SXSW Followup II

I went over the bands I'd tagged "must see" a couple days ago. The following is a list of shows I had resonably high expectations for that fell flat.

* Echo Base Soundsystem - I had such high hopes for these guys after being the drummer's neighbor for a couple months last year. It was wall-to-wall white boy dreads. For future reference this is not a sign that the show is going to be great. The group of us left soon after I detected "noodling".

* Twinemen - The two other guys from Morphine were in this band. They were so entertaining, I spent most of the show watching some guy sleep through all the racket and talking to some french dude about cheese.

* Fatboy Slim - He DJ'd the whole set, not playing any of his music. The show had a rave feel to it, but it was outside at Stubbs and there weren't any drugs.

* Aqualung - These guys weren't on my list, but I had to endure them in order to see Bloc Party a show later. Not good. Surrounded by old people making out. Snuck off to a corner and listened to my ipod.

* Bleach 03 - Josh and I kicked things off the day before SXSW by going to Bleach 03's CD release party. This 3 piece comprised of cute little japanese girls fucking blew me away. Easily the hardest METAL show I saw the whole week. They were so good we decide to see their showcase at the whisky bar. The whisky bar doesn't have a stage so these cute little japanese girls are set up on the floor, surrounded by wall of guys 6'3" and taller. The only way to see anything was to look at the view screen on a camcorder held by a guy standing on a bar stool.

Dallas vs Houston

Dallas plays Houston in the first round of the NBA playoffs that begin this weekend and I think Dallas is going to win. Even though they lost the last two games during the regular season to the Rockets, both losses were before Avery Johnson took over as coach.

The last game they played on March 6th Dallas lost 90 - 69. Dallas was missing Nowitzki, Finley and Dampier.

The game on January 12 Dallas lost 124 - 114. Dallas was missing Josh Howard and Marquis Daniels. McGrady had a big game, and I'm sure Howard would have slowed him down some. Plus Nelson was coaching and only gave Dampier 19 minutes.

The big issue for Houston will be that Juwan Howard is out for the rest of the season. He played Nowitzki pretty well defensively and had enough offensive game to keep Dirk honest on defense. Houston doesn't have anyone who is going to be able to keep up with Dirk or Van Horn.

At center, I think that Dampier, Bradley and Henderson will be fine against Ming.

At point guard, Bobby Sura is a legitimate triple double threat. Jason Terry and Devin Harris are extremely quick and play great defense. I'm not sure who has the advantage here.

Shooting guard, Wesley and Barry for Houston, Finley, Stackhouse and Daniels for Dallas. Big advantage for Dallas.

Small forward - McGrady vs. Howard. Howard should guard McGrady as well as anyone can. But Tracy will still have big games.

Dallas has so much more size than Houston and that they should own the paint, as long as they can stop Houstons 3 point shooting, I think they have a great chance of advancing to the next round of the playoffs.

SXSW Followup

I think I've finally recovered from South by Southwest. Out of the must see bands from my last post, I was able to check out:

* The Octopus Project - Local band, these guys/gal are great, will see again and again.

* Mono - Instrumental band out of Japan, think wall of sound/sonic landscapes, beautiful.

* Holy Fuck - Crazy ass band out of Toronto. Very experimental. Loved every second of it. Donated a glow stick to the main sound creator so he could read his tiny little casio.

* LCD Sound System - Line was around the block for hours before the show. M.I.A played 2 hours before them, there was now way to get into that show.

* The Kills - Saw them at a day show at the Red Eye Fly. Think "What would happen if Peter Murphy and Siouxsie Sioux decided to form a two piece band". The best show of SXSW.

* Viva K - Not a very strong show. The band was good but vocal were lacking.

* Bloc Party - Ended up seeing these guys 3 times. All three shows were really good, I like the last show at the Vice Party best, probably because of the free Sparks. I can see myself being really annoyed by them 6 months from now, but today I'm hooked.

* Calexico - I've seen the a couple times before and the shows ranked up there with some of the best I've ever seen. But the day show at Emos was weak. They were having sound problems and lacked the energy I've come to expect.