a night out

I finally got to see my first ever sxsw show last night--thought even more phenomenally, I finally got to actually go out for the first time since moving to Austin. Luckily, I won free tickets to the Matador's SXSW showcase. Unfortunately, it meant I had to get there at 6:30 and wait and wait and wait until I got to see the bands I liked (New Pornagraphers and Belle and Sebastian). My new friend Steph went with me, and we sat around for three and a half hours, just talking to each other. I don't think I've had that much adult conversation for that long in three years. It was great! So were the two bands I waited to see, even though we basically watched NP through a tree. It was so effing crowded at the showcase, so many people wearing badges and talking on Cell phones ("where are you? I'm on the steps over here (arm wave)" "who do you want to go see next?" "do you know this band" "dude, I'm already so wasted"). Even funnier were the scores of people walking out of the portapotties on their phones ("dude, I'm totally taking a sh*t right now"). On the one hand, I scoff at those people. On the other hand, I totally almost did it myself because, well, you can hear in there. Oh, and I had a Stubbs bbq sandwich. It was good, or maybe I was hungry. No, it was pretty good. I was hungry, though.

I was surprised by B&S, the sound was terrific and they're such cute, pastie-white scottish boys. Sure, all their songs sound terribly similar, but it's such pretty music. Some short Danish guy next to me helpfully explained that they have a rep of sloppy shows, but that last night's show was really really tight, so I was lucky. And really, chances are pretty good I'll never go see them again. I mean, I don't have any of their albums, and only recognized one song. But it was the end of a long night and Steph and I were cracking each other up and having a blast. We left before Mogwai, though, cuz it had been such a long night and we were done drinking.

After leaving Stubbs, we wandered down sixth street to check out the circus. It was pretty crowded, people were pretty wasted, but steph informed me that on a normal weekend night the crowd is usually mostly drunk coed types stumbling down the street, whereas this crowd was seriously male dominated. And not particularly young, either. But yes, still they were drunk.

I don't know if I'll make any other SXSW events, though I'm real tempted to try and go to the Spoon/Echo and the Bunnymen free show tonight. I probably won't go, though, cuz I don't want to deal with parking and taking a potty-training Zoey. I can only imagine what kind of reaction her first glimpse of the inside of a public portapotty would elicit. I'm thinking horror, horror, and then wetness all over my clothes. Hmmm.