After a few big nights on the trot, I decided that the best thing to do would be to take it easy this afternoon, recuperate and tackle the day head on from 5pm. Andrew Ferris, Joe Dougan and I have arranged to meet at 5pm to see boy/girl drum/guitar duo The Ting Tings, who are playing the Bat Bar venue inside the Convention Centre. It's a big massive space with a really well-lit stage and a superb sound system, and they're also filming all the shows in there for TV broadcast or something. The Ting Tings are pretty good, nothing earth-shattering, but solid pop tunes all the same. In an effort to showcase their skills they even strip things back to just an acoustic guitar and vocals, which works quite well.We take a quick pit stop for pizza and tacos to refuel, then head back to the same venue to catch Sons & Daughters and their unique brand of outlaw rock 'n' roll for the second time this week. Then we're off to Emo's to see Belfast homies Oppenheimer. We never tire of their synth-pop shenanigans and onstage banter. It's really good to hear tracks off upcoming second album 'Take The Whole Midrange And Boost It', and set closer 'Before And After The Quake' becomes lodged in my brain well into the next day. Immediately after they finish they have to leave and undertake a 20hr drive to LA. Hard to the core.
Next up is one of Andrew Ferris' shouts - the bloggers favourite, Okkervil River, who actually hail from Austin themselves so are on hometurf for this gig. I don't know how this band has passed me by for so long, but not having any preconceptions or ideas about them was a good frame of mind to be checking out the show from. They put me in mind of Bright Eyes crossed with The Hold Steady, music that is laden with emotion and delivered with real passion and verve. I can see their appeal and will definitely be swotting up on their much lauded album in the future.
Andrew and I head over to see Neon Neon, but on the way we get informed that the times had changed and they actually played an hour earlier than in the program. It’s a bit of bad luck, but we decide to just head back to 6th Street and hook up with Joe Dougan. Joe needed some fags so we dive into a newsagent type place. I bump into Danny and Bruce from the Whip, who are on their way to see someone called The Bloody Beetroots. They said they had played with them before, and they’re banging. The rest of us have never heard of them, but seeing as we’re at a loose end we decide to take a chance and head round to check them out too. Boy are we glad we did.They’re playing in a ‘college dance club’ called Vice, and as soon as we walk through the door of the place it’s clear that it has a totally different atmosphere to anywhere else we’ve been at the festival. Rather than a crowd consisting of chin strokers and musos, this club is filled with people going absolutely buck wild, jumping up and down, dancing hard and throwing their hands in the air. There is a palpable, almost dangerous energy to the room and the tunes are absolutely pumping, so we gun down to the front straight away to see just who it is that has got this Vice so fired up.
We find an Italian DJ / Production duo, both wearing Spiderman style face masks and matching ‘Who’s cool now?’ emblazoned t-shirts. One of the pair is selecting and mixing tracks and the other is layering samples over the top and tweaking it up with effects. They work at unbelievable speed and the coordination they display is dazzling, especially considering that they both seemed to be winged. Massive, throbbing basslines and bleepy, whacked out noises are combined with snippets of everything from Metallica to the Adams Family. They cut, slice and dice the shit out of the tunes and keep the music
We find an Italian DJ / Production duo, both wearing Spiderman style face masks and matching ‘Who’s cool now?’ emblazoned t-shirts. One of the pair is selecting and mixing tracks and the other is layering samples over the top and tweaking it up with effects. They work at unbelievable speed and the coordination they display is dazzling, especially considering that they both seemed to be winged. Massive, throbbing basslines and bleepy, whacked out noises are combined with snippets of everything from Metallica to the Adams Family. They cut, slice and dice the shit out of the tunes and keep the music moving at breakneck pace, carving huge breakdowns seemingly every 40 seconds.
It’s a winning formula and one that keeps us and the rest of the place jumping non-stop. I can’t believe we found something so good by a total fluke and after throwing some serious shapes and having possibly the best time ever, we head off again, this time to see Welsh indie kids Los Campesinos!
One of the most amazing things about Los Campesinos! is how they manage to create a cohesive and pointed sound despite having six members playing an array of instruments. Much to the chagrin of frontman ??? it transpires that they’re not going to get to play for as long as they would like, but it’s been an exuberant and fun set anyway. They close with the anthemic ‘You, Me, Dancing’, and the crowd get behind it and show their appreciation.
Earlier in the day Ferris and I had been trying to decide what we would go and see at 1am, given that MSTRKRFT, Digitalism and others were clashing. Then I found out that Chromeo were playing at the same time, which was possibly the best news ever and allowed for the easiest decision of all time. For the umpteenth time tonight we’re able to use our SXSW badges to jump the queue (people with wristbands have to join a line), and we make it into Volume just as Chromeo are taking to the stage. Andrew points out that the club we’re in could pass for the set of Miami Vice, which is the perfect location to be enjoying some eighties infested electro funk in.
Somehow the duo make cheesy seem cool, and they seem to be having a good time onstage, which is great because we’re having a great time on the dancefloor. It’s great to hear tracks like ‘Tenderoni’, ‘Fancy Footwork’ and ‘Needy Girl’ played live, but the set does feel like it dips towards the end. I suppose it is difficult to sustain that high a feel-good factor for such a length of time though. They do the first encores we’ve seen all week, which tops things off nicely. Chromeo just scored themselves another satisfied customer.
We have just enough time to tear off down the street to catch the end of GZA’s set. Ferris wears his baseball cap backwards in a manner befitting the occasion, which is a nice touch. GZA is possibly the most laidback MC on the face of the planet. He clearly does not give a monkeys, even going as far as to take his mobile phone out of his pocket and check it at one point. Fair play to him. The gig starts to run over curfew, it gets cut short and that’s it, the music is over, SXSW 2008 reaches a close and it’s time to head home.
It’s a winning formula and one that keeps us and the rest of the place jumping non-stop. I can’t believe we found something so good by a total fluke and after throwing some serious shapes and having possibly the best time ever, we head off again, this time to see Welsh indie kids Los Campesinos!
One of the most amazing things about Los Campesinos! is how they manage to create a cohesive and pointed sound despite having six members playing an array of instruments. Much to the chagrin of frontman ??? it transpires that they’re not going to get to play for as long as they would like, but it’s been an exuberant and fun set anyway. They close with the anthemic ‘You, Me, Dancing’, and the crowd get behind it and show their appreciation.
Earlier in the day Ferris and I had been trying to decide what we would go and see at 1am, given that MSTRKRFT, Digitalism and others were clashing. Then I found out that Chromeo were playing at the same time, which was possibly the best news ever and allowed for the easiest decision of all time. For the umpteenth time tonight we’re able to use our SXSW badges to jump the queue (people with wristbands have to join a line), and we make it into Volume just as Chromeo are taking to the stage. Andrew points out that the club we’re in could pass for the set of Miami Vice, which is the perfect location to be enjoying some eighties infested electro funk in.
Somehow the duo make cheesy seem cool, and they seem to be having a good time onstage, which is great because we’re having a great time on the dancefloor. It’s great to hear tracks like ‘Tenderoni’, ‘Fancy Footwork’ and ‘Needy Girl’ played live, but the set does feel like it dips towards the end. I suppose it is difficult to sustain that high a feel-good factor for such a length of time though. They do the first encores we’ve seen all week, which tops things off nicely. Chromeo just scored themselves another satisfied customer.
We have just enough time to tear off down the street to catch the end of GZA’s set. Ferris wears his baseball cap backwards in a manner befitting the occasion, which is a nice touch. GZA is possibly the most laidback MC on the face of the planet. He clearly does not give a monkeys, even going as far as to take his mobile phone out of his pocket and check it at one point. Fair play to him. The gig starts to run over curfew, it gets cut short and that’s it, the music is over, SXSW 2008 reaches a close and it’s time to head home.
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