Team Reverb is on the scene at the South by Southwest Music Festival this week. Here’s what a few of us saw on Day 1.
Best musical moment:Last nightap itinerary was surprisingly frontloaded with plenty to see and wide distances to cover, but in my walks down Red River, up Sixth and over by the river, there was one moment that really wrapped up the beauty of the night.
Festivals are all about discovery, yeah? And so while I thought I would be writing about Admiral Fallow, the Scottish band I’d recently fallen in love with on tape, they didn’t completely win me over live. Who did blow me away? A little band from Detroit called Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.
Decked out in trucker hats that were more a costume than anything else, the affable band won over the packed house with its breezy music and whimsical harmonies –- some of which were tracked out, since the band was only playing as a three-piece. The band draws obvious comparisons to Vampire Weekend, but its sweeping, choral-like harmonies had them sounding like an upbeat Fleet Foxes at times.
It sounds like an odd collision, but it works. It helped, too, that the guys are as charming as they are. (One of them looked like a thinner Judah Friedlander –- goofy, lovable.) In the middle of their set, I overheard a dude tell his bro, “These guys are actually pretty good.” And despite their ridiculous NASCAR-inspired name, they are. —Ricardo Baca
Best non-musical moment: SXSW began at the Bar Bar at 2 a.m. Tuesday night with empty shot glasses slamming on to the table, four dudes running out the door and stuffing into a tour van for an 18-hour road trip to Austin. The crew this year was Devin and Justin from the band Adai, roadie Ben Pitts and myself. A good crew is essential for the unending monotony of Texas scenery: a wind farm, a sea of oil pumps and what seems like a thousand Chainsaw Massacre towns. But before you know it, you’re pulling onto 8th street where the arrival to Austin is now a ritual: we high-five friends we haven’t seen in a year, somehow make it into a show without badges (in this case, Emo’s to see Talib Kweli) and finally a loud toast of cold Lone Stars – to another amazing SXSW. — Loren Speer
What’s keeping Austin weird: SXSW 2011 has once again brought out the weird in Austin. Sightings so far have included a seven foot Don Draper look-a-like, a drunken Mischa Barton and a 60-year-old prostitute who lovingly called me a Jesus-whore. We’ve only just begun. —Paul Custer
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Ricardo Baca is the founder and co-editor of and an award-winning critic and journalist at The Denver Post.
Paul Custer is a Denver-based writer and regular contributor to Reverb.
Loren Speer is an international activist and longtime Reverb contributor. He sleeps with one eye open and can crush glass with his bare hands. In addition to , Loren writes for and the Huffington Post under the pseudonym The Bartender.
