Today’s first thoughts are of a serious lack of hydration and nutrition. This inspires us to find a small hippy-run vegetarian/vegan restaurant near our place of residence on 1st Street South, just slightly further from town than the River and the trail of thrift stores and diners.

Amazing Baby are our first band of the day – more a chance meeting than an active decision to watch – a highly stylised group (which is perhaps apt for their performance at the Levi’s/Fader Fort) with a possible lack of any actual substance. Apparently this band features members of the abrasive ‘90s alternative cult band ‘The Icarus Line’, whose erratic post-hardcore, with heavy non-sequential riffs and relatively harshly sung vocals is far removed from the badly named, MGMT-esque , pop newcomers.

After leaving the free beer-affiliated Levi’s/Fader Fort, we tumble down the road to the KVRX radio station showcase at Okay Mountain Galleries, to see Mika Miko, The Splinters and Manhattan Love Suicide. The order seems not to represent the artists’ calibre, popularity or ability. London Nu-Goths Manhatten Love Suicide, bring the noise, the tape hiss and the psychocandy. Mika Miko, graduates of The Smell’s all ages punk-noise scene bring the punk pop feminist anarcho-crust and The Splinters bring their own equipment, and up the female-to-male ratio. They play in the garden area of the gallery, to a high degree of nonchalance.

After picking up a few more free beers at the Levi’s/Fader Fort and catching a bit of Late Of The Pier we walk six blocks north east to Club 1808, to see some fellow English squires by the name of PRE play. The area is kind of rough and kind of what you’d expect Texas to be like, we encounter cockerels walking across the sidewalk, and slack-jawed yokels questioning our choice of route. PRE play with a new drummer and only one bassist (compared to their usual two), displaying a looser take on their tech-metallish post-punk, and put on an energetic yet sunburned display. As per, front woman Akiko takes off her clothes to reveal ‘PRE’ written across her breasts in black tape, something that I hear people talking about for the rest of the night.

After seeing the worst of post-Blood Brothers acts Jaguar Love play in a crowded tent somewhere, while eating some pizza, we head to ‘The Ballet’. An actual real life ballet centre with mirrors galore and dancing poles, put on by KVRX Radio station who apparently play “none of the hits all of the time”. We see some two-piece lo-fi noise-by-numbers performance called XYX that sucks and leave to see the free bar that yields treasures of beer kegs and vodka Red Bull…success.

Waiting to see Austin hardcore/power violence Total Abuse at 12.15pm we’re discombobulated by the arrival of gurning, staggering, dribbling Aussies, The Coconuts. They seem to further bamboozle the crowd by tuning up for longer than they actually play their horrendously loud psychedelic horseshit. The crowd, possibly put off by their unannounced arrival and level of noise, mixed with their high level of chemical induced ineptitude, doesn’t appear too impressed. Despite this, The Coconuts are actually pretty good.

Total Abuse, display a total lack of respect for the culture and tradition of a ballet hall. They tear the place a new ‘twitter’, with the roof being smashed up, PA being thrown about, circle pits and free beer flying everywhere! You have to applaud Texas’s readiness to put on bands at SXSW in absolutely any unsuitable venue. We catch half of the Strange Boys set (their fifth show of the day) also in the Ballet centre, which is on par in terms of excellence compared to their performance we caught earlier, before heading into another room to see Israel’s sons, Monotonix.

Monotonix destroy the place, they crank out slightly angular heavy rock songs, which prove difficult to define, due to the eccentricity of their life show, including burning a drum kit and crowd surfing on drums amongst other theatrics. Possibly the perfect way to end the night: drenched in free beer, and soaked in sweat.

Steve

http://lovvers-letscommunicate.blogspot.com/