SXSW - day 7

Okay, I'm back in Maine so it's been two days since I last posted and since the airport made me toss out the newspapers I was bringing home because they say my bag was too heavy (it wasn't too heavy going out) I'm doing this mostly from memory. Well, I'll try to use the SXSW web site and I'm going to see if I can find some other cool stuff for you to look at too.

We decided to start Saturday off with a final movie. So we headed back to the Alamo Downtown for "Reel Paradise." The story of how indie-film producer (successful indie film producer) John Peterson (Pierson?) decided to move his family to Fiji for a year where he bought a movie theater and would show movies for free while they were there. It was a good little documentary with some very thought-provoking moments. It might not be truly great but it sparked some discussion and that's a good thing.

Then it was off to the bands. We bounced from bar to bar until about 8 (which is when the scheduled bands officially start in most places around Austin during the festival). We saw a punk band at Shakespeare's Club and we had a beer in Buffalo Billiards. I think we might have gone somewhere else too but I'm not sure.

Then we got a call from Brendan's dad saying he was on his way into town so we made plans to meet him in line at Antone's for Kings of Convenience. Who knew this band was so popular? The line was the longest I'd seen all week. For anything. So we hoofed back to Emo's main room for a Buck 65 show at 9. We watched a little of the Emo's Jr. stage too, catching a little of both Dirty Americans and Illuminati (neither was particularly worth mentioning though).

Buck 65 came out, drawled his easy Canadian rhymes, tossed some confetti (razzle dazzle) in the air and scratched like a madman. It was really a lot better than I'd expected and I expected great things. Then Saul Williams came out. Now, I knew very little of Saul Williams. Some guy in line told me about what he was about. But we stuck around and the originator of Slam! poetry dropped some serious knowledge. He seems to have taken up where everyone from Langston Hughes to Spike Lee and Gil Scott Heron to Chuck D left off. It's a powerful message.

Then, wanting to see several more bands, we headed back down 6th for pizza. We got pizza and decided to head to Maggie Mae's so we could catch Daniel Johnston at 1 a.m. We get inside and buy a beer and it was like we'd hit a serious wall. Both Brendan and I were almost sleeping on the steps. We managed to stay up though through Ariel Pink and the Nightingales (the Nightingales probably would have seemed a lot better if I wasn't propping my eyelids open). Then the inimitable Daniel Johnston came out. Now I'd never even really heard of this guy but after a week in Austin I felt like he was the most famous guy on Earth. He came out, played his emotionally raw music with very minimalist accompaniment and was done by 1:40.

We went home. Slept for a few hours. And then got up Sunday and caught our plane(s) home. They lost our luggage though.