There's a high possibility that these updates will become slightly more delirious and more filled with rambling than actual sentences in the next couple of days, as I'm sitting in bed here and running on another night of very little sleep. Just fair warning, you know. There are two things right now that are my biggest assets, and that would be the gel insoles I bought before I came (they do wonders, really) because I knew I'd be walking around a ton, and packets of Emergen-C. It's amazing what a packet of Emergen-C will do in the mornings, and I swear I'm not being sponsored by them (although if somebody from Emergen-C is currently reading this and is interested, I'm all ears).
The first day I didn't really start seeing shows until about 2:30 PM, so yesterday I decided that was useless and went to see my first show at 11:40 AM, also partly motivated by the promise of free breakfast burritos at this daytime party. The band was Nico Vega, the LA trio that has one of the most powerful voices that a frontwoman has nowadays. Although almost the entire sparse crowd was staff of the party and other bands setting up, seeing as how Nico was the first band to go, the band is on MySpace Records and releasing a debut full-length album soon, so this is one of the few cases where slot time does not necessarily correlate with popularity and/or talent. After Nico's quick set, the band to go on after was Morning State, a jangly little indie rock band from Atlanta which I had never heard of before seeing them. They were surprisingly peppy considering how much the singer's jokes fell flat, and now as I listen to the music on their MySpace page, their recorded material doesn't seem as energetic as them live, so we'll see how they fare in coming future.
It was quite the contrast then to go from a party like this one that was only mildly busy to head over to the Paste Magazine/Stereogum party, where Nada Surf was scheduled to play an acoustic set. This was my first time seeing Nada Surf ever, and I probably should have seen them full-band at least once before, because while the songs were good, the entire thing was a tad lacking. The songs started to blend together halfway through and the band was playing mostly newer material it seemed, so I think that I should see Nada play a regular show now in order to properly judge them.
A little while later, I found myself checking out Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong, a band with one of the worst band names I've heard in a while, although I have to admit that it's hard to forget at least. I had heard the name floated around before and so had to catch them for at least a bit. They definitely have the whole "Brit-rock" look down, and musically, they sounded about as much as every other Brit-rock band as their look implied. Great energy, but nothing stood out as particularly original or different.
I spent the next few hours doing some business things and helping set up for other parties, but got back into the show-watching rhythm with Noah and the Whale, a British pop-folk (I guess?) act that had a bit of buzz going on about them. I was in the back of the venue so it was a bit hard to hear but I imagine they were pretty good. It's the kind of music that it's hard to screw up live, I think. I went across the street in the middle of their set though to a BBC party to see Florence and the Machine, a British duo fronted by spunky girl named, well, Florence. It would be kind of cheeky to compare her to Kate Nash musically, but in other aspects such as offbeat humor and looks (kind of), she'd be dead on. Her voice, however, was something on a whole other level than Kate, something that I would not expect from, well, a little white girl. She had the fiery personality to match her voice, ending the set by dragging a friend out of the crowd and jumping into a small pool, so it was quite the show.
Another Black Ghosts show followed after that, this one at a venue that oddly enough seemed kind of Hollywood in the middle of Austin. Despite some technical difficulties with Simon's midi controller, all seemed to go well. After their set, I had one last stop for the night, and that was the Playboy C3 party, where I was helping out with the Shadowscene videobooth. The line-up was Justice, Moby (DJing), MGMT, and The Heavy. I was in the other room for most of the night helping out with some stuff, but I did manage to catch MGMT and The Heavy at least, and neither were disappointing. The Heavy have a great sound that is fairly hard to describe, but it's some of the catchiest soul-infused rock around (just listen to "In The Morning") and their live set, complete with dancing Playmates, only made me like them so much more. MGMT were surprisingly good, and not because I really dislike their music (I am pretty sick of hearing "Time to Pretend" everywhere I go though), but because I had never seen them live and everyone else had seem disappointed, so it was nice to see them for myself and discover that they actually were pretty good. They're "the hot new band" so it's always good to see that they're not ALL overhyped (much). As for the other acts on the bill, well, I've seen Justice too many times to count now so I skipped their DJ set and Moby DJing is cool but still is basically just a DJ set, so I only paid attention every so often, wandering over to the performance room. After 4 AM, while the party was still going, I decided I had to head back to my room, and it's a good thing or else I'd be even more dead right now typing this than I already am. Time to go to a brunch and have a bloody mary to wake me up.
