Tonight, make me unstoppable

Thursday night
March 15th

After a stop at the Riche condo to get Taylor and dinner at Thundercloud, I am a whole different person. The food and caffeine have given me a second wind that I desperately needed if I was going to make it another night. Sitting down for a while also helped! So, I have a dilemma tonight. Two bands have overlapping times and I want to see them both. Bloc Party is playing at midnight at Stubb’s and The Fratellis are playing at 1am at the Dirty Dog Saloon. My original thinking is that I should just see the Fratellis and not worry about Bloc Party. I have seen block party twice. The last time was this past August. But, IT IS BLOC PARTY! I am insane about this band. I cannot preach about this band anymore that I already do. They are fantastic. If you don’t have a copy of Silent Alarm, stop reading this blog and go pick it up, right now! I am dead serious. What to do! I have never seen the Fratellis and this is one of the bands I came to SXSW to see. They are Scottish and they rock, hard. I know Taylor wants to see Bloc Party because he has never seen them before and I will not get in anyone’s way of experiencing them live. I want him to see Bloc Party. I am afraid if I stay for a few songs of Bloc Party I won’t make it into Dirty Dog to see the Fratellis. Then I will try to get back into Stubb’s and they will be at capacity. And then I will totally freak out. Since the Fratellis are a buzz band this year, they are playing quite a few other times. Bloc Party is not. This is there only show the entire festival. It is a stop on their tour. I know for sure The Fratellis are playing the Spin magazine party on Friday during the day. That is the party of the entire festival. I really want to go, but you need an invite. Getting an invite is not easy. You have to just be able to find one. If I knew I was going to the Spin party, I would only see Bloc Party and not worry about The Fratellis. There is no guarantee I will get an invite to this party. Oh man, what to do. I explain my frustrations to Taylor, who of course thinks it is funny, but does agree with me. No guarantee of an invite to the Spin party. Damn. Here is the interesting part. As Taylor and I are walking towards Stubb’s for the beginning of the evening, I see a sign on a post about the Island Records UK party tomorrow, Friday at Bourbon Rocks. The Fratellis are on the line-up, as is Amy Winehouse. Awesome! This looks like a great show! Is it legit? I haven’t heard about this the whole week and I know the Fratellis are playing the Spin party tomorrow. Could they be playing two shows that day? Of course, it is SXSW. Well, now my plans are changing. I still can see the Fratellis tomorrow and see Bloc Party tonight. I need to find out if this party is legit first.
So, the night begins at Stubb’s with Get Cape.Wear Cape.Fly. It is a guy from Britain on a guitar and a drummer. A mellow start to the night. Taylor and I get there half way through his set because we decided eating was more important. I have never heard of this guy before, so it is new. Like I said, rather mellow. One of his songs to check out is called “Call Me Ishmael.” The singer mentioned being sick earlier in the day and having to go to the hospital. It turns out he had a chest infection and spent $400 on medicine. He then started talking about health care in this country (he is British). Poor guy, I felt bad for him. He was done in his allotted time and then Aqualung was next. Aqualung is a musician I heard of, another mellow one. He did have a full band, but his music is centered around his piano/keyboard. I didn’t have a reason to go see these two acts except that Bloc Party will be playing here later and I figured it was a good place to start. Aqualung has a new album coming out this spring, so he was playing new tunes from that one. Their last album that got a little bit of US airplay was Strange and Beautiful. This band reminds me a little of Keane, who I love. They were not disappointing, but just an easy way to start the night. Aqualung finished around 9:45, so we decided to head to the Dirty Dog Saloon. MuteMath is playing there at 11, and I want to make sure I see them. We get there for the 10pm show which is a band called Melee that hails from Southern Cal. The lead singer, to me, is a dead ringer for John Heder of Napoleon Dynamite. Taylor agrees with me. This band reminds me a lot of Rooney, another band from California. They remind Taylor of Ben Folds. I totally see that. There music is this catchy pop type of mix. Their lyrics make you laugh out loud a little, which reminds me of some of Ben Folds. If the OC had another season, this band would have either played at the Bait Shop or given a song to the soundtrack. They are perfect for it. Many people in the crowd are digging the music. It does make you bounce a little. The lead singer gets off stage at one point and sings to two girls who are obviously eating this up. I see they already have fans which is cool. They were fun. MuteMath is the group I came to see though. This is the little electronic/pop/reggae group that hails from New Orleans. They got started on the Northshore, and then were pushed to Nashville during Katrina. It looks like they are back in the city for good though. Thank goodness. The city needs an indie band vibe. I have seen this band once before, but not in this type of intimate setting. I saw them play at the Voodoo Music Festival back in October. I am attending this show fully expecting to have the venue about half full with mostly people from Louisiana. The band starts setting up and they have numerous instruments, one of them being a keytar. Hell yeah! Taylor and I look at each other and a few guys behind us scream KEYTAR! It is hard to find a good keytar around now. This keytar is also bright red! I now notice about the time the band is about to take the stage how unbelievably packed this venue is now. I never would have guessed. I think they are at capacity. The people around me are talking about seeing this band about 5 times. I am very impressed this band has such a following, and they are from New Orleans! Not, NY, Silverlake, Detroit, or Portland. Wow, that is cool. The drummer comes onto the stage and ductapes him headphones to his head. I mean he takes the roll and wraps around his ears quite a few times. Ouch, I don’t want to have to take that off later! So, they begin to rock, and they rock hard. I mean hard. The entire place is just singing and dancing around to the music. I highly recommend the songs “Chaos” and “Plan B.” They have a video on youtube right now titled Typical. Go watch it. I have recently learned the band’s debut album is up for the Shortlist Music Prize. Awesome and good luck to the band. I am now really feeling this band and having a good time. It gets to about 11:30 and Taylor and I decide if we want to try and see Bloc Party for midnight, we need to leave this place before the band finishes and everyone heads over to Stubbs. I have finally decided to forget about the Fratellis for tonight and see Bloc Party. This is the only show they are playing during SX and I can catch the Fratellis on Friday. So, we make our way through the heavy crowd and get out of the Dirty Dog Saloon. Now we are headed over to Stubbs. I am hoping we get in. I don’t mind waiting in line for a little while, but I don’t want to spend the rest of the night in line when there are other acts to see. We make it to Stubb’s and the line is down the block for wristbands. We are feeling hopeful and get in line. I don’t see many badge people in line so that is a good sign, we can get in. The badge line always has to be empty before wristbands are allowed. It is one of the many unfortunate things about SXSW. People complain about how elitist it has become. As we are standing in line, the badge line grows and grows. People are just showing up and getting in line, not knowing who is playing. That is driving me nuts. Let the real fans in, not these pretentious asses! It is about 11:40 and I think we have moved about two steps. The badge line continues to grow. The badge line though, does move, so these people are getting in. I keep telling Taylor when they all get in, and then it is our time. Bloc Party is supposed to start at midnight, but I think they are running late. People are starting to drop out of the wristband line, so that is how we are moving. They are only letting badge people in at this time. As long as the band hasn’t started yet, I am waiting in line. Taylor has never seen them and I want to see the new songs performed from the new album A Weekend in the City. It has been about 30 minutes and we have moved pretty close to the front of the line. More people are dropping out and I am quietly cheering them on! Bloc Party is starting late. It is almost 12:15 and no signs yet. We are still inching our way to the front of the line. At this point, I am fired up. I am ready to get inside to see them. I am not backing done at all! I am trying to fire Taylor up at this point too. He is in it for the long haul. When we started moving forward, he saw the light at the end of the tunnel. About 12:25, I see the lights go out and hear the first song, “Song for Clay” and the crowd erupts. Ok people, let’s get moving. I tell Taylor we are getting into this show. The bouncers are letting people in slowly by 2s. No more badges, so it is just the wristband. After the end of the first song, “Positive Tension” starts. Come on!!!! Now, I need to get in now. I am practically bouncing off the ticket booth at Stubb’s now. I can not miss any more songs. I hear the crowd and I need to get in there. I can miss these two songs, but there are some I cannot miss. Finally, after the second song, the bouncer lets Taylor and me in. YIPPEEEE!! We waited 45 minutes in line and it was totally worth it. I walked in just to hear the band start “Blue Light”. Now, I could not have missed this one, so I am happy. We run in and find a spot in the back. I notice that this place does not seem like it is completely packed. They should be able to let everyone in who is in line. What is their problem? Well, we got in so I am happy. It is now about 12:30 and we are tired. If you are one of the late bands, you need to rock us hard. None of this acoustic crap. Get us up and moving around. Bloc Party did just that. I didn’t feel like I had been standing up for the past 4 hours. The crowd is the front was totally into the show. They played the great ones from Silent Alarm “Like Eating Glass,” “This Modern Love,” and my personal favorite, “Banquet.” The songs from the new album sound fantastic live. I was so glad. This band just blows me away. This is the third time I have seen them and they keep getting better. I cannot stress this more to people. Start listening to Bloc Party! You will be so happy you did. “The Prayer” is a great song on the second album. For their encore, Taylor and I managed to make our way closer to the front since the crowd started to think a little. I tried to get as close as possible. When they came back for their encore, they saved the best for last. The played “She’s Hearing Voices” and “Helicopter.” The lead singer asked us if we “still had a little fight in us.” Absolutely! He jumped onto the speakers and started singing. Why does almost every band I see have the need to jump around on the speakers at Stubb’s. For a minute there, I didn’t think he would make it down. A stage hand had to help him down. The show ended with no one being hurt. It actually ended at 1:45. Wow, we will get home early tonight! It was an absolutely fantastic show and I am so glad I went. Tomorrow I will hopefully see the Fratellis!