Ok, let's just start where I left off - also note: I am going to number Quien Es, Boom! and Mogwai (from my last blog entry), #1 and #2, respectively - I just want to count how many I actually saw and thought it would be fun to do it this way. Also, if I heard a band, but I did not stay for at least two songs then that band is not included on my list.
Day Two/Thursday:
We got up and had some yummy TGI Friday's breakfast buffet, got cleaned up, and then headed over to Bar Austin to see #3, Glenna Bell. Glenna sounded great, and the very moving vox only "The Fighting Texas Aggies Win Again" (I hope I got the title right) was really killer. I mean really. She said one time when she played that song, someone in the audience began crying. After hearing it, it is easy to understand why. (sorry, I couldn't find a link to the song - I think it is still pretty new). Next, I went over to Fuel to check out #4, Morgue City - Spike is a monster on the drums. Then I met back up with friends and found out that Helmet was doing a show at Emo's. I very much wanted to see them, but by the time I got there, they had *just* finished. Grrr. So instead I quickly walked back to Nuno's where I heard some pretty good sounding stuff when I passed by on my way to Helmet. I went in and #5, Head Drone totally rocked me out major. It was great! I scored a free CD and a t-shirt and went on my way. Next up - #6, Spoon! Yeah baby, I made the Spoonage. I hiked all the way to freaking Town Lake Stage to do it, but let me tell you ... SO worth it. Spoon was amazing - and everything was totally enhanced by our perfect location amidst the reported 10,000 attendees. I was amazed to be able to find friends John, Heba and Josh in that mammoth crowd - thank you guys for finding the greatest spot possible. The show was also enhanced by the perfect weather and fun jumbo screen text messaging thingie that they had next to the stage at Town Lake [you could send a text message to be displayed on the jumbo screen, we never saw ours :( ]. Dylan joined us too and after seeing the first Echo and the Bunnymen song, he and I headed over to the Red 7 to catch #7, Sky Blue 72 and #8, dUNETX. Nuje was playing in dUNETX and after having an unpleasant run in with the doorperson at the Red 7, I was in the mood to just sit and chill for a while. Nuje asked me to take pictures with his camera and I'm thinking that will probably be the last time he ever asks me to do so - the first time I did it all of the pictures were way too dark and then this time I just couldn't get it to work for nuthin'. He said it was acting funky though, so hopefully it wasn't all me. Next, it was time for #9, Drop Trio at the Elephant Room. My, my, my goodness. Muy excelente as always. I've decided that I really dig the Elephant Room - good things happen there. This performance apparently inspired The Houston Chroinicle's Sara Cress to title her Thursday SxSW blog entry "Proud to say Drop Trio was born in Houston" - although I'm sure her prior knowledge of the band had something to do with it as well. See my pics of the show here.
Very great day.

Day Three/Friday:
This day began and ended with me talking non-stop about wanting to see Brian Jonestown Massacre. The sad news is that I didn't. Okay, let's go back to the beginning now.
It was St. Patrick's Day. I did not even realize that until we were at Fuel where the bartender pointed out that he was not going to be able to pinch me because I had a green shirt on. I looked down at my arms and saw my striped green long-sleeved undershirt and then gasped because it was entirely accidental that I happened to have green on. Funny. I told the bartender to pinch me anyway (kidding kidding).
We totally missed breakfast. So really the first thing we did was Devon and I went over to Fuel where JEB was playing again. Took some pictures. Next the #10, Southern Backtones played. Took some more pictures. It was all fun and good despite the absence of anyone being there to watch the shows. Mid-afternoon, unofficial sxsw shows don't exactly draw the masses. *shock*
However there was one unidentified guy walking around that caught my attention. He was wearing a green Aquaman shirt. I kept thinking about how much I knew my friend Adam would love it and just couldn't stop thinking about it. So eventually I decided to tell the guy that I liked his shirt. He was very receptive to this and we ended up talking for quite a while. Then after the Backtones were done playing, I ended up checking some stuff out with Dylan and Hank on 6th street and the Aquaman dude decided to tag along. He remembered them from the show they did on Wednesday (I got here too late to see that one) and really liked them apparently. He even followed us up into the hotel where Dylan and I were staying - we went into the lounge for some snacks and stuff and he just came in and made himself right at home. Luckily he wasn't dangerous, but he was definitely a little odd. Anyway, the entire point of this story is that it is ALL Adam's fault for being such a big Aquaman freak. This whole story would not have been possible had it not been for Adam. (tee-hee-hee-hee-*snort*)
Next! This was fun. If you want to really try to get into the SxSW zone as experienced by me then it is imperative that you remember to always include the throbbing pain of feet that feel like they are blistered and broken to the point of uselessness. But despite it all, we just kept on going. Logan and I seemed to be having the most foot trouble so it was quite ironic that we are also the ones that ended up walking from the hotel on Cesar Chavez all the way up to Beck's (right by the Continental Club) - if you don't know Austin this won't mean much but trust me, it was far for people with very sore feet ... and up hill even. So we went to catch JEB again (still one more time to come) - that was a nice little place with some nice weather happening. After JEB loaded up the trailer we all hopped in the van and had an adventurous shimmy out of the back alley. Whew! We made it without a scratch thanks to Jake the kick-awesome guitar player/stunt driver and then we all went to Magnolia Cafe for some yummy mag mud and dinner. Next, Logan and I went down to 6th street and decided to meet her friend at a bar called Friends, fancy that! Anyway the band there was called #11, Hotel Lights and unfortunately enough they made my two song quota to be qualified as a band I listened to at SxSW. Not that they were bad. They really weren't, but they were just SO SLOW and boring and I guess for some reason I was in the mood to be around more energy than that. Logan and I spent a lot of time debating over what we were going to see at midnight: Brian Jonestown, Sharon Jones, The Motels, or who knows what else. In the end we ended up going to see #12, The Motels at Elysium. Martha Davis sounds better than ever, imho, and the songs were totally energetic and fun. In addition to herself on guitar, her band is a group of talented young men - it was quite a refreshing ensemble. I am still regretting not catching BJM, although it sounds like their show was full of the typical BJM goodness so I probably didn't actually miss too many songs, but still part of the BJM experience is witnessing the drama, no? And so I sadly missed out on that. We all know Miss Sharon and Mr. Bosco Mann (I love him) and crew put on a knock-out show over at Antone's. They really don't know how to do it any other way. Then Logan and I got to have more fun. We attempted to hail a taxi for about, oh maybe like 20 minutes?! We walked several blocks, flailing at every cab that went by, but they were all full. Well until one wasn't, anyway. Then we went over to hook up with our peeps at Waterloo Ice House where Josh had been working at a Texas music show all day and JEB was about to play their final SxSW 2006 show. I met some cool people there from Australia and New York. We caught the end of #13, The Mighty Orq which is a rock band from Houston. After they were done, JEB rocked out and we all drank some free Shiner and I took a few more photos:

Then we all went back and hung out and partied at the hotel.
Another fun day.

Day Four/Saturday:
Ugh. This day started off kind of depressingly. We missed a fun soirée that we were invited to. That was very much the bummer. So then I took to wandering around Austin by myself for a few hours. I went over to the Hilton and checked out the Dimebag Darrell Art Tribute which was really just a display of several guitars that were painted by famous musicians in tribute to Dimebag. I forgot my camera, but there were some pretty cool ones. But still, being reminded about his death and all was pretty depressing.
So obviously it was time for some fun. Devon heard about Spiracell playing a show at Spiro's that I knew nothing about. Seeing as how I am friends with the bass player's sister-in-law I was so excited to finally be able to see them play. I knew from previous shows I've seen Marcus (the bass player) perform in that he is very talented and always works with very talented musicians so I knew this was going to be a good show. So we headed over to Spiro's. When we got there #14, Barely Blind was playing out on the patio. This was a group of young guys with a great sound. Everyone was really enjoying it. We met up with the guys from Hollister Fracus and hung out with them for quite a while. After Barely Blind was done we went in to catch the very short #15, Spiracell set. It was short but totally awesome. They rawked it out BIG time. I ran into Jill, my friend Carey's sister (and Marcus' wife). That was cool, now if I can only see Carey some time before we retire! :P
So while no bands were playing we went and hung out on the patio again with the guys from HF. After quite a while we heard this great sound coming from inside so we all went in. That was when we discovered #16, Inherence. Holy crap, do they freaking rock. Loud, awesome, and SO GREAT! They are the reason my neck is sore right now. Which we love them for. I had to have a CD, Devon did too, actually I think we all got one. That was a totally fun show and by far the best rock I witnessed during my entire SxSW experience. I was a bit frustrated because I realized that I had been missing many of the shows that I really wanted to see during the previous days, so on Saturday I was determined to actually get to as many of the shows that I had on my list as possible. This is why I had to leave Spiro's - Devon and I were having a nice time hanging out with the Inherence crew, but I really wanted to catch Katahdin's Edge way over at the Elephant Room, so it was time for me to get going. Josh met me over there and we chilled out and took in the #17, Katahdin's Edge. I absolutely LOVED them. I had not realized that they were basically the same instrumental set up as Drop Trio which was interesting - I don't think I've ever seen another band perform with just drums, keys, and bass. Except the bass player had this crazy upright bass - I wish I would have gotten a picture of it, it was pretty nifty looking, imho. You should have seen the keys dude - he was turning his keyboard at all sorts of angles and playing in weird positions. It was entertaining to watch. But then he also played quite a bit of the big piano. He didn't pick that one up though *snort*. Watching the upright bass dude was interesting as well. Plus, it all sounded great so I had to buy another CD. I was happy to hear that they were coming back later that night for another show. This is why I said that good things happen at the Elephant Room, by the way. Drop Trio and Katahdin's Edge - two of the best SxSW shows evar both at the same venue. See? I knew you'd agree. I really probably should have spent much more time there ::making mental note for next year:: That might be one venue that I just trust without looking any info up on the bands that are playing there. Sounds like a good idea? I think so.
Next, I decided to walk with Josh over to Habana Calle 6 to see The Owls. Well I wasn't sure about seeing them because I wanted to see how much time I had before the next band on my list started. When we got close, we ran into Ian and I found out that Ian also had a band called Hologram on his list for the upcoming time slot. So we went and checked them out at Red 7 and Josh went to hang out at the Habana. #18, Hologram had a late start, but eventually got it going. They were very cool and different. They were talking in japanese on the microphone which was interesting. I was glad I got to see them. When I left the club after Hologram I ran into Ian again. He was headed to #19, Zombi and since I had them on my list I decided to go too. Holy crap, Room 710 was crowded. I felt like a very short sardine. It seemed like everyone in there was 6'+. I was also entirely too aware of the fact that they had giant Hershey's Bar wrappers hanging from clothespins over the bar ... I never did find out what was going on, but it SO sounds like something I should have researched further, no? *shrug*. Zombi was very cool - just two guys - one guy with his laptop and synthesizer and the other on drums. Anyone with an Apple laptop on stage gets my immediate seal of approval. :P
After Zombi it was time to head over and hook up with Devon and Logan. They were at the Fox and Hound waiting to see #20, She Wants Revenge. So I hiked. Ow. We stayed for a few songs then we were off - back to 6th street. They went to see Charlatans of the UK and I went back to catch the 1 AM show of Katahdin's Edge. It was a little more empty in the Elephant Room this time so I just pulled a chair up in front of me, put my aching feet up, and got very comfortable - I let the music work away some of the pain. It was great. Aaaahhhhh... I love music.

The next day we got up, ate, and after check-out I went over to the mama grande Whole Foods of all time on the corner of Lamar and 6th. I've been there once before. I love it. I want to live there. Then after that I went over to Waterloo Records and found a bunch of CDs and stuff that I wanted (that is one of only two stores in Texas that stock Homestar Runner stuff) and then I put it all back because the lines were pretty long and I wanted to go home. (Yes Nuje, I had 2112 in my hand).

Then I drove back to Houston with a brainful of new memories to last another year and a ton of groovy new music sitting on the seat beside me. And I finally removed my wristband this morning (it is Tuesday) and put it away for safe keeping.

Ok, that's it. The end. If you finish reading this before SxSW 2007, you win!