Dakin Hardwick’s SXSW Journal Day 2

Day two. Very tired. Big day yesterday. Giddy day. My vocabulary isn’t wide enough to express my joy. Seriously, it starts with Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings, and gets better as the day went on.

Uffie

Really, my day started with Uffie. I heard three minutes. She’s really pretty. She can rap. Sort of.

Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings

Sharon Jones gets plenty of great press. She’s really awesome, and her band is impressively tight. I caught her at the Billions/Ticketfly party, which was packed and had a line wrapped around the block to get in. The crowd was super in to it. She even grabbed a twentysomething hipster from the crowd to dance with on stage. Good 60’s James Brown inspired soul.

Or The Whale

Danceable funky music. A bit of Talking Heads. There was a small crowd in the Beauty Bar, and they really enjoyed it. I’d see this band again.

Japandroids

Loud. Very loud. Conversation between sound guy and guitarist during set up:

(Concerning guitar amp)

Sound Guy: “That’s loud as shit!”

Guitarist: “IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE LOUD AS SHIT!”

That’s the jist of them.

No Age

I really like this band. They are rich & layered & aggressive. The acoustics of the room weren’t very kind to them. The sound manipulator was lost in the mix. The vocals were practically missing. They played their hearts out in a terrible situation, and then they got cut off after 15 minutes.

Nicole Atkins & Future Clouds and Radars

Nicole Atkins has my personal favorite voice in all of music. She can sing no wrong.  She sang mostly new material, and it’s dark and beautiful. Her band was solid as well, always complementing her voice, never overshadowing. Nearly perfect.

TAB The Band

Didn’t really see them. Kind of boring. Left.

Ray Davies & The 88

I could do a full review on this set if I so chose. It was nearly two hours, with the first part of the set devoted to a VH-1 Storytellers inspired set, discussing the influence of his new material, and he was very funny. Most of the set was acoustic. The second portion was devoted to popular Kinks songs heard in the movies. Everyone knew the words to everything at this point. He hardly needed his own mic during “Dedicated Follower Of Fashion.”

Then, the third portion. The electric set. It opened with a bang. “You Really Got Me.” The audience lept into a pogo and that continued until he ended the set with the classic song “Lola.”

Brilliant set. If you get a chance to see this tour, do it.

You Say Party! We Say Die!

I love this band. They are so good! This was their fifth set in a row in two days. I dropped the journalist face and put on the fan face. Which was all smiles. And whenever singer Becky Ninkovic looked at me and noticed my wide grin while I danced, she smiled back at me. I’m officially a fan. I actually considered blowing off an invitation only Hole set to see this band a third time. I kind of want to follow them on tour. Since this was a headlining set, the got an encore. It was awesome. A colleague of mine told me that I have a crush on this band. They are probably right. If they are playing any more side parties tonight or tomorrow, I will be there. If I find out about them, at least.

Catch you tomorrow!