Saturday of SXSW 2010 began in a graveyard of Whataburger wrappers, half edited pictures and very little memory of the entire day before. Typical. Following round 4 of The Peen Scene vs Austin Cab Services (we lost again), we headed to the Levis Fader Fort with potential drunk driving in our distant future. The plan was to catch the lovely lo-fi ladies Dum Dum Girls, who despite being highly blogged, skipped last year’s SXSW. The plan was to do no daytime drinking…

Quite unexpectedly, we arrived at The Fort way early. To celebrated this minor victory, I grabbed two beers from the bartenders and made my way to the stage. By this time I was quite familiar with Los Angeles’ boogie funk thanks to its self proclaimed ambassador Dam-Funk. 3 dj sets in 3 days? Yeah, I get it. Luckily this time around Dam was playing a live set of originals.

If Suge Knight wasn’t so busy stomping fools out in the mid-nineties he probably would’ve signed Dam-Funk. His beats, his swagger and his O.G. hair all take me back to a time when hip hop was real Dr. Dre, Snoop, and Tupac ruled the airwaves. This guy is going to put L.A. back on the map. Well…If you think it ever fell off. Also, fuck some cowbell. In 2010 we need more keytar.

Because we were up so bright and early, we also had a second opportunity to see Salem. On Wednesday their sludgy electronic sometimes hip hop sometimes pop set had the sound turned off on them because the IAMSOUND Showcase had gone an hour and a half late. Today Salem started things off with their slowed and throwed anthem “Trapdoor”. Three songs later, they walked off the stage. Maybe it had to do with the group’s rapper taking on a drum machine and losing, badly. That’s my best guess. The world may never know for sure, but two of the three (four if you count the girl who sleeps/sits on stage) members looked really pissed about the performance.

So, the short lived Salem set meant Dum Dum Girls would be on sooner than expected. Fine by me, or so I thought. After watching the beautiful foursome play a few songs I became more interested in what the fuck GWAR was up to on the side of the stage. I like Dum Dum Girls‘ recorded music, but live they were kind of boring. I’d choose Best Coast or Vivian Girls over them any day.

We bailed from Fader Fort halfway through the Dum Dum Girls performance. This decision was made not only because we weren’t feeling Dum Dum Girls, but also because I really really wanted to see The Very Best again. Last year they put on one of my favorite SXSW shows in an old abandoned Salvation Army building.
Our journey from the Levis Fader Fort to the Iheartcomix, Jelly, Mad Decent Carniville was beautifully short after hitching a ride and finding a pretty nice parking space. So for the second time in a matter of hours, our early arrival was rewarded with a musical treat.

Our obvious first move at the Carniville, we grabbed a couple of requisite Red Bull and vodkas. Then it was off to catch a completely spastic electro rap set by courtesy of Milwaukee’s Juiceboxxx. Sure, there were carnival rides at this incredible 3 day SXSW party, but Juiceboxxx chose to take a ride on a hillbilly security guard instead. The remainder of the performance was spent in the heart of the crowd, on a chair and way up on the speaker stack. I was impressed. The security guard he’d taken a ride on…not so much.

Added a few more drinks to the tally and made it through Ninjasonik’s set without getting anyone pregnant, I think. With the amount of alcohol in my system at this point, maybe I just don’t remember.

Then Radioclit appeared behind the DJ booth, it was time for The Very Best! It’s really hard for me to put into words how much fun these guys are live. I was dancing, singing into the mic, everything short of crowd surfing. I’m sure my enjoyment was amplified by the blunt that was passed to me halfway through the concert, but still. The Very Best are even better live than they are recorded. That’s saying a lot considering both their album and their mix were given the title “Best New Music” by that blog everyone loves to hate. The Very Best – Its more than just a name, its truth.

Next up was Major Lazer! If you thought I was excited to see The Very Best… Let’s just say I get in to some dancehall. This was actually the second time I’d seen Major Lazer, but the first time I would remember the experience. Unfortunately, I was forced to sacrifice my prime plot of land in the front of the crowd due to my increasingly fermented full bladder. However, Jen (The Peen Scene’s photographer) went so far as to get on stage during show, anything to get the shot.

Major Lazer’s whole show was insane. There was ladder sky daggering, monsters humping dancers, tons of shirts thrown by some big-name DJs, and of course Skerrit Bwoy! Diplo also proved why he’s one of the biggest and best DJs in the world, dropping everything from Busy Signal to Ace of Base. Amidst all the dancing and jams I did find myself wondering where the eff Switch was. Oh well, with or without Switch this performance was amazingly fun.

Turns out Major Lazer would be the last show of our SXSW 2010. No Hole for us. We waited and waited and waited, but never made it to the media tent of the Perez Hilton Party. Epic fail.

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Austin, Genre

One Response to “SXSW 2010, Day 4 – March 20, 2010”

1. pharmacy technician says:

   March 27, 2010 at 1:16 pm

   Keep posting stuff like this i really like it