Friday, June 22, 2007

264 Days, 6336 Hours, 380,160 Seconds







I've been scheming for years to return to the annual musical orgy / schmooze-fest that is South By Southwest in Austin, TX. But it's hard to get commitments from fellow travelers... until now. Vince Spiziri is IN! After several false starts - Dole (Vegas!), Feeney (spring training), Michael (NCAA hoops hopes) - I've got the green light for five days of all the music I can stand plus the odd adult beverage.

As my personal countdown begins, here's one man's wish list for Austin 2008:

Up and comers: Sarah Borges, Maria Taylor, Hayes Carll, The Red Button, Deadstring Brothers, Two Cow Garage, Cory Branan, Chelsea Taube.

Only in Austin: David Halley, Beaver Nelson, Butch Hancock, Roky Erickson, Kelly Willis.

Legends I haven't seen in ages: Roddy Frame, Richard Hell, Willy DeVille.

Reunite Next Year in Austin Just For Me, Please: The Reivers, The Rave-Ups, Jason & The Scorchers, Gear Daddies, Del Lords.

Bands That Are Just So Damn Good I Want To See Them Every Time I Can: Lucero, The Format, Rilo Kiley, Jesse Malin, Ike Reilly Assasination.

And Of Course The World's Current Greatest Live Band: The Hold Steady.

Now my thinking is that these shows (except maybe the reunion shows and THS) would all be easy enough to gain entrance (I'll leave next year's Arcade Fire to the kids and hipsters), so if you're reading this and got any juice with SXSW poobahs, hook me up. Better yet, buy me a beer and make sure I get home OK.

2 comments:

Snowwhite said...

PK and I will see you there.

cregs said...

the swiss family higgins looks forward to welcoming you back to Texas. No stroke with the Austin music gods here but a good friend does own the coolest/best restaurant in Austin (right across the street from the Continental Club)