Boudist - music and photography

So i was knocked out of action for 24 hours but i was quickly back on the horse for all the live music action you can pack into a day. I've seen so many great acts in the past few days. Austin has seriously rocked my chops. Some of the highlights were the Kaiser Chiefs, Buck 65, Saul Williams, Phoenix, Elkland, controller.controller and others that escape me now. I've taken a bunch of pictures which will appear on Flickr shortly.

I had a couple of dramas with my new camera. The flash broke and the new memory card i bought was corrupted. But i gotta give props to Precision Cameras, they had no problems giving me a new memory card and a brand new camera no questions asked.

I went to the Aus Music showcase yesterday which was good fun. It was kinda weird to see so many familiar Aussie acts together in Texas. They threw a good old Aussie barbeque which took an age to get served at. The chef was this perfectionist fella who took pride in preparing a hotdog with mixed peppers, garlic salt, a squirt of orange juice god knows what else. Not really like your traditional Aussie sausage wrapped in a piece of bread with onions if you're lucky.

I ducked out of the barbeque to check out Leeds band The Kaiser Chiefs. They've got the NME hype machine behind them but deservingly so. The lead singer had busted his foot and was getting round on a walking stick but that didn't stop him dancing and jumping round the stage with boundless energy. Such fun catchy tunes, mixed with good humour and great showmanship equals as much fun as you can have with your clothes on. If there is any justice they'll scale loftier hights than Franz Ferdinand and Bloc Party combined.

The standout act i saw today was probably Buck 65. I'd only known him through his records, i had no idea what he looked like, so i was kinda surprised to see he was a clean cut good looking dude. But he's sure got a lot of talent and creativity. He sung, and DJ'd and performed with a lot of charisma. And he reinterpreted my favourite track Wicked and Weird as a kind of punk rock song about 3 times the tempo as it is on the record.

I tried to check out Wolfmother tonight to complete my international stalkage of them but it seems word has travelled of their talents cause i couldn't get into their show. I ended up about 50 people back in the queue with a couple of the guys from Little Birdy and we decided it wasn't worth sitting it out as the line wasn't moving. So i cut my losses and went to see controller.controller.

Their death disco new wave post punk sounds were pretty ace. I know it's kind of old hat by now but i can't get enough of that sound if done right. Those driving drum beats get me every time.

Tonight ended with seeing French band Phoenix to a packed out crowd. The singer mentioned that as a French band they were apprehensive about the reception they'd get in Texas. But they had nothing to worry about, the crowd loved them and they were a worthy finale to the musical extravaganza that was South by Southwest 2005.

It's 5am, i should go to sleep, i gotta catch a plane to Chicago tomorrow.