Hello. I’m Jen Long from Radio 1 and I’m at SXSW on my annual pilgrimage/holiday. Yesterday was the first day of the music festival proper. Today is the first day of my hangover proper. That’s pretty much how this festival works. There are a lot of free bars.
The first free bar was at the Music Wales showcase I was hosting at Latitude 30 with We Are Animal, Bright Light Bright Light, The Last Republic and Gallops all playing blistering sets.
Shortly after I headed up to the Mohawk venue to catch the end of Cloud Nothings. The venue has two stages, one indoor and one outdoors. It’s the kind of venue you’d imagine should exist in Texas: all wood decking and overhanging trees and balconies to holler from.
After that I hit the Beggars pool party on the roof of the twenty storey high Omni hotel and had a hot tub in my pants with the dude from Esben and the Witch. It sounds more rock n roll than it was, and I managed to misjudge the steps into the water, fall over in my underwear and am now nursing a giant bruise on my shin. Also, my bra got soaked and for about an hour after leaving the party I looked like I was lactating. I dress to impress.
In the evening I caught Coolrunnings who weren’t as impressive live as on record, EMA who was stunningly grungey and beautiful, Eternal Summers and their glorious lo-fi pop, and Pepper Rabbit who are warming and earnest and great.
I managed to see buzz-of-the-festival, Braids whose set I really enjoyed when they stopped being all muso and fannying about with oohs and ahhs and the like, and Love Inks who I wasn’t really in to, which is sad because I totally dig their new single.
I ended the night getting drunk in a bar across the highway with Katie Stelmanis. Austra are my new band crush. I bloody love SXSW.
