Primal Scream at the Cedar Courtyard

SXSW REVIEW THURSDAY: SXSW is no walk in the park let me to you – it’s more a walk down lots of streets but by-the-by it is really hard work. Endless standing around in the sun watching bands drinking free beer and eating fine BBQ food – phew! Someone has to do it right?

So Thursday started with us heading down to the Convention Centre to hand out CD’s and Flyers to the good and the great of the music industry – and it was all going fine until we passed the Smoking Lounge (heavily sponsored by a US tobacco brand who give away umpteen packets of fags) where Entertainment Magazine were having a littles soiree. “Come inside for free food and drink” said the girl on the door and who is going to turn that down? Not Fused! It may have only been noon but the drinks were flowing and we managed to catch a little bit of the Annuals and Laura Marling which was very pleasant indeed.

So we tore ourselves away and headed to meet our buddy Mikey from Dance Your Face Off at Buffalo Billiards. Now we were in for a treat – LA hair band Steel Panther were being interviewed by a local radio station. Imagine Motley Cru, Poison and 80’s Cher tossed in a blender and regurgitated out of a dog and you should have a good idea of what we are talking about. They did a little ‘turn’ of a song about something rude and we knew it was time to leave.

Next it was over to The Wave for Kerrrang Magazine’s party where we caught an excellent and lively set by The Bronx. All the action made us peckish so it was on to see what the Spanish have to offer – it was Paella and Sangria and some not so Spanish bands apparently.

NASA at Emo's Annex

The afternoon continued in to the evening with more bar hopping and a visit to EMO’s annex to catch the NASA boys doing their up-beat techno best to get everyone moving. $5 lap dancers painted green and a few aliens in the mix made for an eye-catching stage presence that really woke us up.

Finally it was over to the Cedar Courtyard to catch The Black Lips and the mighty Primal Scream. We managed to wiggle our way to near the front of the stage and were awarded with an amazing set from Bobby and the boys. Crowd surfing ensued and security got a little angry but a cracking set left the audience shouting for more a good 10 minutes after the band had departed stage right.