Kata Rokkar — Kata Rokkar – A Bay Area based blog about music, life and stuff by Shawn Robbins.

Awesome.

Shawn: Day Two. I woke up around 11am and caught a $1 bus back to downtown Austin and check out what kind of trouble I was going to get in. Now let me kind of explain how SXSW works in case you’re not familiar. During the day, all bets are off. You can pretty much walk into any bar or venue in downtown Austin TX and catch a free show as long as you have ID. No RSVP (even though some places ask you to), no badges or wristbands, and free, yes that’s right, free concerts. When 7pm rolls around though, you’ll be searching for quite a bit if you’re looking for a free show. Most concerts now have a cover or are only for wristbands (artists, press, etc) or badges (sponsors, event planners, people with disposable income, etc). Some were even for badges only (which took priority over wristbands, which I had). So now that you kind of have an idea how this thing works, lets get things started.

Sleepy Sun

I made my way to the Bay Area Takeover at The Beauty Bar hosted by San Francisco’s own Bay Bridged website. Some of the best of the Bay’s bands were scheduled to perform pretty much all day but I was only able to catch two (I had other plans). The first being my favorite, Sleepy Sun. The psychedelic rock band rocked it as usual. I have already seen them twice and they still impress me with how tight they are becoming. The real treat was watching how the crowd was reacting. Everyone seemed to be extremely entertained with the band’s powerful performances. That was nice to witness.

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[mp3] Sleepy Sun – White Dove from New, Improved, Live – Session 6 (by Bay Bridged) (2010)

The Sandwiches

Next up was The Sandwiches. They seem to be building a fair amount of hype between the Gorilla Vs Bear coverage and their lo-fi surf sound that draws similarities to 60s beach pop. They calmly and quietly played a handful of their lighthearted tunes in a short 30 minute set. It was a delightful set for a sunny mid-afternoon in Texas.

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[mp3] The Sandwitches – back to the sea from How To Make Ambient Sadcake (2009)

Judgement Day

I left The Beauty Bar for Club DeVille but not before checking my Twitter and finding out my favorite string-metal band, Judgement Day was playing down the street, outside nonetheless. So I booked it down to 6th Street and watched the band play an acoustic set (with the drummer on buckets) to a very attentive and impressed audience. An audience that was growing by the minute. This was a nice surprise considering I didn’t even know they were out here. If you haven’t heard of them, try picking up Peacocks / Pink Monsters here. It’s probably one of the best records of the year, seriously.

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[mp3] Judgement Day – Cobra Strike from Peacocks / Pink Monsters (2010)

Vivian Girls

After watching them for a few songs, I made over to Club DeVille to watch Vivian Girls perform. We did a nice little Kuestionnaire with them a while back and I’ve always been a casual fan of the band, so it was nice to finally see them live. They know how to rock, that’s for sure. Echoing vocals and heavily distorted guitars along with the on stage grace by the members made for a decent and enjoyable set.

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[mp3] Vivian Girls – Blind Spot from I can’t Stay 7″ (2009)

Liars

Liars

I stuck around to catch the one band I was really looking forward to, Liars. I saw Angus and company a while back when they toured with Interpol and have since been a huge fan. That’s the thing about Liars though; you’re either a huge fan or want to stick railroad spikes in your ears. Their experiential noise rock is so complex and artful that for me, is hard to hate. But I can understand why. The band went through a few old ones but it was nice to hear the new stuff live, particularly Scarecrows on a Killer Slant. A mosh pit eventually broke out, which I can’t say I expected but it’s wasn’t too violent, just people dancing. Overall a nice set from this one-of-a-kind band.

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[mp3] Liars – Scissor from Sisterworld (2010)

Fucked Up

Fucked Up

I decided to wander a bit and eventually came upon a surprise set by the Toronto hardcore band Fucked Up. Now I’ve been a fan of hardcore since i was a kid and always admired the community aspect of the genre and have since departed from it aside from a select few bands. Fucked Up being one of them. They played a sloppy but fun set of covers and originals while Mr. Damien took off his shirt, climbed all over the venue, and screamed and smiled his ass off.

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[mp3] Fucked Up – Magic Word from The Chemistry of Common Life (2008)

Eugene Mirman

Did I mention they had stand-up comedians there too? I didn’t see any but above is a nice little picture I got of Eugene Mirman taking pictures of some march going on during the festivities. We talked for a bit and he seemed to have no plan for that night. Join the club.

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[mp3] Eugene Mirman – Vancouver, Detroit, And Bears! from God Is A Twelve-Year-Old Boy With Asperger’s (2009)

These United States

I met up with some friends later on and had some food and beers. I can’t remember what exactly. It’s kind of a blur right now… Anyway! Around 6pm I made it over to Encore to watch These United States wrap up a short but energetic set. I always miss them when they come by San Francisco so it was neat to see the band rock out play some new material.

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[mp3] These United States – Burn this Bridge from A Picture of the Three of Us at the Gate to the Garden of Eden (2008)

Miles Kurosky (ex-Beulah)

After they wrapped up I meandered over to Emo’s Main Room for ex-Beulah’s Miles Kurosky bang out a few new song from his recently released The Desert of Shallow Effects. It sounded very…Beulah-ish. But what did you expect? They song remain dense with story-like lyrics and heartfelt vocals with a poppier and more instrumentally focused band. I didn’t stay long but I liked what I heard. I just had to be someplace else…

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[mp3] Miles Kurosky – She Was My Dresden from The Desert Of Shallow Effects (2010)

Jonah Matranga

Jonah Matranga

My last performance of the night (unintentionally) was Jonah Matranga at Plush. This was not a SXSW show and i had to fork over $5 for the show. But it’s always worth it for Jonah. The Far frontman’s shows are always this vulnerable and joyous celebration of expression and letting go of insecurities. You always feel cleansed after a Jonah show, I can’t explain it any better than that. He played his fair share of onelinedrawing song like Over It and Bitte En Kuss, some Far songs, a cover of Weezer’s Say It Ain’t So and few more crowd favorites (Lukewarm especially).

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[mp3] Jonah Matranga – You Always Said You Hated San Francisco from And (2008)

I said goodbye to Jonah (a friend of the site), and tried to see Band of Horses. Well remember when I said badges had priority over wristbands? Yeah, well you get the idea. The upside is that I ended up hanging out with members of the instrumental band Tone and lead singer of the post-hardcore group Circa Survive. I even ended up singing with the guy as we over heard Is There a Ghost playing in the background. A weird but nice way to close the night.