Carrie Davenport takes some time out from all the awesomeness to report to us from Day 3 of SXSW 2013.
**********
Well howdy y'all!! Another day down in sunny Austin Texas and today was even sunnier than the last two. This morning started with a panel featuring our very own Mark Gordon from Score Draw Music discussing metadata in music to a very technically minded crowd. After that there was a very quick visit to a BBQ joint (useless for a veggie like me!) then a highly random BBQ at my crib for the week with some rockers from back in the UK. Today the quest for freebies continued - there is an incredible amount of free stuff for blagging at SXSW. Today's freebie was being driven home and, in the glaring heat of mid-day Texas, nothing feels better than sitting in a cool car with the aircon going.
At SXSW, some of the massive shows are ticket lottery only so no matter how long you queue you ain't getting anywhere near them unless you win a ticket. I can literally count the amount of things I've won in my lifetime on one hand and they include a stuffed toy at a Halloween party when I was 7 and a couple of pitiful random freebies so I wasn't holding my breath! But the gods of fortune decided to shine upon me and made up for all previous bad luck with an email that arrived in my inbox first thing this morning informing me I had a ticket to see Nick Cave at Stubbs.
I love Nick Cave, in my eyes the man is a legend so this filled me with a joy I can barely describe! Stubb's is a great venue - not big by any means but an outdoor venue that never gets rained off is something we can only dream of back home. The chance to see Nick Cave at a small venue is one that isn't going to happen often so I eagerly set off to the gig - maybe a bit too eager as I was over 2 hours early. Nick leaps onto the stage like a man possessed, starting out with a few new tracks then heading on to classics like Mercy Seat, Stagger Lee and Deanna. Honestly I'm feeling like I've died and gone to heaven!
When he finishes the set we're left in anticipation of the next band. The lineups are pretty random here, rather than having the usual main act and support I'm pretty sure someone pins the names of bands to a wall and throws darts at them to pick the order. Nick was followed by one of the worst musical atrocities I have ever heard. I'm hoping my failure to understand any of the Spanish lyrics was a big part of that but Cafe Tacvba will not be making any of my playlists anytime soon.
The wait is not in vain though as the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are up next with Karen O sporting her usual understated outfit complete with a tinsel boa sequinned hat and a bright yellow suit that even Elvis would have seen as a bit too much! This is why we love her - crazy in all the right ways!
Only time for two songs here because Ash are playing round the corner and you can't come all the way to Texas then not go see NI's finest when they hit the stage, this time in Buffalo Billiards! Ash have a huge following here and the crowd are loving the chance to sing along to Girl From Mars. It's great to see an act we all know so well being so well received and it's hard not to feel a little bit proud of our wee country!
And that's it for tonight - tomorrow is going to be a big one so it's bed time for me (that said it is 3am which is an early night here!)
Carrie
