Day three of SXSW left me speechless. A mid-day slot at Rusty Spurs with Deadbeat Darling lifted my spirits before a two hour wait for LA’s leather-and-sunglasses-clad Black Rebel Motor Cylce Club the Filter Magazine Party. I stepped foot in Hyde Park Bar and Grill ONE more time for the “NYC Mixer,” another show I had co-arranged. The gig united bands from across the country, serving Texas a sample of Miss Derringer (LA, top picture), Pearl and the Beard (Brooklyn), Middle Distance Runner (DC), Outernational (NYC, bottom picture), Milo and the Fuzz (NYC), and The Frontier Brothers (Austin). Jetting back downtown to an over-packed Ghost Room, an all-star line-up, including Middle Class Rut, Jason Heath and the Greedy Souls, Michael Stipe (REM), Chris Shifflet (The Foo Fighters), Billy Bragg, Tom Morello and Boots Riley’s project, Street Sweeper Social Club, and more played mini-sets and jammed for Jail Guitar Doors, a program that rehabilitates inmates with music. To top off the night, a photo-op with Tom Morello preceded an after party at The Belmont. – Meijin Bruttomesso
