Highlights of SXSW 2007 Day 1

After making the three-hour drive from Houston and waiting in line an hour for my badge, here’s how my first day progressed:

Arthur Yoria @ BD Riley’s Irish Pub
The Prairie Cartel @ Metro 25th Anniversary party @ Emo’s (also The Redwalls, Smoking Popes, The M’s, and The Changes)
Mando Diao @ WonkaVision magazine party @ Red 7
Black Tie Dynasty @ The Tap Room at Six

Which leads me to my favorite thing about the SXSW experience. Since I didn’t have time to stand in line to see Wolf & Cub at Emo’s on Wednesday night, I instead went early to The Tap Room at Six and caught an Austin band called Tacks, The Boy Disaster. They were–simply put–amazing. The closest I can come to describing their sound is Midlake, but that might be due to the fact that one of the members of Midlake played a song with them during their set. I love “discovering” new bands this way–makes the endless walking, the smells of stale beer, vomit, and burnt pizza, and insane crowds all worth it.

And it turns out a friend of mine from high school and college is married to their drummer so that made it even better. I suggest getting their CD and checking out their music online here.

I also caught a few songs of The Rapture @ La Zona Rosa, got kicked out of a party at Mohawk two seconds after walking in (not my fault), and spent way too long trying to hail a cab back to the room. I love Austin.

Chip Midnight’s report(s) should be coming later in the day. Technical difficulties prevented us from posting anything until now. Apologies all around…