Wednesday, March 14, 2018

SXSW Day 2 w/ The Dickmans, Superchunk, White Reaper, Ringo Deathstarr, Sweet Spirit, Nobunny, and More, 3/13/18

White Reaper

A Sprint Not a Marathon

Yesterday was a busy day. Chris and Amy Dickman picked me up at around 11:30am, and we headed over to Kerbey Lane for brunch. Now that I think about it, that omelet may have been my first actual meal since Sunday night. It hit the spot.

We lingered over that and took a leisurely drive around town before arriving at Waterloo records at around 2pm for Superchunk's 3pm in-store. We were right up front for the intimate acoustic set from the band. They played several selections from this year's excellent What a Time to Be Alive including "Break the Glass," for which they were joined by A Giant Dog's / Sweet Spirit's Sabrina Ellis. They also included "Sick to Move" from their recently re-released debut LP.

Superchunk w/ Sabrina Ellis

From there, we headed over to Historic Scoot Inn for sets from Philly's Mt. Joy and Louisville greats White Reaper. Mt. Joy do folk-infused indie rock, and White Reaper do high-octane garage pop. Both bands had avid fans in the crowd. During White Reaper's set, beer cans were flying; and Chris and Amy were bopping.

Mt. Joy
White Reaper

We drove over to Hotel Vegas to check out the evening's set times and used the hour we had before Ringo Deathstarr would take the stage to grab a burger from P. Terry's Burger Stand. After wolfing those down in the car, it was back to Hotel Vegas.

Ringo Deathstarr went on just after we walked in and blew me away. I'm a shoegaze fan, and they do it so well. The band were working out some new songs and everything sounded great.

Ringo Deathstarr

Hotel Vegas was running three stages: the outdoor Patio Stage, the indoor Hotel Vegas Stage, and the indoor stage at Volstead Lounge. We squished into Volstead for a set from Tall Juan. That was a party. Tall Juan encouraged everyone to dance and sing along without worrying what anyone thought, and most of the crowd took his advice.

Tall Juan

Then, it was a bit of wandering around to catch some of the country bands playing inside on the Hotel Vegas side and Yonatan Gat with a drum circle on the dusty ground in front of the outside stage. Volstead was running a good 45 minutes behind; but, at around 10pm, local psych-rockers, Hidden Ritual, finally took the stage and shook the small space.

It was back out into the dust for what would be my final two acts of the evening. Sweet Spirit includes most of the members of A Giant Dog. They trade that band's glam punk for something a little more soulful. Sabrina Ellis is still able to command a crowd no matter the genre. The crowd was a lot less violent than they were for A Giant Dog the previous night, but they were no less enthusiastic.

Sweet Spirit

The craziness came when Nobunny took the stage at around midnight. I made it through a song or two up front before things got too wild. Nobunny played as a relentless power trio on Tuesday but promised more band members for the sets they'll be playing at Hotel Vegas throughout the week.

Guy who kept crowd surfing to Nobunny.
Nobunny

So that was yesterday. Non-stop and pretty bananas. I may slow it down a little bit before tonight and try to take in a few conference sessions. Gotta pace myself. We'll see what happens.

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