Hello everyone, Alex here with your SXSW festival update for Wednesday, March 18, 2009.
Wednesday was the official start of SXSW’s music portion of the festival. With bands playing up and down 6th St. it was difficult—to say the least—to choose who and where to spend my time. With the help of my trusty program guide, however, I finally settled on a late afternoon dose of Oakland, Cali rockers, The Matches, and their MTV Rock Band set at The Troubadour Saloon.
I got to The Troub. just in time to catch the opening notes of “Their City.” Even though the venue was small, and packed with fans of all ages Shawn, John, Matt, and Dylan—with special guest, road manager, and Triangle player Ben—played an absolutely perfect set, complete with two new songs, “Wicked Walk” and “It’s My Day.” The new songs brought out the dancer in everyone, inspiring a waltz-like head banging session courtesy of the guy in the stripped shirt, front and center.
The Matches rounded out their set with the fan-favorite “Papercut Skin” which is always amazing live. Ben came out to play triangle on the bridge, as usual, and left everyone applauding after his brief cameo on stage as “the triangle guy.” If you’ve seen The Matches before you know how infectious and inspiring their live shows can be; this one, luckily, was no exception to that rule. They started my night off right, and re-energized my musical spirits after a long day of work in the Austin heat.
If you missed The Matches’ set today fear not. You can catch them several times throughout SXSW including the following:
Thursday: 3/19 4:00 pm at the Rock Band Lounge (SXSW performers and guest list only)
Friday: 3/20 11:00 pm at The Wave
There are also two other secret shows you can check out this week that I can’t announce just yet, but you can check MiscPause for further details to be released later in the week. You can also check The Matches MySpace for show times and venue listings.
As for today, it was absolutely amazing, and I thank The Matches for starting it off right. Remember, this is only the beginning so if you’re in Austin this week DO NOT miss any of the action down on 6th St.
See you tomorrow,
Alex
