Just got back from Austin, and had a wonderful impromptu SXSW weekend. Maybe it lacked the star-power of my momentous 2002 experience, but it was just as delightful in many ways.
I sort of gave up on SXSW a couple of years ago when Amanda and I attempted to go to some shows, but were turned away in favor of badge-wielding hipsters (in their defense, we were badge-wielding hipsters back in 2002). So this year, I really only planned to hang out with Aneil and maybe try to get into one low-key show. (Thus I did not bother to bring my camera, so no photos…I will simply borrow Pitchfork’s show pics for the blog).
Back in maybe 2003, I bought a charming LP by a completely random band based on a quick sampling at Good Records in Dallas. Band was called Snowglobe, and they were vaguely Elephant 6-ish, thus fitting right into my genre of choice. I wasn’t sure where they were from or why they never toured, but I loved the album, and went on to put one of their songs on the first mixtape I made for Aneil (to dazzle him with my indie cred). He later managed to find a used copy of another of their later albums, but to my knowledge, none of our friends had ever even heard of these dudes. Much to our delight, they were playing a SXSW showcase this year, plus it was at Opal Divine’s, which was far enough down 6th street to not draw crazy crowds. Our enchanted evening started off with shockingly easy-to-find parking, easy-to-get-into show, and chit chat with the adorable band. It turns out they are roughly our age, and are essentially just like our friends. Ha. They even told us that they don’t tour because one of the guys is in med school, so apparently med school DOES ruin everything for everyone! And we purchased their other LP and the bassist was so glad that we were fans that he went and got the rest of the band to sign our copy. Plus they kept chatting with Aneil (he is real normal and charming with bands, whereas I am slightly nuts). It was a really satisfying experience.
The singer looks an awful lot like the lead singer of The Shins, no?
Aneil charmed the bass player:
Then Saturday we had a charming picnic with friends at a park along the water. I convinced Aneil that Popeye’s chicken is the quintessential picnic food (seriously, my family always did that!) and we bonded with one of Aneil’s BFF’s girlfriend (she is adorable) and several of her friends, all of whom were incredibly nice. Then we decided to walk over to this free Garden Party at the French Legation (some random historical area). They has $1 cans of PBR and free popsicles, and we got to hear 3 decent shows. (Sadly we didn’t know that one of my random bands of the moment, Noah and the Whale, played a few hours earlier, but ah well.) We got there in time for Thurston Moore, She & Him (Zooey Deschanel’s band), and Okkervill River (Aneil loves them). Was laid back and fun, and it was sort of cool to see indie screen goddess, Zooey D. take the stage, seeing as I consider myself a super-fan after sitting through all 6 hrs of “Tin Man” (for the record I love her minimalist AM pop collaboration with M. Ward). We topped off the afternoon with Freebirds, so I was a happy bunny indeed.
She & Him
The Him
The She - Man, is she adorable or what? That's it...I am going to have to grow out my hair and get me some adorably 70's style chunky bangs.
Our plan was to head back downtown to catch a free Snowglobe show, but we were awful tired after our day of fun in the sun and we didn’t want to push our chances at snagging another great parking spot, so we just headed to a random bar on Congress with Aneil’s bandmates (they are a 90’s cover band named “My So-Called Band”) to watch some random tribute bands and hang out. The Beatles tribute band threw me over my Beatles cover limit (after last week’s lame American Idol theme night) but I really enjoyed the delirious commitment of the Devo tribute band that played later. Ha.
So that was my weekend in Austin. Lots of sunshine and hipsters and music and fun. Just gave me more reasons to want to move there (besides the fact that darling brown boy lives there). We’ll see how that goes…
In the meantime, hope you all have fun this week…it’s almost spring!
This week I hate: Houston traffic (I hate this all the time, but it was particularly annoying last week), George W.’s apparent loss of his remaining grip on reality (did you hear about his strange Western sing-along last week?), and my apartment’s cell phone reception (yes friends, this is why I don’t tend to call you back or catch your calls for that matter).
This week I love: that a fun weekend could make me forget the previous week’s crankiness, free music, dancing, and mac n’ cheese.
xoxo
