo hit the stage, and brought a cuddliness to Lou's songs that I actually really loved.

Jo & Ilirjana


Jo & Mike


I ran into the Apache Beat gang over at Fader, and I was reminiscing about the days of the Blue Sparks -- a band that Phil from Apache Beat used to be in -- and of The Realistics. I believe the first time I saw Blue Sparks and the Realistics together, it was at this sort of illegal space called Space (I think) on 14th street, and it got busted by the cops. Yes, basically, it was amazing. Blue Sparks used to have this song that really got me going called "Tell Me What You Want" where it was a call and response between Phil and Alanna -- "Tell me what you want..." -- "I want, I want, I want!" -- "Tell me what you need!" -- "I need, I need, I need!" I wish I had a recording of that one in my vaults. I was sad when they broke up, but now Phil is back in action with his sis Christina, Ilirjana on mic, Mike (of Realistics) on bass and Neil on drums (doublecheck).

Time Machine @ Light Bar


Daniel dragged me over to Emo's for Howlin' Rain, who are composed of people from Comets on Fire. They are like like metal meets Creedence. Crazy. Later I was walking past Fader again and heard NERD in effect. I was grooving a bit outside the gate as frat boys walked past me and asked "What is going on here?" Then I ran over to Light Bar to catch Time Machine, who are a hip-hop group I've been following for a couple years now but never ever had a chance to see in New York. We saw Bushwick Bill walk in -- he's been crashing a lot of parties and guesting spontaneously, which is pretty cool. The venue had bad sound, but the group pulled off making me dance and feel good by the end of their set with their punchy coordinated dance moves, beats and rhymes. They also performed their MIA remix, which was awesome. I was into it. I spotted Roxy Cottontail shaking some booty and snapping pix at the show. I hope the boys come to New York again some time soon.

The Spits @ Emo's Jr


We ambled past the Playboy party afterwards and decided not to wait in line for the party, even though I really wanted to see Justice. It was a bit too much douche for my taste, and I didn't want to spend the night "finagling." I did want to see Justice, but I'm sure they will play again sometime in New York. Instead, we headed over to catch The Spits at Emo's Jr, but we got there just within the last seconds of their last song. As we were going in, some punk rock girl was being kicked out of the venue with her foot in the air (it looked like she was going to kick the bouncer and he caught her foot in the air and then shoved her out the door). I wish I had seen the whole thing transpire.

Fried Pickles From Daddy's on 6th Street


I was going to see Times New Viking next, but was really hungry and popped over to this place called Daddy's for my second round of fried pickles of the week. Yikes, it was so good, but I probably didn't need to add that spicy grease to my belly.