*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.

After the show, we headed downtown and wandered around a bit before stumbling across Nylon Magazine’s garage party. After five fights of back stairs, we walked out onto an incredible open air floor of a parking garage and were treated to a mass party with two stages, free booze, (yes you heard right) and a nice sized crowd. After another set of stairs hidden in the back of the party, we found the band Phosphorescent who played pool side on the roof top of the garage. Guess sponsored the party and massive white letters spelling UESS floated in the pool(s) which seemed designed mostly for aesthetic effect. Phosphorescent was fantastic. The group played under a tiny tent with maybe thirty people there watching. Four members: piano, lead acoustic, bass, and drums. The lead singer lit up the patio by entering the audience several times with a corded microphone to wail choruses of several covers, one of which was the beautifully rendered “Memories” by Leonard Cohen. As the drummer and piano player maintained the lingering death rattles of the bands last song, the lead singer and bass player stripped down into boxers on the stage and dove head first into the UESS pool, soon after, the USS pool. Amazing performance.

Kimya Dawson
My goodness. Listening to Kimya Dawson via recording she comes across as a soft-spoken, earnest, creative, and innocuous singer. Her stage presence was the physical manifestation of all of these things, and her performance was stellar. She sat alone on the stage at Emo’s IV Lounge and sheepishly stared at the ground as she quietly broke into her first song, “Tireswing” from the Juno Soundtrack. A few audience members offered feedback, she coyly looked around, avoiding “eye contact” with the crowd, and in an endearing voice said
“You people are crazy.” Pause. “This next song is about the bad old days when my friend who owned a bar used to pay me in wine to punch people in the face that he didn’t like.”
After a few more songs, she made a few comments about the prevalent producers at South By Southwest. “So we’re thinking its time for a greatest hits record Dawson,” she mimicked. “And I said, No thanks. I think I’ll make a kids’ record.”
Her new album slated for release in August will be titled Alphabutt, and judging from the few songs she played, it is a precocious, potty-humored, tribute to the socially aware six year old. Fitting, as she seems to channel just such an attitude.

The Blow
One lady, one mike, some sick dance moves, and a narrative thread that wove her songs together like spoken word. Lay down some beats, a few props, a badass voice with impressive range, and voila: The Blow. Great show, really lively expression of her records.

New Roman Times
A sleek and sexy group rocking a tight sound with a chick bass player and dude lead guitarist combining for vocals. Not my type of music, but packaged well, and a good listen.

Unknown…
It’s the quality of accidental encounters that matter the most because they happen them most. While cruising down 6th Street, I stepped in to a pretty typical bar. At the far end, crammed against the wall sat a stage and a 5 man band setting up. The lead singer and acoustic guitar player was warming up, playing despite a broken arm in a dingy blue cast. The sound was made up of a banjo, a mandolin, a stand-up bass, the lead guitar, and a rabid drummer, and as far as frantic country bluegrass with all its loud crescendos, unified pauses, and organic lyrics goes the band was spectacular. Not really my kind of music, but for an accidental encounter the group was perfect. I didn’t catch their name, but you know who you are. And I’ll try my damndest to find out who.

The hypnotic and elegant Jesca Hoop played at Buffalo Billiards proving that the well-produced Kismet wasn’t a magic act. Wearing a sparkling jacket and long elbow height gloves, Hoop performed with precise focus and intent and her fluid enchantment really did hypnotise the crowd. Rarely do I feel that a live performance is as crisp as a meticulously crafted album, but by god, Hoop managed to stun a crowd of people, most of whom had never heard of her music. And that is the advantage of the showcase: the performance is in a vacuum. You either like them or you don’t. You either google them after the show or you don’t. Artists have 45 minutes to knock your socks off and Hoop did just that.