End of Silence

Some of you may have arrived a day or two before SXSW to partake of all that Austin has to offer before things get crazy. We’re not called the Live Music Capital fer nuthin’ brother! Check out some cool stuff available over the next few nights. These are pretty much all local Austin artists and this is a chance to see a longer set with a smaller crowd than next week. It’s a pretty eclectic mix.

Tonight 

• The Dicks at Room 710 – They lost original guitarist Glen Taylor in 1997, but the reunited Dicks are still worth checking out. See some real honest-to-goodness Austin punk history.
• Elliott Smith Tribute Night at Emo’s – Zykos, Lions, Lalaland, Rite Fylers & others
• Mystic Knights of the Sea at Continental Club – Hear Charlie Sexton (yes, of “Beat’s So Lonely” and Bob Dylan backing fame) do roots rock covers with his brother Will and Mike Buck on drums. You can’t say you’ve been to Austin if you haven’t seen a band at the Continental even if it means paying for their overpriced cover and drinks. At least you’re supporting the local economy.
• Dale Watson – Ginny’s Little Longhorn – A hike from downtown, but you won’t get any more real country than Dale Watson at Ginny’s. Just don’t piss anyone off while you’re there.

Friday Night 

• Faceless Werewolves at Waterloo Records – CD Release Party at 5pm
• Sons of Hercules with Pat Todd & the Rank Outsiders and Jesus Christ Superfly at Lambert’s – San Antonio’s garage punk purveyors will push their wares. If you’ve never seen them (and most locals have), they’re a must…if only to see towering frontman Frank Pugilese channeling Iggy Pop among others. He’s got the street cred. His band opened for the Sex Pistols when they swung through San Antonio on that infamous American tour when I was still watching Krofft Superstars.
• Asylum Street Spankers at Momo’s – They of “Stick Magnetic Ribbons” and gospel brunch fame. Made up of many longtime Austin musicians.
• Grupo Fantasma at The Parish

The cutoff time was supposed to be 7:15. I got there at 7:00. There were 100-200 people standing outside waiting for the last voters to finish. It wasn’t very organized. We stood waiting until 8:15 and they were just beginning to allow people in to sign their names for their candidate. My third grader has a TAKS test in the morning, so we bailed at 8:30 without having voted in the caucus. It would’ve been nice if the Obama precinct workers who I saw at 7:20am and were still there at 8:00pm would’ve come up with a plan to organize the lines of Clinton and Obama supporters. They must’ve had the time. The Obama supporters appeared to outnumber the Clinton supporters 3:1.

Three things of note for those traveling to Austin in the next two weeks for SXSW.

1. Weather – Looks like we’re going to have another small cold front later this week before most people arrive and then start a warming trend through the middle of next week and the start of the Music portion of SXSW. It’ll fairly cold Thursday, Friday and Saturday night, but we’ll really start warming up Sunday and into early next week, eventually reaching the high 50s at night and low 80s during the day. Those coming for Interactive will need a jacket. Those in for Music, not so much. Locally, you should watch Jim Spencer on KXAN (the NBC affiliate) or if you have access to TimeWarner cable, Burton Fitzsimmons on News8Austin, the local 24 hour news channel.
2. Maps – Those using Google Maps for navigation, be careful when using the the satellite feature. Google’s satellite photos of Austin are very out of date. As near as I can tell, the ones of downtown are from late 2003 or early 2004. If you look, City Hall, the Frost Bank building and the Hilton near the Convention Center are all still under construction in those photos.
3. Parties – Jeremy’s got a good map of the SXSW Interactive parties. Austin360 has a good list of the side parties for the whole festival.

Metroblogging will have a meetup during SXSWi this year.

Here’s the details:

Where: Rio Rita – 1308 East Sixth Street 

When: Sunday, March 9th at 5pm

Authors from Austin and several of the other Metroblogging cities will be in attendance including Houston, Minneapolis, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Hope to see you there.

Last year, The Wife and Kids got up extra early for a Cowboy Breakfast at Auditorium Shores. The Cowboy Breakfast is the traditional opener of the Star of Texas Fair and Rodeo. I opted to sleep in and miss it, but the reports from the family afterwords made me sorry I missed it. An Austin Chronicle article from 2005 does a pretty good job of describing it.

This year’s Cowboy Breakfast is this Friday from 6am to 9am. You can park at Palmer Events Center. I’ll see you there.