SXSW 2010: The Absolute Best Of Everything So Far

At this relatively-early point in the evening of the very first day of SXSW 2010, having been awake since five o'clock this morning and quite close to taping my eyelids up just to edit this blog post, I feel absolutely qualified to award the following superlatives.

Best Arbitrary Standard by Which to Judge All SXSW Performances Going Forward: "Is it better than a trained rat?"
Our multimedia producer Kevin Keller saw a man with a trained rat hanging out on the sidewalks of Sixth Street today and he decided it was pretty much the greatest thing he was going to see all week. Bands, take notice!

The Best Band That Had More Fun Than Pretty Much Anyone Else Today, Probably: Givers.
We told you about the Lafayette, La.-based group a few weeks ago, and today they were the first act to play on the outdoor stage at our Galaxy Room day party. They've hardly been a band for a year and there are still some things to work out before they get really, really great, but they have the "unbridled onstage joy" thing down pat. There's two lead singers, a guy and a girl; she wails on a stand-up drum kit (one of two onstage) and gleefully caterwauls while he hops around and picks at a guitar and rolls his eyes back into his head like he's in absolute ecstasy. He waggles his tongue around a lot, too, when he's not singing. I didn't want it to end, but I think they ran out of songs.

Best Unlikely Austin Musical Legend to Play With a Fairly-Well-Established Rock Band at a Paste SXSW Party Since The Wrens Backed Daniel Johnston Last Year: Roky Erickson and Okkervil River.
At least, I'm told this happened. I couldn't actually see because there were too many people, which is funny because the last time I saw Erickson play in this town, hardly anyone was there.

Best Single-Song Performance by a Band I Really Wanted to See a Whole Set by But Missed it Because I Had to, Like, Eat Dinner or Some Shit Like That: "Fight For Love" by Visqueen at Stubb's.
I've wanted to see Rachel Flotard and her band play live pretty much since I first listened to their album Message to Garcia last year, but got waylayed a few times en route to the NPR showcase at Stubb's tonight. I slipped in just in time to hear them close the set, playing this song to a nearly-capacity crowd in the amphitheater behind the BBQ joint. It was tight and fierce and totally generous in the way most Visqueen songs are and all I wanted was for the band to just keep on playing. All the hundreds and hundreds of day parties and showcases that didn't book these guys for the rest of the week are absolute failures. 

Best Set By an Artist That Should Have Been Seen by About Three Times as Many People as Were Actually There: Anais Mitchell at the Ale House.
She played songs from her excellent new album Hadestown (an original "folk opera" based on the Orpheus myth, featuring vocals by Bon Iver's Justin Vernon, The Low Anthem's Ben Knox Miller, Ani DiFranco, Greg Brown and others), singing all the parts herself, plus some older material that I wasn't as familiar with, and it was all just fantastic. I already posted on Twitter about this but I still think it's true, even in my increasingly delirious state: Mitchell is both adorable and badass! I really love this combination of qualities and it feels all too rare. She has a kinda high, throaty childlike voice, and she blinks and squnches her face up a lot as she sings, and she wiggles her legs and rolls around on her ankles like a nervous little kid. She sings a lot about children and being a child, too. But her songs are these very serious—though, crucially, not self-serious—masterpieces, haunting little poems set to gutsy finger-picked guitar and delivered with a sweet smile. Even the Hadestown songs work apart from the overall album. When she sang "Why We Build The Wall," there was no mention of Eurydice or Persephone or any brave lovers coming for a rescue—and not only did it work on its own, it worked as a particularl kind of protest song, the kind you don't think of people writing anymore: "Why do we build the wall? / We build the wall to keep us free." Too bad you could have tripled the crowd and still had some elbow room.

Best Eighty-Something-Year-Old Rockabilly Legend I Would Have Gone to See if the Venue Hadn't Been on Such a Sketchy Street and/or I Hadn't Been Alone: Wanda Jackson.
Biggest regret so far, especially because I bet Wanda herself would have walked down that creepy street, like, totally fearlessly. Damn.

Best Set-Closing Sing-Along I Heard From the Down the Street: Dawes' "When My Time Comes" at Club DeVille.
One day my time comes and I will finally get to see this damn band play live.

Best Thrash-Metal Band: The one playing outside my hotel room right this second.
And by best I mean it would be great if the set could be over by the time I get my PJs on and teeth brushed. Granny Rachael needs to rest up for Day #2.

Worst News Of SXSW So Far: RIP Alex Chilton.
Boo.