SXSW - Wed.

Once Suzanne directed me to Oh My Rockness for its list of free SXSW (i.e. no badge/wristband required) shows, I knew I had to make a plan to catch some bands. Since I was only familiar with about 3 bands (including Exit Clov), I turned to Bill Chapin and Dargan for some recommendations. So, after finding this other list of comprehensive free shows, I RSVPed for a few shows and printed out some other invitations.

Wednesday, March 15, 2006.

Bill recommended Margot and the Nuclear So & Sos. I noticed that they have a cello, so I figured they must be good. I RSVPed for the show at Beauty Bar. Beforehand, Rich and I hit Cafe Josie for some dinner. There, I had the first polenta I actually really liked. We then headed to Beauty Bar about an hour early because I wasn't sure if we'd have to wait in line or not. Fortunately, we didn't, and were so early that we also caught the party before the party we wanted to go to, and got to skip the whole "checking your name on the guest list" process. For the Death and Taxes (magazine) party, we saw Say Anything, and Rich and I had a debate of whether or not the guitar player was a girl or just a really skinny guy with long hair. (Really skinny guy with long hair won.) The other big debate of the evening was whether the guy in front of us was Zach Braff or not. It probably wasn't, but the guy really looked a lot like our favorite NU/Garden State star.

For the Jet Blue/AM/something Tiger party, we caught another band named Kunek, who we thought was Margot. Instead, Kunek is another band with a cello and piano. They were really good, and I bought their CD.

Afterwards, Margo and the Nuclear So & Sos came on, and they were as good as Bill promised. We scored some free promotional singles for their new album coming out, "The Dust of Retreat." I'm also happy to report that they are playing a concert on April 8 at the Club Cafe in Pittsburgh.

One of the few bands I recognized playing at SXSW is the Minus 5. While looking up shows at the Club Cafe, I noticed that the Minus 5 (with Peter Buck of REM fame) is playing a show there as well on Friday, March 24th!