03.15.08
Friday Night Lights.*
I took the early afternoon off on Friday to let my ear drums and feet rest for a bit and enjoy Austin sans the barrage of music. Later in the day I checked out the Tradeshow at the convention center which turned out to be rife with free stuff, new technologies and media synergies, and more business cards than God could pass out in a year. I wondered around the show with Ian Hiebert, a friend from college and kyteTV’s new mini-celebrity. He likens himself to the Dell Kid of the new millennium. The convention center is plastered with plasma screen tv’s that host the kyteTV’s SXSW channel. How it works: Ian walks around the convention center and finds someone to interview, be it a musician or trade show exhibitor, or stranded nine year old, or me, he flips kyte phone up, asks them a few questions, and then, voila, the interview is on the big screen and enters the cycle of video already uploaded. The goal is to have individuals, especially artists and musicians, host and maintain their own channel that can then be imbedded in things like facebook, myspace, or other websites. Their biggest kyte host and channel owner? 50 Cent. But Ian might argue that it he is personally way more influential than any rapper. After the tradeshow I went down to South Austin to meet up with some friends at Guero’s a taco joint on South Congress and saw the last song of a group called Gliss and then the entire set of Mar Mar Superstar. Mar Mar was frickin’ hilarious. With raucous seventies beats bubbling in the background a compact, overweight, long haired, balding lead singer jammed out singing songs that Britney Spears could have made a name for herself with. In a crowd packed with families and the middle-aged, hybrid SUV, Teva-wearing south Austinite, the lead singer ran up to a picnic table, leapt atop it, and began dancing and singing invoking great disco dance party gods who were most likely much taller and fitter than he. The showmanship almost made up for the fact that the music sucked, but the crowd was so into it that it would have been hard to not have a good time.
It was then back downtown for a variety of shows, many nameless and faceless. At 1am I was headed to see Tilly and the Wall, and after winding down a few alleys finally found the tent and waited for the group to set up. After 20 minutes, they were set. I was almost blown back to the far end of the tent by the crappy garage rock even though I had earplugs firmly ticked into my drums. Oops. This group was Story of the Year. My first truly bad concert in Austin. Tilly was playing on a patio across the street and by the time I got there, the venue was full complete with a SXSW volunteer holding a “venue full” sign. So I stood up above the venue and watched the show from afar. They have a nice indie pop sound with creative percussion and, as with any good indie pop band, some instruments I didn’t recognize. All in all a great evening, onto the music conference today.
*Friday Night Lights, the series is actually filmed at the Texas School for the Deaf which is two blocks from Guero’s Tacos on South Congress. So. Um. This is an appropriate title for this blog.
