SXSW Day 2- Friday

I can say that after our experience at the Friday show, that next year we'll take a few days off and attend the day shows for SXSW. It is way more laid back, not so crowded and there are many parties around town that give away free drinks and food. That isn't as important as the good bands, but it does make a day way more enjoyable and WAY cheaper!! :o)

We started our day off at the Counter Cafe for breakfast. We haven't been there before but Jim read a good article on it in the Chronicle. It is a tiny restaurant. They have the long counter to sit at and maybe 4 tables that sat 2 people, and one table that sat 4-5 people. I can't imagine how busy they are on the weekends and the wait to get a place to sit. We both ordered the same thing... Eggs Benedict/Florentine. Poached eggs over freshly sauteed spinach on a yummy biscuit, covered with the hollandaise sauce. I have to put it up there with one of the best Eggs Benedict that I have had. Everything tasted so fresh, the eggs were cooked perfectly, and using biscuits instead of the English Muffin was delicious. I'm going to ignore the fact that the breakfast was totally loaded down with fat and calories. Since we sat at the counter, we were able to watch the cook/chef make our food. It was so interesting to watch him keep an eye on everything on the stove and not burn anything. It takes a great talent to work in a restaurant kitchen.

Bottled coke with breakfast

Perfection

Our first stop was Maggie Mae's at the Sonicbids party. Sonicbids is a website/service for bands to get shows and to get their name out there (at least I think this is what they do). I had no idea until I looked them up on the Internet :o) This was a party that you needed to RSVP to, but when I went to their website, it wasn't working. We were still able to get in with out the badge or RSVP... thank you to the nice lady at the door! We heard other people were turned away that didn't have a badge or RSVP. This party had free domestic beer, free well drinks and free food from El Arroyo. Jackpot!

The music at Maggie Mae's was lacking. They were just okay (I think we saw 5 bands there) but on the rooftop next to us (at Blind Pig Pub) also had music that we listened to. We ended up staying near the edge of the roof so we could hear the bands at Blind Pig Pub better.

This band sounded like the Cure... they were interesting to watch. Their name was Tele and they played at the Blind Pig Pub.

These guys were the shining star at Maggie Mae's. After searching through the Internet I couldn't find their name, but I have the lineup at home. I don't think I ever saw the lead singers eyes, his hair covered them :o)

These guys were a trip. We were sitting in our little corner of Maggie Mae's when I noticed a group of men with itty bitty shorts on. Hmmmmm...kay. So I kept an eye on them (and hoping that their junk wouldn't fall out of their shorts) trying to figure out if they were just watching shows or if they were in a band. After they were all together, they started to stretch like they were about to go for a jog. Everybody around us stopped watching the band and started to watch them. Anywho... I thought what a perfect time for a photo so I can always remember the short shorts rockers. Turns out they were a band from Iceland. They played downstairs at the bar later that night, so we ended up missing them.

Friday afternoon around 1pm on 6th street in downtown Austin

These nice ladies were from Canada. They didn't have much of an accent so I won't make to much fun of them. The lady on the left was the photographer for some of the bands in town (LUCKY!!!) and knew the band that we discovered and loved. They were sweet ladies and they offered to take us to a few parties (SWEEEEEETTTT!!!) but we had to decline because we had John and Tammy's wedding rehearsal dinner that night (BOOOOOOOOOO,,, boo to missing the free SXSW parties with ladies that had media passes and could get us into places that normally we couldn't get into)

This isn't a great picture, but this is the band that we really enjoyed watching. In fact, most everybody on the rooftop at Maggies Mae's walked over to the side near Blind Pig Pub so they could hear this band. They are called Dean Lickton (I'm pretty sure I didn't spell that right... will correct later). The lead singer sounded a lot like Chris Robinson (Black Crowes) but moved around like Mick Jagger (Rolling Stones). We bought their cd, and enjoyed it on the way home that day.

Boots that a guy next to me was wearing

Our afternoon friends.... we stood next to these guys while watching bands. They are from Austin, but I don't remember their names (oops!! I think the girl is Carrie and the guy in red is Trevor). They were pretty darn cool and gave us some tips on where fun parties/bands were playing for the rest of the weekend.

Throughout the day, there were plenty of interviews with people and lots of cameras milling about

Bags o' Swag.... we received a gift bag when we walked into the party. It was filled with a couple of CD's, a hat, key chains and some other trinkets. It is a decent bag that I'm sure we'll use to haul around stuff.