Music

SXSW 2011: AUX in Austin Day 2

by Nicole Villeneuve

Our second day in Austin was one of positivity and poetic serendipitous timing. It sounds so cheesy but it’s true. It was a wondrous day.

We started with an early afternoon trek to the Scoot Inn where Thrasher Magazine was hosting bands and boarders in the hot Austin sun. Timewarp to a sunny teenage summer afternoon. Our pals from the Death Set played a set defying their sleepiness of the evening prior; the crowd was ecstatic and even briefly tried to get them to do an encore.

From there we decided to once again stick with our Canadian comforts and head early to the Mint Records show where we’d be talking to Andrew W.K. and Nardwuar after their set. Caught a bit of Hot Panda and got ourselves pounds and pounds of tacos and nachos. Some of us (ahem) had to sit and digest and besides, it was so gleefully rammed there was no sightline from upstairs. We did hear Andrew W.K. and Nardwuar do “I Gotta Rash,” though, and were happy. And Canadian.

From there we ran to try to grab Mister Heavenly before their Pop Montreal showcase and succeeded: members Nick Thorbun and Joe Plummer chatted with us while Honus Honus sat nearby doing another interview and Michael Cera skipped across the street in his Helly Hanson backpack to get a milkshake and came back and waited for his bandmates. (Okay so there’s no confirmation it was a mikshake, but he got some kind of drink in a non-see-through cup. Science!)

We ran from there back to our Andrew W.K. and Nardwuar interview. There are no words. And not because they took them all—these two are already forces on their own but together they’re just an explosion of positivity and fun. Safe to say we left that interview/motivational session feeling great.

The sun was now dusk gold and we lined up for Matt and Kim and when we got in there and saw the smiles on their faces and the parking garage roof we were standing on felt ready to collapse from all the jumping and then, those balloons? Life felt just too good.

With some time to kill before the next interview (which ended up needing to be rescheduled), we waited outside of the OFF! show, transferred some footage, readied gear for filming their set, etc. We also received totally long-shot word that the Foo Fighters were playing a secret show! Since part of our love of SXSW and music festivals in general is the last-minute, secret show type of rumour, two of us decided to chase it all the way across town. We soon realized (i.e., knew all along but then got tired and bored) and stomped back across town only to really spontaneously run into the AUX folk we’d left behind as they strolled across Austin and chatted with Moby.

Add to that the fact that us sleepy worker bees avoided—by mere minutes—getting trapped in our parking spot by a street closure and you have what turned out to be a really beautiful, perfect day. Up next: Friday!