SXSW day 2

I was totally exhausted after the first night of music and the super long car ride which got us into Austin at 8am the previous day. I had planned to make it to the earlier Young Man day party show but just couldn't get going in time. Luckily I made it just in time for their second though, which was at a packed dive bar. I'd say a lot of the people were their for St. Patty's day drinking before seeing music, but Young Man won them over. Playing a trimmed down set of the same tunes as the night before there was never a dull moment save for tuning up between songs. The sound wasn't perfect but it was definitely loud and again the band often shined the most when their music swirled into crescendos with the whole band rocking out together.

After the show it was a welcome relief to head back to their hotel and relax, I still felt pretty worn out from the night before. We decided to go see Big K.R.I.T. again at a party nearby the hotel, which proved to be a great decision. The venue wasn't the greatest but he brought the energy and a crowd of loyal fans, several of whom knew basically every word. Also ran into my man Dee Goodz who had just made it into Austin that day and Big K.R.I.T. gave a shoutout to him so that was cool. We moseyed on back to the hotel for a welcome dip in the pool and hot tub, which did much to soothe my already aching body. We knew we had a long night ahead of us so it was nice to get some relaxing in beforehand.

The show we were most interested in checking out was the Pitchfork showcase at a church a few blocks away. This was hands down the most acoustically impressive place to see music at SXSW in my opinion. I wasn't even familiar with the bands but I had been to the church before and really enjoyed it (despite the lack of beers sales and public bathrooms) so I was down. And I'm glad to say the first show I saw their may have been my favorite of all of SXSW. This group Glasser, based out of LA and fronted by Cameron Mesirow I have come to find, had an amazing sound that definitely appeals to me. It was reminiscent of Bjork and Fever Ray, an incredible female vocalist backed up by a band that used a lot of electronic elements in their music that blended into a beautiful soundscape. I took one good video from the show, doesn't entirely do them justice, but this will definitely be a band whose material I will purchase:

After the show I went to rendezvous with some other friends. There was a slight delay so I snuck back into the Parish again for a second to check out Calvin Harris at this showcase featuring a bunch of awesome electronic artists. The club was bumping, I would have definitely stayed longer if I had known people there. But as it was I left to meet my friends at another club to see a band some of them were interested in.

I arrived first and was displeased to find that their show was to take place upstairs at at a venue that also had a band playing downstairs which bled terribly into the upstairs' puny soundsystem. I didn't feel like sticking through that, and I gathered some of my friends and urged them to come back to the church with the amazing acoustics.

There we saw Twin Shadow, another band I had recently heard of but not had a chance to listen to their music. They were really cool, and again the sound was amazing in the Church. We left a little early to go meet our friend who had just arrived at the Driskill hotel, but I'm very glad we got to catch some of Twin Shadow.

After we rendezvoused with our friend and had another couple of drinks we went to see our friends' band the Outerlys who were playing the Red Gorilla festival, an off-shoot festival that takes place during the same time as SXSW. They were a lot of fun, fronted by my good friend Mick Utley who always brings great energy to the table.

After their show we didn't have time to check out anything else, so we gathered everyone up and headed home after another long day. Officially reached the half-way point now.