Carrie Davenport gives us the final instalment of her adventures stateside at South by Southwest 2013.
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Well what a day of adventures that was! SXSW loves to keep you on your toes. Today’s massive one was the rumour mill churning out the news of yet more secret shows so a lot of the day was spent frantically trying to find those. Thanks to the joys of twitter, we soon tracked it down and found out Fall Out Boy would be playing a gig in town! Next mission - which of the five million seven hundred thousand and forty seven bars there are in this town would it be in (ok that's a slight exaggeration its five million seven hundred thousand and twelve!) but that’s for tonight, so first we’re off to enjoy the day.
After a frenzied web search, it was time to head to the Full Irish Breakfast. SXSW really has the gig thing well figured out - give people free booze and food and they will come. Make that Guinness and an Ulster Fry and they will flock to your gig! Alas I flocked slightly too late to avail of the free breakfast but made it in time to catch the last few songs of Declan O'Rourke's set in B D Reilly’s. It's a great Irish bar with one difference - and that’s the sheer amount of sunshine pouring in through the open windows. No pub in Ireland has EVER seen that amount of sun.
Declan is followed by Kool Thing who are missing their singer thanks to the renowned US customs department's compassion and understanding! There's a special knack they have of making you feel like you're guilty of some crime you don't even know you've committed yet! So they're a two piece for today but after a bit of fiddling around to get things in order they actually pull it off!
Flatstock is a big part of this year's SXSW. It's an incredible display of art prints by illustrators from all over the world who design gig posters for pretty much every band you can think of. We get chatting to some folk who are over from Cambridge called We Three Club (I'm already a massive fan and my walls are covered in their prints so it's great to actually meet in person) Leaving it, I feel decidedly uncreative and want to learn how to draw again.
Queueing is a professional occupation at SXSW - you queue for everything. With that in mind, it's off to Green Day super early just in case. This means time to catch support band Stick Up Kids who are apparently one of the top 100 bands you should see at SXSW this year according to a web poll. They put on a good show - bouncy pop punk perfectly suited to a Green Day support slot.
By this point the theatre is already packed and the crowd surfing has begun early. Just before Green Day come on, the whole place is on it's feet singing along to Bohemian Rhapsody. Green Day are full of energy tonight, hauling people out of the crowd onto the stage to sing along - mostly very out of tune and looking like they might die of joy! One girl does a particularly epic stage dive from the stage back into the crowd and crowd surfs into the distance with a smile so big her face must hurt! She even got to kiss Billy Joe on stage - not many can say that!
And another really great surprise was in store at the Moody theatre after Green Day's show! Everybody knows about my photography obsession - it’s not exactly a secret so imagine my sheer delight when I walk upstairs to find the restrooms and instead find an exhibition of original photographs by Jim Marshall (even if you don't think you know him you do - that Johnny Cash flipping the bird picture? That was Jim! Most of the famous pictures of Woodstock? Jim again! Jimi Hendrix burning his guitar on stage? yeah you guessed it - Jim!) I'm transfixed by the images his work is simply stunning and seeing them in print rather than online for a change is nothing short of spectacular. 30 images in total adorn the walls alongside some fantastic quotes.
And now we’re off to the Vice Bar to eagerly await for Fall Out Boy. Going super early to get in means standing during two other bands, one we get in late so don't catch the name of. The other New Politicians are pretty dodgy music wise but what they lack in tunes they make up for in leaping about and bouncing into the crowd. As they leave the stage screaming "are you ready for Fall Out Boy" (YES!! we are in the right place!) the place goes insane! It’s packed to bursting point, absolutely suffocating heat and even the walls are sweating. The crowd goes insane when they come onstage playing all the hits, and I must admit I'm surprised by the reaction. It's an intense atmosphere. For a band who sold out an arena in Texas last week in less than 2mins, a show this size is a big deal and everybody is going nuts! Songs like Sugar and new tune "My songs know what you did in the dark" have the crowd singing every single word and almost drowning out the band at some points!
I leave exhausted but in incredibly high spirits and covered in sweat which I'm pretty sure isn't mine - it's a glamorous life huh! What a night!!
Carrie
