SXSW Day 2

Go Back to the Zoo

Day 2 started off a bit later than day one. A combination of the late night and slapping the snooze button multiple times landed me downtown at around noon. I took my time with things today, I felt like I needed to give myself a little break after my hectic first day. I took advantage of this and camped out for a bit in the Media Lounge, which is a cozy nook for all of us “media types” to work, hang, chat, and surf. The complimentary back rubs are also a nice touch.

After a few hours in the lounge, I made my way down to my new favorite empanada truck for a late lunch (mmmpanadas). As I was ordering I received word that our resident photographer Veronica was en route to Austin and would be landing in an hours time… very exciting news of course! My one man wolf pack was about to grow by one. The original plan of cruising down 6th Street was no more and I headed to our accommodations to greet her and help her settle in.

Once she was situated we headed right back down to the action for the evening’s scheduled activities. As we made our way through we ran into these well dressed gentlemen from the Country music group The Beaumonts. Troy and the rest of the fellas were very friendly and cordial. We chatted for a bit while they let us snap a few photos of them in their sharp threads.

The Beaumonts

We made our way down River Street to Valhalla a small, dimly lit bar, which was the perfect setting to check out Go Back to the Zoo also known as GBTTZ, an indie-rock quartet hailing from Amsterdam. They are relatively unknown this side of the pond, but their music is catchy and their stage presence only amplified their danceable rock tunes.

From here we switched gears and made it down to Mohawk to watch Gary, Indiana’s own Freddie Gibbs. Gibbs has been a staple in the Midwest hip-hop scene since 2004, putting out a ton of mixtapes since. His most notable body of work was last year’s EP Str8 Killa, which included collaborations with Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys and Bun B. The crowd was receptive to FG’s gritty lyrics and his midwest-bass-knocking instrumentals.

Hunger called, so before we hit the next venue on the list we stopped by Slammin Sliders located on Red River between 5th and 6th. Emma and Daryl served us up the house specialty, the BBQ Jalapeno sliders with some sweet potato fries that set off the burgers just right. Thanks again to both of them, if you are in town make sure to go check them out.

From there it was on to the final show of the night at ND for the New York based band, the Cults. The relatively unknown duo have only released a three track 7″ though their bandcamp page but this night’s performance proved that they have more to offer and their full-length album will be a must have for the 60′s pop fiend in all of us. The performance did not go off as smoothly as planned and the band had to battle through a faulty projector, which rudely announced itself midway through their performance… the free-spirited musicians laughed it off at the end of the song and kept on with their set.