SXSW 2012 - Day Three

My third day of SXSW 2012 was more along the lines of what passes for "normal" for this event. There wasn't anything in particular that I had labelled as "must see" last night, but there were a few acts that I was interested in catching. First up was Sarah Jaffe at Club De Ville:

The laid back singer-songwriter (how this gets to be a genre description when it can describe ANY person who writes and sings their own songs, I don't know) was a nice, mellow start to the evening. We stayed for almost her entire set, but ducked out early to make sure we could get over to Esther's Follies on 6th in time to get seats for Mike Birbiglia's comedy act:

We were lucky in that the three comics on before Birbigs showed up were actually pretty decent and of course the man himself was as entertaining in person as he is in print or CD. My original plans had involved checking out one of two acts that I wasn't really that familiar with for the 10pm block, but Andrew was excited to check out Grimes (a more or less solo electronic act) that was slated to start around 10:45. Since I didn't have any plans for 11pm I decided to chuck the 10pm plans and stick with the rest of the group, waiting in line at the Central Presbyterian Church for about 50 minutes till we could get in for Grimes' set:

When all is said and done, it really wasn't my thing. Electronic music is something I'm a little more picky about than other genres, but I was impressed by the ability on display at least. Seeing someone orchestrate layered music live is always interesting. As 12pm approached we had the choice to head way over to Antone's for Honeyhoney or to the nearby Red Eyed Fly for Cymbals Eat Guitars. As much as I would have liked to see Honeyhoney (especially after missing them the day before) I was hankering for the brilliant noise of Cymbals Eat Guitars:

The band put on a great set, including the 8 minute "Rifle Eyesight (proper name)" and even played one unreleased song. Like the last time I saw them though, the set was light on stuff from the first album, which I find a little disappointing as a big fan of that record. As 1am rolled around, I was thoroughly satisfied after Cymbals Eat Guitars' performance and I really didn't care who we went to see next. Andrew wanted to check out Say Anything (a band I later described to him - since he had never heard of them before - as "3rd wave emo") over at Buffalo Billiards:

We got ourselves a table towards the back and some beers and it was late, so I didn't pay much attention to the show except to say that I sounded fine and had I ever been a Say Anything fan I'm sure I would have been delighted.

Tonight will mark Day Four of my SXSW experience and will include a chance to see The Sour Notes again, as well as the first of two And So I Watch You From Afar performances and hopefully Mother Falcon as well. Still one more night to go after this!