2008 SXSW Wrap Up

Ok, here is my attempt at a review of this year's SXSW festivities as they applied to the Gorilla and Company. Forgive me for not having set lists for the few shows I was able to see as way too much imbibing seems to have gotten in the way.

As most of you know, a lot of us that attend these shows now have wives and kids, so the days of taking the entire week off and going non stop have long since fallen by the wayside. That said, we seem to be able to "weed out" the bullshit badge shows and attend only the best free day parties, at least those that we can find the time to attend.

Having said that, we did pay to see one show, but it proved to be a pretty decent if sloppy show by some of our favorite bands at Beerland. Two Cow Garage, Grand Champeen, The Drams, and Glossary each played two short sets while rotating members of each band in and out to form "super groups". While this could have been really cool, it mainly proved sloppy and uneventful. I will say The Drams stood out above the rest and seemed to be on a totally different level in terms of sound and performance. As much as I did enjoy their set, it was a bit disappointing that there were no new songs played at all. I will say that the versions of two Slobberbone classics, "That is All" and "Your Love is Waining" were real winners, with the latter being played with some beautiful pedal steel fills that made the song probably one of my highlights of the my entire SXSW experience.

Wednesday brought the free show at Mother Egans that has become somewhat of a tradition for our "crew". Although the line up was pretty much the same as last year, the music did not disappoint. Highlights would have to be the Silos and Chip Robinson of the late Backsliders. Great rocking sets. It was at this show that I decided to see just how much beer I could drink without actually passing out in public. That combined with my two buddies....lets just refer to them as Cheech and Chong, and the constant trips to the "smoking section" made for quite the party. At one point we found ourselves hanging out with some pretty cool 50 + year old dudes that seemed to have several joints burning all at once. Needless to say I am sure this contributed to the haze at which the rest of the event seemed engulfed in.

We ended the day at Baby A's drinking purple rita's and eating mexican food that really seemed like a better idea than it actually turned out to be.

The next morning I found myself wrapped around the toilet to start my day. Having not had that happen in what must be 10 years, lets just say it was not fun. After two showers and multiple helpings of Colgate, I headed back downtown for the New West Records free day party. It was there that I was able to meet up with some of the San Antonio Crew. As always it was great to see them. What a cool bunch of guys. I did get my hand slapped for not updating this blog lately. Be careful what you wish for as this post seems to be never ending....ha!

Free Lone star Beer and fajitas made a good impression, as did a few of the bands that I managed to pay attention to at this year's party. Again, similar lineup to last year, with the exception being The Old 97's. They played a great set of mostly new material from they new record "Blame it on Gravity" to be released May 13th on New West. To say I am looking forward to this record is an understatement as they totally redeemed themselves from the last time I saw them at Stubs. Tim Easton backed up the the Whipsaws from Alaska were great too. The Drams closed it out, but I left a bit before the end of their set as it was identical to the one from the day before.

All in all, it was a success with my only regrets being that I was unable to see Justin Townes Earle, who seemed to be playing all over the place this year, but with wife, kid, and day job, I just couldn't make it work. Maybe next year.