SXSW - Day Two

Today kicks off with a trip to the Convention Centre for the big Trade Show. NIMIC are part of the big the British Music stall section so we're able to leave a selection of tasty magazines around for people to sample. There are tons of different stalls around the place for music gear, promotion companies, festivals - pretty much anything music related you can think of. If you're a band, artist or music company this place could be your mecca. Rigsy and the BBC crew are here too, interviewing Sandra from NIMIC and continuing their coverage of the day. After a bit of mingling I head out to catch a few shows.

First stop is the Transgressive Records showcase at Wave, the NME venue for SXSW. It's an odd place, the decor is super tacky and the bands are playing upstairs in what feels like someones garden patio. I get chatting to a couple of really nice people called Chris and Katie who drove to SXSW from Rhode Island. Check the map kids, that's a long way to go. Chris runs a college radio station in Philadelphia, and perhaps more interestingly has a good friend whose mum went out with Bruce Springsteen before he was famous and, get this, she split up with him because she didn't like his music. Whoops!
Katie used to go to Goldsmith College in London and had saw Johnny Flynn And The Sussex Wit play there before. She loved him so made it along to catch him at this showcase gig. The place is pretty busy and it's tough to see the stage, but Johnny and his band of merry men seem to be having a good time throwing out their jaunty, banjo-laden indie tunes.

When I'm heading down 6th street to the next spot, I run into MTV2 presenter, Radio One impresario and all round nice guy Zane Lowe, just hanging on the corner with an inflatable couch. As soon as he heard my accent he said "You're Northern Irish? We're instantly friends then." Knowing that he is a Fighting With Wire fan I decide to give him a copy of the new issue. As you can see from the pic, he clearly loves the mag.

We have a bit of a chat about what's been floating his boat so far, which included Vampire Weekend and be your own PET. I got to sit on the fabled MTV2 couch, which we had to sit down and get up from simultaneously to avoid one of us falling over. We had to sit down on the count of three, and it did cross my mind to actually just let him sit on the count and see if he hit the deck, but he's too cool a dude to play tricks on.

I head to see AU faves Fight Like Apes at the Irish venue BD Riley's. What is dead cool about this place is the fact that they have massive open window spaces that open out onto the street, meaning that anyone passing by can witness the frenetic FLA doing their thang. When I first looked through the window I saw frontwoman MayKay with her shoes off, writhing around on the floor at the feet of the crowd. How could you not want to head inside after that? Their controlled-yet-chaotic, synth-driven goodness goes down a storm and it feels like they've won a lot of fans both in the room and on the tarmac outside.

All this action and we're just hitting dinner time? Things could get messy. I hook up with Andrew Ferris of Smalltown America Records and Jetplane Landing fame to grab a bite to eat before hitting up some more shows.