Mars Volta at the Austin Music Hall. There are still tickets available. www.directevents.net
JesseFest a fundraiser honoring Joe Ely’s former guitarist Jesse “Guitar” Taylor. Joe Ely, Jimmy Dale Gilmore, Butch Hancock, Reckless Kelly, Terry Allen and Double Trouble will perform at Antone’s. www.antones.net
Friday
There is a FREE show at Emo’s inside with Lions headlining, A Few Nice Things, Scorpion Child, and PJ and the Bear (great name) open. www.emosaustin.com
Mash up artist Car Stereo Wars with special guests are at The Beauty Bar. www.beautybar.com
Sunday
The 1st Annual Lazy Sunday Bluegrass Mass at the Cactus Cafe starts at 3pm and goes to midnight. This is a FREE show. See their site for the lineup www.cactus@union.edu
Combo Mahalo are playing their Hawaiian tunes at Central Market. Grab a drink and some lunch in the store and listen to some tunes out on the deck.
The Lonestar Rollergirls are skating on Sunday at the Convention Center. The Putas del Fuego vs. the Rhinestone Cowgirls are the teams. If you have never been before it is a great time. Each team brings passionate fans. There are fun concequences to the girls if they get a penalty from the refs (ex. Long jump, arm wrestling, spank ally, etc.). Advanced tickets are $13 and $15 at the box office. The match starts at 7pm with doors at 6pm. http://www.txrd.com/
Downtown will be crowded this weekend with the Texas Relays and other events. You have been warned.
Friday - Oak Hill World’s Fair. Cyril Neville & Tribe 13, Floyd Domino and the Oak Hill All-Stars. A non-profit event benefiting local trails and parks. www.oakhillworldsfair.org
Friday and Saturday- The Lone Star Rod & Kustom Round Up at Travis County Expo Center. Weekend passes $10. Great Rockabilly and custom hot rods during the day. Plus a swap meet starting at 10am. At night on South Congress ther are more great Rockabilly at The Continental Club, Trophy’s and Jo’s parking lot. www.lonestarroundup.com
Saturday- Louisiana Swamp Thing and Crawfish Festival. George Clinton and Cowboy Mouth and tons of Zydeco/Swamp music. MLK and Congress gates open at 10am, $15 entry fee. Authentic Louisiana Arts, Crafts and Carnival Rides. www.roadwayevents.com
Sunday- The Grind Action Sports and Music Festival. 11am - 10pm. MLK and Congress. $10 at the gate. Wakeboarding and Skateboard Competition plus Street Bike Demos. Music acts: Mickey Avalon, Eve 6, Fair To Midland, Girl in a Coma, The Vanished and more. Food and drink for sell all day. www.thegrindseries.com
I finally made it out to hear some bands on Friday night. A friend of mine and I intially decided to go to hear some DJ/electronica but we changed our minds due to Saturday’s tentative plan of going to hear similar music. Again no wrist band for me so I was looking at free shows. We hooked up with some other friends who were going to club Orchid on 7th. Which isn’t called Orchid anymore. The signage said Black and Tan, we assumed named after the drink (stout and pale beer in the same glass). But the bar didn’t have the ingredients to make the drink their bar is named after. That’s just wrong. They compensated with a drink that was almost the same but come on, that’s a no brainer. The Viper Room bought it out for the week of SXSW I’m guessing because there was signage in many places. Here are the bands we heard…
We Barbarians. This trio was really good. They played drums (BTW this guy was a heavy hitter), bass and guitar with a few keyboard hits thrown in on some songs. The lead guitarist also sang full of emotion. I recommend checking them out http://www.myspace.com/webarbarians
The Morning Benders. IndieRock/Lofi foursome of youngsters. Quality band. They are playing Homeslice Pizza at 2pm on Saturday. http://www.myspace.com/themorningbenders
Nico Vega. Indie Rock Trio consisting of drums, guitar and female on lead vocals. Aggressive band who the crowd loved. http://www.myspace.com/nicovega
Helmet. Metal since early 90’s. I used to have several of their cassettes or CDs. The support members have changed but the heavy guitar grooves they are known for haven’t changed at all. The packed crowd had their faces melted off and if their ears were still connected to their heads, they are still ringing. http://www.myspace.com/helmetrocks
Saturday has the potential of being a long one so I’m going to get some sleep.
You now know about the free shows at Auditorium Shores. Also you know about the free in-stores at various local record stores. A few posts ago I gave you a link to free shows during the festival. Here are the picks for Friday night.
Antone’shas Vampire Weekend, DeVotchKa and Constantines. Club De Ville on Red River has Bobby Bare Jr., White Rabbits and White Denim. Emo’s Annex has got a rock lineup of Super Suckers, Blue Cheer, Lions, The Meat Men, Black Earth and Red Fang. MXPX and Story of the Year headline at the Habana Annex Backyard. Stubb’swill be sold out tonight for N.E.R.D., Sia, MGMT and The Cribs. If you don’t like these choices there are plenty of other great bands to see/hear tonight.
Also don’t forget about Flatstock. This is a free/open to the public poster show where you can purchase screen printed artwork and usually meet the person that created it. There are a hundred or so booths are set up in the convention center with a wide variety of styles. The pieces are also pretty cheap. A typical poster is $10-$25. Give it a shot if you haven’t been before.
So you got no money, no wrist band, and no connections to get into any music venues. You do have a job but you can’t leave for half the day to any of the free day shows. Well you do have a few options.
At Auditorium Shores: Thursday - Groupo Fantasma (6pm), Del the Funky Homosapien (7pm), Spoon (8pm).
So you’re saying to yourself but I want to drink for free and listen to punk music tonight. Well, myopenbar.com presents a two stage show at the Texas Garage on 3rd and Guadalupe. You just need to RSVP, find more info here http://austin.myopenbar.com/ show starts at 9pm.
FREE - Plush on Red River starting at 9pm has a free show with Caspian, Constants, Consider the Source, Jonah Matranga, Whitman.
FREE - The Parlor starting at 7pm has Spain Colored Orange, Monster Sleeps Quiet, Low Red Land
Well, I hope this helps you out in your Thursday quest to escape your 9 to 5 while still getting in on some SXSW.
Okay so I have people coming up to me all the time asking, “What is up with the free shows at SXSW? Do I need a wristband?” Oh My Rockness has compiled a great list (is it comprehensive? maybe) of the various free shows. These are mainly day shows. http://sxsw.ohmyrockness.com/Showlist.cfm?freeShows=true Also their site has lists of other shows and recommendations. Since I do not have a wristband I will be using their list to find some great shows. Saturday there is a free show called Mess With Texas Party at Waterloo Park that will be going all day. Checkout their lineup here http://messwithtexasparty.com/ More posts coming soon.
I had my first experience at a rodeo this weekend at the Travis Expo. Center. Yes, I saw a monkey riding a border collie. Yes, I ate some good food in the BBQ cook-off area. Yes, I saw drunk women wearing clothes that were 4 sizes to small for them. Yes, I saw basketball hoops with bent rims with teen boys trying win a stuffed animal for their girls. Yes, I saw lots of kids and family having a good time on the rides in the carnival. The actual Rodeo was fun too. Bull riding, bronco, barrel racing, team calf roping, and a few more. Then high school kids came out to tackle a calf and then pull them across a line. I guess it’s harder than it looks because some of them were having some problems. Also there were 5 year olds holding on to sheep as they sprinted around the arena. That was funny, I don’t care who you are. Jack Ingram filled in for the strained vocals of Miranda Lambert. Many people left expecting to hear her. The crowds were big and fun was had by most everyone I saw.
Tonight, Friday, What Made Milwaukee Famous is having their CD release party at Emo’s outdoor stage. Lemurs, Loxsly and Black Before Red open the show. Dance, move and sweat to the Latin beats/horns of Groupo Fantasma at the Parish, tickets are $15 (preshow only). Styx is out at the Star of Texas Rodeo.
Saturday night, jazz super group Blaze is early at Central Market (6:30-9). The Scabs play their dirty funk at Antone’s. The Faceless Werewolves have their CD release party at Beerland. Starting at noon and going throughout the night is Psych Fest at The Red Barn, bands include: The Black Angels, Spindrift, The Strange Boys, Acid Tomb, Ringo Deathstarr, and many others. If you are into country Miranda Lambert is at the Star of Texas Fair and Rodeo on Sunday, Neal McCoy is on Saturday. There are many bands playing on the grounds of the Travis County Expo Center throughout the rodeo. Plus, there are carnival rides and a peting zoo for the kids. For more info http://www.staroftexas.org/default.php .
SXSW Films are ongoing this weekend. Don’t be discouraged you can get in, you will just need to get in line early. For descriptions of the movies go to http://2008.sxsw.com/film/ . The Bank Job, The Band’s Visit, College Road Trip, Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day, Steep, and 10,000 B.C. open this weekend in local movie theatres.
I had my first trip to the Alamo Ritz on Friday (2/15) to see the Master Pancake version of Back to the Future. If you have never heard of Master Pancake, the premise is several comedians sit up front with mics and make fun of the movie. John Erler is the ringleader of this group and he was his typical intelligently funny self while still being dirty of course. Comedian/flim maker Ben Bartley and local author/comedian Owen Egerton are making a guest run during this movie. Two thirds of the way through the movie the guys stop it so they can perform a skit. Doc Brown (John) was trying to read Marty’s (Owen) mind to see if he was in lust with his mother when he was back in time. Marty was extra excited due to the all the Pepsi he drank, oh and the onset of early Parkinson’s (their joke not mine). Afterwards the characters took questions from the audience with hilarious results (mainly of Owen dancing around). The only down side of the evening was the audience missed many of the jokes during the movie due to sound from the film being too loud drowning out the guys commentary. If you haven’t made it down to the Ritz, you should it is a beautiful theater.
