My tolerance for “special” people is tanking. I don’t know if it is related to the string of violent films I have seen or what,. My field notes from TV on the Radio at Stubb’s say the following: To the girl with the “serenity” tattoo on the back of her neck, I have all I can do not go go Rainn Wilson on your ass with my bike wrench. [For those of you who don't know, that is a reference to Super. Watch the trailer. I am glad a wrote that down. In reality, I would turn her in to security. I would tell them that she was a danger to herself and that she was probably on drugs. Why the passive aggressive approach? Umm, APD doesn't like brown people.] I think that my surrounding concert mates would have liked to have a go at all the drunkards who felt the need to mosh around to a band that deserves more respect.
“You can’t carry it with you if you want to survive. ” Florence and the Machine
This year, was definitely a year. Yenta said it would be my best year, definitely a transitional one. Moments were good, moments were bad, and some moments were down right craptastical. Other than my family and friends, my only other survival tactic was too keep moving and not look back. I probably lost some stuff along the way. There were probably a few people that I didn’t keep in touch with. I was probably less thoughtful than usual.
Last night I sat in bed thinking about what I was going to write as a recap of my year. I had to mentally recap the stuff that I have chosen not to discuss on the interwebs. That’s when the tears started. I am not sure I am ready to write about the dog days of summer (some good, some really bad, all of it extremely emotional).
For those of you who have been reading along, you know I had a plan:
1) Sell my house before the end of summer. 2) Live irresponsibly in someone else’s property (aka apartment) somewhere in the numbered streets. 3) Leave the country.
Well, that didn’t quite happen as I planned. This is what happened as I flew by the seat of my pants. 1)There are people living in my house but I didn’t sell it. 2)I moved (twice). I live near some numbered streets in the ’04. 3) My friends’ took me to Mexico for their wedding.
This year in non-live music: Here’s to this year’s new albums: Forgiveness Rock Record-Broken Social Scene Miike Snow-Miike Snow, Broken Bells, Wake Up!-John Legend and the Roots, The Suburbs-Arcade Fire, Sidewalks-Matt and Kim, All Day-Girl Talk, Halcyon Digest-Deerhunter, Rubber Factory-Black Keys, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Entanglements-Parenthetical Girls, Mixtape vol 4 and Anatomy Magazine x The Hood Internet- Hood Internet, LP4-Ratatat, Treats-Sleigh Bells, xx-The xx, The Satanic Satanist [Deluxe Edition]-Portugal the Man, The Mountain-Heartless Bastards, Together-New Pornographers.
This year on the interwebs: I got a smart phone. Here’s to more Twitter updates and Gowalla check-ins.
This year in Movies: This year I watched a lot on Hulu and other peoples Netflix. I meant to go out but that requires $$. (theater) SXSW (The Runaways, Tiny Furniture, Canal Street Madam, Barry Munday, the Freebie, Kick Ass) the Social Network, Exit Through the Gift Shop.
This year in Books: Sadly not much time for reading this year… Goodreads Tropic of Capricorn, The Tipping Point, Middlesex, Kafka on the Shore.
This year in kicking ass- (New category because I realized I rocked it out this year): SXSW Crew Chief, Volunteer Coordinator for BluesShout!, Natural Disaster Planner, Refashionista, Fun^3 Fest Blogger, and Wedding Stylist.
Plans for 2011 (in no particular order):
Leave the continent
Quit my job (10 years of state employment is more than a person should endure)
Take on a massive design project
Read more
Spend less money/time on home repair
Master Indian Cuisine
Here’s to 2011 and the hopes that the Dog Days really in fact are over.
by Jen @ Sunday, November 28th, 2010.
Filed under concerts, Music
The ticket farm is barren. Fun^3 Fest was the last thing in the stack. What now (other than letting our wallets recover from all the spending). M’s got finals. I have sewing to do.
…But wait! Now we have THIS! In the midst of all the chaos, SXSW decided to drop not one but two rounds of bands that will be gracing us with their presence during Spring Break. I guess it’s time to make the spreadsheet and get the assignments out. In the meantime I have starred the bands I plan on making time for.
I am still coughing up dust and remembering all the cool stuff that happened this weekend (and trying to purge some disturbing festival happenings from my memory). This marks my third (and hopefully not final) Fun^3 Fest. Each year it gets bigger and better (But please don’t make it as big as ACL. I am in favor of the 2.5 day, four stage festival.).
Media Credentials (M and 2.0 were able to shoot the fest officially with their BACs and M got some interviews). Additional thanks to Austinist for making that happen.
Amazing Bands. Ironically many of them are on the last two Hood Internet Mixtapes I downloaded.
And now for the extended recap of all the bands I saw this weekend (I apologize for not getting pictures of everyone. Between the sun and the dust the little camera did all it could). (more…)
For me one of the stand out sets for me was The Antlers. I won’t lie, I had heard of them but didn’t really listen to them before the fest. Wow! I was way impressed. I thought they put on a great show. Here’s some pics I shot below, the rest can be found on myflickr.
Sunday I had the pleasure of being back stage as well. And again I’d like to thank the Austinist for our media passes, without them we wouldn’t have been able to bring you this coverage.
Once I sort of figured things out on Saturday, Sunday I hit the ground running. I’m sure I shot more pics on Sunday. The music all weekend was amazing. This year I didn’t do as much research on the bands before I went as years past, but was just as happy. I’m actually glad that I was so surprised. I sort of knew what to expect, i.e. an awesome show, but nothing specific. I kinda wanted to go on the crowd buzz to see what everyone was into seeing.
Sunday I saw a lot! I saw:
Toro y Moi
Delorean
Kaki King
Jean Grae
Cults
Best Coast
Polvo
Snapcase
Washed Out
The Hold Steady
The Decendants
The two standout sets for me were The Hold Steady, and Cults. I also really enjoyed Best Coast. Here’s a few teaser shots till I can get everything else edited.
Yeah! What a blast, we had so much fun this year. Well I know I did. (Thanks to the Austinist for Media Passes) Here’s some teasers of the pics I took, more to come in following posts.
Some of my highlights from Saturday were:
The Antlers
Wavves
Os Mutantes
The Casualties
Bad Religion
On Saturday, unfortunately I spent more time backstage getting interviews (which you can see in the next few posts) than I did really getting to see some of the bands. Also this year being our first with an actual media pass, I needed to “get my legs” backstage a bit.
I got the opportunity to speak with both Darby and Michael from The Antlers. It was a bit too loud to tape an interview with Michael, but I did take notes during the interview.
Also I got to interview Cody from Royal Forest. He’s a friend of ours, and was it was lovely to speak with him.
Stay tuned kids, more Fun Fun Fun posts coming up!
So day 2 started with an extra government issued hour of sleep. Thanks. My lungs were filled with dust and it took 2 cups of coffee to make myself functional.
I made it to the park in time to catch Magic Kids. I’ve been meaning to check them out on several occasions. [Thank you parking gods for making this possible.] My main reason for getting to the park early (besides the good parking space) was to check out Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s. I hadn’t seen them in a few years and I was curious (more on that later). Then it was off to my home stage (blue) for Black Nasty. The song on the Fun^3 website peaked my curiosity.
I dashed back to the orange stage for Toro y Moi only to find out it was his birthday (and the sound guy hated him). I also found out that day 2 of Hipsterween was in full effect [Why did I not get the memo about the cat ears?]. I swear, I was one hipster short of finding all the Village People. Gumby was having a good time but I was not. I headed back to the Blue stage and caught the last part of Nortec Collective [Totally unexpected, Tejano Dance Music and 2 iPads].
I decided to hang around the blue stage for most of the evening. Jean Grae and Pharoahe Monch tore it up. I saw Gumby crowdsurf (stay tuned for video) during P.O.S’s set [I also fell in love with another head-bobbing dj. Until he lit a cigarette. Now I hate him.] By the time Washed Out hit the stage I was a little scared. It was REALLY crowded and I was wedged between the crowd and the railing. It was time to go. I managed to catch the end of Deerhunter’s set and I wished I made it there sooner [I decided to hit the port-o-potties sooner vs. later.]
I wrapped up my evening with the Hold Steady [and 3 songs from the Descendants]. I probably should have left after Deerhunter but I felt that I needed to stick around. M and 2.0 were somewhere in the photo pit.
So that is my quick recap of the fest. In the next few days you will see a lot more. Interviews, photos, video, full write ups on some of the bands we caught, etc…. Why? Because we love you [and we had media credentials].
Little Stolen Moments with Butcher Bear and Charlie
I survived day one. I was on a mission. A mission that involved gluing myself to the front railing of the blue stage for most of the day. There were no bathroom or water breaks until AFTER Big Freedia hit the stage. I would not be stopped by the ironically costumed (what’s with all the bear suits) hipsters. I would not be sick. I wanted to be front and center for the trainwreck. 1) The amazing Freedia herself and 2) the response from the predominately hipster crowd (How does one dance in pants so tight you can’t really walk?).
I will give you the details later. For those of you who know me, you probably got more than your fair share of tweets and fb updates. I hope you enjoyed them.
Here’s is a snapshot of what I saw yesterday. Hi-res photos will be available later:
Royal Forest
DJ Nick Nack
The League of Extraordinary GZ
Butcher Bear and Charlie (with guests Little Stolen Moments)
Invincible
Devin the Dude
Slick Rick
Dominique Young Unique
Big Freedia
Man Man
Dirty Projectors
RJD2
Stay tuned for tales of the fest from M, 2.0, and the Jew.
M and I have wanted to see Sleigh Bells for a while and were hoping that some concert promoter was going to bring them to us . Maybe a certain bachelor, or maybe Knucklerumbler. We didn’t care who was responsible, as long as we could get reasonably priced tickets.
We stalked the promoters on the Twitter after getting a message on FB. We bought the VIP tickets that guaranteed entry (and a free beer). We trekked down to Beauty Bar with the Jew all excited like kids on Xmas morning. Sadly, we were greeted by the Fail Whale. For starters, 3G was taking a nap and we were stuck with the Edge network (how are we supposed to Tweet about this stuff). Then we were surrounded by pint-sized hipsters who were smoking and making me ill. Then some super genius spilled beer on the mixer and the show was delayed for a half hour or so. SUCK!
Once the show finally started the sound was still crap. You couldn’t hear Alexis’ vocals. Excuse me? Sound guy? What’s up with that? Unfortunately, the hipsters kept dancing and didn’t protest. They were ok having paid that much to listen to the karaoke version of the album minus half the vocals.
I was annoyed and left the show disappointed. I am not sure what footage M was able to capture. Some chick in the front refused to give her space to shoot. It seemed like everytime M had a good vantage point the chick would purposely bump into her (I bet M uttered one of her favorite words at that chick and thought about punching her in the face).
Here’s montage of photos from the evening. Note that the sad faces of M, Jen, and the Jew are not there.
A group of women who decided that it was important to live their lives any way they wanted vs living up to certain cookie cutter standards.
Lucky for you they decided to share their adventure.
