Day Four - SXSW 2008
Total Number of Bands Seen:
Only 7. Night Marchers, Thurston Moore And The New Wave Bandits, Okkervil River, The Deadly Syndrome, Georgie James, Murs, and the Make Believe.
Total Number of Tacos Consumed:
Three. Four, if you count the “lucky” one pictured above.
Notable Shows That I Was Unable to See:
Too many to mention. She & Him (took too long to set up), M1 of Dead Prez (did not perform at his scheduled time), Monotonix (heard their set, but we were trapped on the wrong side of a fence), Neon Neon (same as M1)…
Pints of St. Patrick’s Day Green Beer Consumed:
Zero. But I tried. Oh, how I drunkenly tried.

Day four, the final day of the festival, was a well-intentioned mess that involved far too much drinking, not enough taco eating, and lots of schedule confusion. Weaker men would have just crumbled from the pressure, but I carried on and just got drunker and drunker and drunker…

The hardest part of the day, and there were many, was losing the taco consumption crown to Eric Grandy at The Stranger. Despite his petite frame and small girlish hands (which are unfit to hold a fully-loaded taco), Grandy was victorious, thus cementing his legacy as the Kobayashi of taco eating.

Moving on to the music. It's no fun being the last guy on the Monotonix hype wagon, but seeing the Israeli band has been a real challenge for me. It just has never worked out. I tried my best to catch them at Waterloo Park, but due to a complete lack of signs, order, or help (common SXSW themes), we were stuck just listening to them from the other side of a fence. Not a good way to start things out.

We eventually did make it into the park, where we caught the Night Marchers, the new project from John Reis (Rocket From the Crypt, Hot Snakes, Jehu, plus he's an all-around badass). Best described as a forceful combination of every band he's ever been in, the Marchers were real troopers for roasting in the blaring Texas sun as they pounded out some jittery and raw garage punk, capped by Reis howling pipes. I can only imagine how great they'd be in a dark club with a pair of cold drinks in each hand.

I'll skip the Thurston Moore set (nothing too exciting, and far too crowded to snap a photo), or the booooring wait for She & Him, who took their sweet time setting up. They were 90 minutes late in playing, so I vanished and met some folks at a certain restaurant that had this frightening bit of art pinned to their wall.

Seeing how they just might be my favorite modern rock band ever, a trip to Austin would not be complete without catching at least one Okkervil River performance. Opening with the assassination ode "The President's Dead," the band was in rare form as it was the final performance of guitarist Brian Cassidy, who is leaving the band to focus on being a father. Singer Will Sheff was focused on Cassidy, oftentimes leaning on him during solos (ala The Boss!) and staring at the departing guitarist during their rollicking set.

Before the disappointment of the evening set in—as the festival ended not with a bang, but instead with a muffled whimper—I caught the D.C. pop duo Georgie James. It's amazing how effortless their pop songs are—it just seems so easy for them—and they capped things off with a fantastic cover of the Zombies "This Will Be Our Year."

I wanted M1, but I got Murs. I'm all for Murs, and his odd hairstyle, but he didn't satisfy the militant vegan hiphop I was craving, plus, the venue's bass-heavy sound system wasn't the ideal situation if you wanted to hear a single rhyme he delivered.

This night had to end, so why not let a Kinsella do the honors? Make Believe performed at an Irish Pub (my second of the night), and while Tim Kinsella's screetching vocals may not be the best way to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, it was a nice trip down memory lane. A Kinsella show on a Saturday night with my friends, all that was missing was my mom waiting outside, idling in the Astro Van, ready to drive us back home.