SXSW 2007 Post Post

So SXSW is over. We didn't hit it as hard as we have in past years because we decided to also work on our deck during the day (very tiring!), and Stella decided she would not only give up the bottle, but refuse to take milk from a cup too. We came home Wednesday night after seeing an excellent show by the Unbearables to find that my mother had been rocking Stella for an hour and a half because she wouldn't take milk. She wailed until I finally nursed her. We've decided it must be a comfort thing, as I'd already pumped when I nursed her but she still seemed content afterwards. So we had to plan to be home about midnight the rest of the festival.

Despite the abbrieviated schedule, we saw some great bands. Wednesday, The Hourly Radio, out of Dallas, was a great Placebo-inspired band whose music I really dug, although I thought the lead singer's voice was a bit high. Thursday night we caught Say Hi to Your Mom, already one of my favorites since I caught them at SXSW 05, and The Foreign Islands. a new band I really dug. Kind of Interpol-y guitar work with a lead singer who looked like Elvis Costello and had a tendency to shout into a microphone that had a fuzzy effect on it. We also caught a group of Swedish boys called lo-fi-fnk who were doing some crazy cheesy dance music. The audience was lapping it up and cracking me up with their stereotypical rave-ish dancing. Then we headed over to Spiros and caught Buck 65, who turned out to be boring (except for an excellent DJ), so we left a few minutes into his set.

Friday night was an interesting one, to say the least. We got a late start because we'd had a busy day working on the deck and then going to pick out the materials for our new house. We went to eat at Waterloo, our first meal sans baby since probably about December. It was nice. Then we headed over to B.D. Riley's for the Eames Era, out of Baton Rouge, LA. They were pretty boring upbeat pop, but were distinguished by the fact that their lead singer was incredibly rude to the rest of the band. She kept making snide comments about the guitarist and berating him when his guitar strap broke. They also were rude to the audience. Did not care for them one bit. Then we saw one of our favorite finds of the festival, The Victorian English Gentlemen's Club from Cardiff, Wales. Two girls, one on drums and one on bass, and a guy on guitar. All three shared singing duties. They sounded like a darker B-52's. Really dug them, so much so that we bought their cd. I also got to tell the incredibly cool bassist what a great show they'd put on. We didn't remember who the next band was, and they were putting up a projector and a screen, so we figured we'd hate them, so we headed out to RedRum. Well, when we got to RedRum, there was a line of chatty teens apparently waiting to pay cover. We have decided that to work a door at a bar you have to be as inefficient as possible. No one went in for about 3 minutes. We put our ear plugs in because you could hear the band already paying inside. Eventually we were told that wristbands and badges could go to the front of the line. So we did so, and I showed my wristband to the girl at the door. She couldn't figure out how to get the scanner to work, even though it's really easy. I thought she'd said that I could go in, so I started to enter the bar. She yelled, "WAIT!", and hit her arm across my chest in a karate chop. It hurt. I was stunned and she took my ID. Tim said, "let's go." And so I grabbed for my ID and said, "give me my ID". She looked at me and said, in most evil growl I have ever heard from a human, "I'm not finished with it yet!" I said, "give it to me, we're not going in." She handed it back to me, and I left, still a little shaky. We were pissed we didn't get to see the band, but I was more mad that she had treated me that way. Tim joked that that all the good security people must have been hired as airport screeners. On the way back to the car, we were a little down, but then things looked up more than I could ever have imagined. First, we ran into Matt Howell, a friend from college and had a nice chat, then we got free ice cream from the Ice Cream Man, then we got to pet a chihuahua puppy a girl was holding when we walked back to the parking garage. More than made up for being assaulted by some dumb fat chick with a power complex.

Saturday night was the best night, an excellent finish to the festival. We were pretty worn out when we started because we'd worked almost the entire day on finishing the handrails for the deck. First we saw Brute Force and Daughter of Force, who we'd both separately gotten super-excited about after hearing on the Lounge Show. They did not disappoint. Brute Force was apparently a 60's loungey singer, and his daughter just livened up the kitschy appeal. Their father/daughter banter added an extra comedic element to the proceedings. We only had $7 on us, or we would have bought their album too. Then we saw Golem, a most excellent Gypsy band. They were just a blast, the entire audience was dancing their butts off. In fact, they taught us a dance which we all did, it was the coolest thing ever! The entire audience was forced to dance. Otherwise, you'd get stepped on. I even taught the dance to a latecomer next to me who we wound up chatting to after the show. We'll definitely have to get their album in the future. Tim's muscles were giving out on him, so we went home after that.

All in all an excellent Spring Break. My parents were wonderful and selfless and watched Stella for us not only while we went to SXSW, but also while we finished the deck. Plus, my dad went and picked up more supplies for us when we ran out. Twice! We had a great visit with them, it was a lot of fun and believe it or not, even after 4 days together, not a single political disagreement (or any other kind of disagreement)! We also got to see what it would feel like to have a nanny because we were so uninvolved in her care for the past few days. Stella is totally out of sorts now, of course, because her round-the-clock playmates are gone, but it was worth it. We also got to show my parents the models of our house (although I forgot to take pictures), which was fun. Back to the grind tomorrow, including getting ready for Stella's party next Saturday!