It’s a pretty clear indicator that you’re a) busy and b) having a good time when your goal to update the blog daily with SXSW updates falls by the wayside your second day in. We did make a valiant effort to write about the annual music and tech conference, and did a pretty bang-up job on day one. But we know that most of Metal Insider’s readers are people with jobs, so we figured we’d wait until you were back at work/school/jail and bring you up to date then. So without any further ado, for those of you that didn’t make it to Austin, here’s a recap after the point of what you missed out on! Days three and four coming later today.
Next year, I think Metal Insider will be making a road trip to Austin. The MI banner made its way to Texas in style in a truck/RV hybrid nicknamed both “The Beast” and the “SlayRV.” The vehicle sleeps eight, and served as a hotel room for some of the Metal Sucks crew, Amarna Reign (and a bunch of other bands) manager Mark Lafay and friend of 1,000 Knives’ Rich Hall. Somehow from Indianapolis to Austin, the banner made it intact, even though there was liberal meat products consumed, bourbon drank, and metal listened to. I’m damn jealous of our banner.
Once in Austin, the banner made its way to Emo’s, where it proudly hung as a sponsor of the second annual Full Metal Texas show. That took up a decent amount of our afternoon, with the awesome sounds of Karnivool leading off the outside stage, while Your Demise (might wanna remember a backline next time, guys) started things off on the inside stage. By the time surprise headlining act Dillinger Escape Plan took the inside stage and Fair To Midland wrapped up things on the outside stage, the party was beyond capacity, and an undeniable success.
After that 16 band onslaught and an excellent dinner with the majority of metal label peeps, bloggers, and radio stations attending SXSW, I’d like to say that I went to The End Records’ showcase to see Goes Cube. I’d be lying though. After running into Billboard editor-in-cheif Bill Werde on 6th Street, I decided instead to head to the Austin Music Hall for the second night in a row to see Stone Temple Pilots. I’ve always dug the band, way back from when I saw them opening for Megadeth (!) in 1992. They’ve got a new album coming out soon, but the crowd was there for the hits, which they delivered. As hip and trendy as many of the SXSW attendees try to be while tripping over themselves to find the next buzz band, there’s something amazing about seeing 3,0o0 of them forget about indie cred to sing along at the top of their lungs to “Insterstate Love Song.” OK, maybe that’s not metal, but fuck you if you can’t recognize the awesomeness and shared experience of a moment like that. BTW, the new stuff sounds good. “Huckleberry Crumble” sounds like Aerosmith back at their ’70s scuzziest. As an added surprise, Doors guitarist Robbie Kreiger took the stage for an encore, playing “Roadhouse Blues” with the band.
The night ended off on a relatively drunken note, at Tee Pee Records’ showcase. Sadly, Nebula didn’t play on account of them having broken up only two nights before. Whether this is a full-on breakup or just a temporary rift remains to be seen, but Mondo Drag did an admirable job of filling in. When we’d seen Iron Age in Brooklyn last year, it was definitely a shitshow, with the guitarist missing for a while due to a bottle of whiskey and vomiting. They went on an hour late then, playing two songs before most of the crowd left, disgusted. Playing in their own town for the second time that day, they were much better, playing their brand of Cro Mags-meets-Pantera riffage. Priestess closed the night out in style, playing more of the heavy stuff from their second album, and kicking the ferocity up a notch.
