Day Two of SXSW in Austin was jam packed with a variety of showcases that included electro-pop and indie rock to folk , hiphop, country and heavy metal. But, in general, we are sticking with artists and bands that we’ve featured on IRC in the past.
It was a calculated, but difficult, decision to not go to the convention center to see the day time show there that featured The Walkmen, Frightened Rabbit and others, instead opting for the daytime show at The Galaxy Room to see Shearwater, Lou Barlow, The Low Anthem, The Lonely Forest, and the Middle East. All great shows, especially Shearwater and The Low Anthem. The Middle East show was terrific, but it was 15 minutes late getting started, and unlike other venues, there’s no going over scheduled times.
“Castaways” – Shearwater
“Cage The Songbird” – The Low Anthem
“The Darkest Side” – The Middle East
Next, we were able to squeeze in a half set of Givers at Emo’s Annex; definitely a band worth checking out if you haven’t heard of them. We’re trying to get in a varied selection of other venues, but they tend to be sold out over and over again. After checking out Givers, we went to see a NPR-recommended band, Peter Wolf Crier – not bad, but not spectacular. That’s cool because we were waiting to see ex-Beulah member Miles Kurosky followed by Rogue Wave. Both of those shows were amazing; Kurosky had as many as eight other musicians on stage, and Rogue Wave delivered their usually dependable set, featuring a bunch of new songs from their new album. See our special edition this weekend for videos, photos, samplers, and more from SXSW 2010.
“Good Morning” – Rogue Wave
DD MM YYYY ripped it out for a capacity crowd on Emo’s other stage – can’t even remember what stage that was. Then it was back to the Galaxy Room for sets from Avi Buffalo and Efterklang, and then to Wave Rooftop for Beach Fossils – a young pop rock band that thrash all about the stage. Even though it took 20 minutes to work out technical issues, the band pleased the crowd anyways with a killer set. Beach Fosssils are definitely a band that will be looking at again. During the set, a photographer from a magazine that we won’t name was drunkenly trying to take photos, but he was too blitz to get a shot in focus – we saw him try and even offered to take the dang picture for him. We’ll be publishing a bunch of official and unofficial SXSW 2010 videos this weekend.
“Daydream” – Beach Fossils
From the Wave Rooftop it was back to Galaxy Room to see The Ruby Suns, but after waiting 20 minutes for them to work out technical issues, we headed back to Emo’s to see Austin’s own White Demin, followed by one of the best performances we’ve seen so far at SXSW 2010, Delta Spirit.
“C’mon People” – Delta Spirit
Via Large Hearted Boy’s awesome, free and legal SXSW MP3 collection
More from SXSW 2010 coming soon.