Blogs

Revival Dear playing one of our 3 Airport stages... i think this is the first time i've seen someone dancing in an airport.. Nice.

Strange animals perched on the gates and the brickwork of the Distillery District, making sure no one got lost amid the cobbles and cornices. Two splashy Mini Club Cars framed the entrance to the venue. And inside, filmmaker Bruce McDonald helped introduce NXNE 08 to a few hundred media, music- & film-biz pros, musicians, and others who scored an invite to the show.

NXNE's John Kaster, in LA snapping pics.

Fun was had at the Caswell House mansion.. the annual NXNE BBQ at SXSW where we take over a big ol' house and pack in a few hundred of our closest friends, that happen to be in Austin, and put a bunch of bands on the stage while eating loads of food.

So...aside from the wild array of musical choice Austin laid out last week, three things stood out: the weather (smokin' hot), the food (all meat--not a green thing anywhere in the city), and the people (friendly beyond description).

Holy Fuck finished up with a bang and I ducked into St. David's Church to get out of the heat, check my night's hit-list and rest the feets. Bob Wootton's Tennessee Three (Johnny Cash's old band) were about to take the stage but I was in the mood for something little less... church-like (although I later heard their set was amazing).

Thur afternoon.. at the SXSW day stage, nestled just off the main corridoor inside the sprawling Austin Convention Centre, there was a treat to be had: a 15 minute solo set by Billy Bragg. Armed with a tele and a sharp tongue, Bragg opened this intimate show with a promise not to play any old material, and he delivered. Although he could have played longer, I was at the right place at the

Picture this: a steamy spring night in Austin, with Yo La Tengo tearing the roof off the Music Hall. The piece shifts and grinds, claws and climbs its way upward into a kind of apocalyptic chaos as the drums and bass rumble under swirling keys and ungodly screeches from the guitar. It's music to either hate or be mesmerized by. Maybe both. But either way, this isn't neutral  music. You're swept up in it, or you head for the exit...

I got into an airport cab at 715am without my jacket. My thinking: I'm on my way to Austin... in Texas. The South... I won't need a jacket. Fast forward 5 hours of travel (including layover in Chicago and an at-capacity connecting flight to Austin stuffed full of sleepy, tattooed SXSW-goers). Sepping into the hazy late-afternoon Austin heat I was instantly glad I had left the P coat back in Toronto.