World Famous In San Francisco

We totally had fun in Austin for SXSW! On Friday we spent most of the day at Deathbomb Arc/The Smell showcase at the The Opera House. This was a free, all ages, unofficial event a bit south of all the action and it was super fun. Bands traded off playing inside the store and out in the parking lot. It was laid back, people were having fun, and unlike official SXSW events there were no wrist bands (more on that later), and there were a ton of great bands.

We got there during the No Age set while they were proclaiming that it was just like playing the smell. By which they meant, I'm sure, they were seeing all of their friends from LA in the audience. Next was Mika Miko whom I've heard described as sounding as sounding like the raincoats, riott grrls, and erase errata I suppose there's truth to all of that but they're crappy comparisons because I wasn't going to kill myself to catch this band even though I've heard this band is super fun live. I'm glad I caught them though because not only is the band super fun live and doing their own thing with all the elements of those aforementioned bands and not just rehashing them. Because we're known for being 'critical', I will say that these ladies need to get some more dance moves. The photos I got look an awful lot like the photos over at pitchfork.





more more more photos!

Foot Village played at some point after Mika Miko and I was excited to see them because a) I liked the one guy's t-shirt, it had been bejeweled and b) they had four drum kits, two of which were set up mirror image of each other, one black and one white and c) I continually miss my opportunity to catch this insanity. And when they started it was crazy time! Insane commands were shouted at the audience via megaphone. They telepathically let each other know when to launch into those drum kits (savagely -- both in style and technique), and when to run away from the kits and into the crowd (gotta keep everyone on their toes in the foot village!). Sometimes it sounded like an argument with everybody yelling at once, and sometimes they fell into agreement and their voices were in unison. So yeah, drums + screaming, but actually with surprisingly recognizable vocal melodies and 'hooks' and an awful lot of panache. I like!





more photos here