patrick schneider

This is a long time overdue; however, the story is worth telling.

Even after having a great Day 2, I was still a bit miffed that we had missed Ratatat. After all, they were most of the whole reason I purchased a wristband. Luckily we stumbled across a little gem on the web: http://showlistaustin.com/. What a find! Ratatat was playing a free day show at The Victory Grill. So I immediately took the rest of the day off, headed over there, drank free beer, and even had enough time to watch the ridiculously awful opening act (called something like Cheeseburger?).

The second act was M.I.A., which was an unbelievably pleasant surprise. Definitely worth checking out.

Ratatat took the stage last… well, maybe not last, but we left after they finished. They were very loud. And very awesome.

…I will get to it one of these days, for sure. Be patient.

And go to hell Real World jerks.

Thursday night started off with two fun bands, The Like Young and Hockey Night. The Like Young has the Mates of State thing going on… a guy and a girl that are seemingly in love, on stage, making music. They were a bit more “standard rock” than Mates, though. Hockey Night put on a great show and called the crowd “dudes,” as in “Thanks dudes” after a song.

After Hockey Night, we booked it over to Elysium to see the whole reason for buying SXSW wristbands in the first place (or at least my main motivating factor): Ratatat. The line was blocks long. My brother made it in to the venue over two hours before, and from the looks of it, there was absolutely no way many more people were getting in. This set me off; I was utterly pissed. Nothing could cheer me up.

So, we figured the best thing to do would be to head over to La Zona Rosa to catch The Futureheads who started in an hour, and Hot Hot Heat and Doves following. And when we got there, I was crushed. Twice the line of Elysium, and no concievable way that we were getting in before the night was over.

Despondent at this point, I really was not capable of making any more decisions for the evening. Not that decision making was really my strong suit last night anyway. So we stood in line. Cold. Dark. Etc.

After about an hour of being in line, we can hear The Future heads going on inside. Damnit! About that time, we start up a conversation with the guys in front of us. They are in a band called Melee from California (playing tonight, midnight at Redrum). Super nice guys, and fun to chat with.

A cop walks by us around 11:15 with one of those disposable Gladware containers. Robin says, “Aw, he’s got snacks…”, and a conversation is started from there. The APD officers tells us that if we make it inside, he’ll give us some of his snacks (which were cauliflower and celery… hey, anything would be okay at this point, huh?). 30 or 40 minutes later, he walks out with two pieces of cauliflower left… one for me and one for Robin. What a nice guy! We laughed and ate some fresh vegetables as he put his Gladware back in his cruiser.

On his way back into the venue, he asks Robin and I how many are in our party… two, we say… and then he says, “Come with me.” !!!. This was right at midnight. We walk behind him, straight into the venue, skipping hundreds of people still in line, and get stage-center right as Hot Hot Heat starts playing.

What a night. We found our friends inside shortly thereafter, and HHH and The Doves put on amazing shows. Hooray for the Austin Police Department. They saved SXSW for at least two of us. Thank you again to the officer that let us in, wherever you are. You made our evening )

So, two nights ago, for my first night of SXSW ever, I headed out to The Parish right when their doors opened. The Wrens were playing last, and from what the paper said about their show last year, I figured the only way to get to see them would be to show up early. Not sure if that was accurate or not b/c I never got to see the line again once inside.

Here my overly simplified opinion of the evening: The Wrens were incredible. Everyone else ranged from moderately okay to horrific.

The Real World was there. I was on camera, but I didn’t sign their waiver, so I guess I’m going to be one of those blurred faces on TV. It also means that I can say whatever I want about them. (I took a copy of one of their waivers and read it over at a later time. You essentially give the “Producers” the right to do whatever they want with you and your likeness throughout the universe, indefinitely. They actually used that phrase. “Throughout the universe.”)

Anyway, the main crew consisted of 4 or 5 people with varying duties. Lights, cameras, guy with a bunch of wireless equipment, etc. The cast looked like standard Real World folk. From what I was told, the cast of the Real World is given an “assignment”, which is something like a job. They don’t just get to live in the house and do nothing. It looked to me like their assignment is/was to film SXSW, or at least catalog it in some manner.

So there was this weird cascading camera crew thing going on: the crew that was filming the “Real World” show was actually filming cast members that were, in turn, filming the acts performing on stage.

One of the cast members (most likely a cast member, though I suppose she could have been a production-er) tried to steal my girlfriend’s seat. I lean down, got right in her face, and said, “No fucking way.” She seemed completely shocked that anyone would say such things. Well, stop stealing seats, Real World jerk. I understand you have an “assignment” to do. But the rest of the world paid to get in to this venue, and we’re not going to be inconvenienced by your pseudo-fame.

I suppose the Real World deserves no more of my time. On with SXSW.

Saw Mates of State this past Saturday at Emo’s… for the 4th time, at least. I think this was the first show I had been to where I watched the opening bands as well. Aquaduct from Seattle… and some other people… from Austin I think.

They played well… three new songs, and they didn’t end with that ridiculous Nico song.

Also, on a completely unrelated note, I drove past the tollway development in Cedar Park yesterday. Wow. You should check it out if you haven’t seen it. The AAS cover story that day happened to be all about it… so you should check that out as well.