Sunday, March 18, 2012

SXSW - 3/14/12

So I had so much fun tonight that I wanted to write about it.

We started out with a loose plan, I wanted to see Jennifer O'Connor and Anais Mitchell tonight but wasn't sure what is was going to be like, if I was going to be denied because I had no wristband or what... so I kept my hopes low.

We first went to go see a man by the name of Andy Zimf because Kami had recommended to him to us so we headed over to Crowbar on South Congress.  The show was, we thought, to start at 4pm.  We headed over there early because we weren't sure what the crowd or parking was going to be like.  It was all a breeze, we parked right at the venue and we were there around 3pm.  Lucky for us we were early because the time posted online was wrong and he was actually playing when we got there.  We got to see him play about 4-5 songs, including a crowd sing-a-long (which you can see in my photos I posted).  He had a really good stage presence and was witty.  An excellent songwriter that I'll have to check out more from.

We informed the bar that the times on the Do512 site were wrong for the event and they said they were aware and the site was notified to fix it.  After that we were onto our next event, we headed down South Congress, still on this side of the river, to our next venue.  We were there quite early though so we decided to walk around South Congress as we had never done that before.  We stopped by an art/poster shop, much like I would've seen at Flatstock had we gone, saw some cool posters like L7, Lunachicks, Bob Dylan, The Verve, etc... it was quite nice.  We kept walking and we spotted a large gathering off the road... it was free, no wristband so we went in.  This was South By San Jose, a nice open air gathering with bands and booths for all the local businesses.  There we got to see Amy Cook play.  If we had gotten there earlier we could've seen Blitzen Trapper which would've been AWESOME!  Amy Cook was fantastic though.  We had a nice time there.

We headed back over to Dominican Joe's coffee shop to see Jennifer O'Connor.  We saw Tim Foljahn who was playing before her with some shared bandmates.  As I sat there watching Jennifer O'Connor play I was taken back to many many years ago when I sat literally two feet from Bonfire Madigan as she played at the Bar of Soap in Dallas.  Not since that day have a had such a great experience.  This time I was two feet away from Jennifer O'Connor while she played, it was fantastic.  If you've never heard of her then it's likely because you don't talk about music much with me.  She is a great songwriter, reminded me of Kristin Hersh when I first heard her.  Look up "Always On My Mind" on youtube.

After the show was over I got her new album and talked to her a bit.  Turns out she released it on her own label which is Kiam Records, www.kiamrecords.com.  So that's really cool that she's doing her own thing now.  I also picked up the show poster so I can frame that later.  Huge thanks to New Granada for putting on the event!

We decided to leave our car parked on South Congress and walk into downtown, so that was great because we had never done that before... Austin is the best city I've ever lived in, it's perfect.  The walk into downtown takes you over the bridge over Ladybird Lake, which we have kayaked in many many times.  It's greatness.

As we were walking into downtown we saw an area setup that was advertising a Natural Gas car and some singer/songwriters were playing, turns out it was Graham Colton who was a very nice guy.  They also had free food, so we got ourselves a hot dog, some chips, and a coke.  We also witnessed an epic game of huge jenga, see my photos for more on that.

I wanted to scope out the venue that Anais Mitchell was going to be playing in, so I could get an idea of how hard it was gonna be to get in and all that.  Turns out it wasn't hard at all, there was a cover but we had no issues.  We were there really early so we decided to walk around 6th St.  We saw all the happenings around 6th St but our dogs were barkin' as they say and I needed to rest my feet so we chilled for awhile.

We decided to go back to the venue and chill there instead.  We got to catch Clare & The Reasons and Julia Nunes who were playing before.  I had heard of Clare & the Reasons before but didn't remember what they sounded like.  It's like a french-type Air sound mixed with some folky elements, it was nice.  Next up was Julia Nunes, who we were informed, was a youtube sensation when she posted a bunch of ukelele covers awhile back.  This was noticed and off her career went.  This woman could sing!  It totally reminded me of the first time I saw Sarah Jaffe play, I was just blown away by her voice and her confidence.  She was a total riot, she had great lyrics and played them in a fun way.  She definitely fulfills one of the goals I had for SXSW which was to find some new artists I had never heard of before.

The time had come though for me to finally get to see Anais Mitchell live and wow! she did not disappoint.  Totally amazing, her voice is so soft and elegant.  This was all in an actual church, in the sanctuary, so we were sitting in pews.  We were in the very front and center, so I was literally 6 feet tops from where she was so this was a great moment.  I could tell the crowd was totally into it too.  If you can check her out I would totally recommend it.  After she was done playing I was able to get the setlist (like the proper music dork that I am) and a signed copy of her album and a nice short chit-chat with her to tell her how great I think her music is.

So yeah... the weather was perfect and I got to see not only two of my favorite artists, Jennifer O'Connor and Anais Mitchell... but we also had some nice unexpected surprises and overall it was a great time!!!  Can't wait to go do it again tomorrow.

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