After their impromptu show in the middle of 6th street on Wednesday night, we had to check out Katzenjammer's full set.  We went to Threadgills for some lunch (including the best spicy veggie burger I've had), and their set.  With the rest of their instruments, and vocal mics, they were even more amazing.  The harmonies sounded amazing, and they all played each other's instruments, switching from keyboards to mandolin to horns to balalaika.  Their set was unbelievably perfect, including an homage to Janis Joplin.

Club Primo: Mouse House, UME, Follow That Bird

After Katzenjammer, I took a brief break before heading to Club Primo to catch UME, who'd I'd seen at a Christmas show with Trail of Dead.  I arrived a little early and caught Mouse House, who'd been recommended to me, but hadn't made my list of shows.  They played indie-funk, and it was a fun, cool show, before heading inside.  I'd previously seen Ume at Red7 with a ton of people, so it was a bit disarming to see them at such a tiny little bar.  Their show was no less blistering, though.  Their music pairs catchy anthems with post-rock build-and-release structures.  The build shows Lauren's gorgeous voice, and the release shows the band's ferocity, especially Lauren's.  There are no still pictures of her playing, she's a hurricane of constant musical fury.  After sweating out the show, I went back outside to grab a cigarette to the tunes of Follow That Bird, who play fairly straightforward indie rock.  If I hadn't seen Jucifer or Ume in the same week, I might have enjoyed them a bit more.

The Bird and The Bee at Waterloo

By the 4th day, we were running dangerously low on energy.  We figured our last show would be a low-key set from the cutesy electro duo The Bird And The Bee at Waterloo.  We got there a little late, and saw them from the back of the store, but it was worth it anyway.  The charm of singer Inara is even greater in person, than on singles like "polite dance song".  Unfortunately, the sound had problems, and cut out during said song.  After dinner, we felt a bit rejuvenated, and checked out a slightly larger Ruby Isle show at Lambert's, which was just as fun as their first show, albeit with proportionally less crowd.  They also played one of their covers (Skinny Love), which  was awesome.  Afterwards, we gave up trying to decide on shows, and considered it over.

The 5 best shows from SXSW 2009:

1. Kittens Ablaze (Friday)
2. Jucifer (Wednesday)
3. Katzenjammer (Saturday)
4. Ruby Isle (Friday)
5. The Rosebuds (Friday)

J. Tillman, now better known for being a member of Fleet Foxes, played an early show inside at Mohawk, which was a great low-key start to SXSW.  His accoustic folk is similar to Jason Molina, and his beard evokes Will Oldham.  The lyrics are dark, which deepens the similarity to both those men.  It was a good show, and I'm a sucker for that sort of thing.

Anticon: Yoni Wolf and Themselves at Red7

After the brevity of J Tillman's set, we had more time than we needed to get to our next show, so we dropped in at Yoni Wolf's show at Red7.  I've seen him plenty of times with Why?, which pushed him out of my "must-see-artists" list, but I do love his self-depricating lyrical style, and it was a cute show.  Just him and a keyboard, playing new Why? songs, and a couple off of Alopecia.  After his set, we moved inside to catch his Anticon labelmates, and ex-cLOUDDEAD bandmates Themselves.  DoseOne's hi-speed lyrical delivery was barely intelligible, but amazing.  Their phat beatz, as it were, were also amazing.  We can only assume that the lyrics matched the dirty humor of his stage banter between songs.

The Handsome Family at Dog and Duck

Despite getting a tweet from @amandapalmer, we Missed her flash-mob-pillow-fight outside Radio Room, and had time to stroll slowly up to Dog and Duck for Handsome Family.  Their alt-country set was nice, as were the chairs after our long walk.  They played the songs we wanted, and it was a nice and chill show before dinner and the evening craziness.

Jucifer at Emo's Annex

Jucifer was hands-down, the best set of the day.  Amber Valentine came out and lived up to the Rock Star tattooed across her knuckles.  After her folky leather outfit, Her dirty sludgy guitar was the second thing to strike from the stage, she made it growl for longer than some of their whole songs, before launching into their set.  And launch they did.  She was ferocious, bringing unbelievable energy to songs from their latest double album, playing songs back-to-back, with no pause even to breathe.  Her husband and drummer was just as intense, standing up to bring more force to the stops and starts of their songs.  He also contributes perplexing falsetto vocals in the midst of his heavy drumming and Amber's heavy guitar work, contributin to their amazing stylistic breadth for a 2 person band.  Their DIY-halogen-light-and-smoke stage was amazing, too.  Most of SXSW is pretty low-budget, and low production, but not this show.

Katzenjammer in the middle of 6th street

We were on our way to see The Wierd Weeds at The Hideout when we were suddenly arrested by the norwegian folk harmonies of Katzenjammer playing in the middle of the street.  They played like they meant it, and were completely adorable.  We'll try to catch up with them later at SXSW, which I suppose is the reason for playing impromptu street shows.  The Weird Weeds are a local band who I saw just after new years.  The show was a lot more focused than the last time I saw them, but still very artsy/avant/experimental.

Dosh at Mohawk

Dosh was the victim of unfortunate circumstances.  His multi-instrumentalist electronic music is calm and intricate, which is better suited to an afternoon show than to 11PM, when I'm already feeling the wear of going to 7 different shows.  To make matters worse, Mohawk's inside venue is no longer air conditioned, and the stage is no longer visible from the far side of the bar.  In fact, with him sitting down between his drum set, keyboard, and effects, he was impossible to see.  The pictures I took are my only view of the show, since I could hold the camera up high enough to see over.

Viva Voce at Radio Room, and The Decemberists on the radio

No pictures for this show, since The Radio Room had a sign saying only cameras with badges.  After a really long sound check, Viva Voce played with very bad sound and lots of feedback.  They seemed as exhausted as we were, and unable to connect to their music at all.  When we got back in the car to go home, we heard The Decemberists playing with My Brightest Diamond on KUT, and were chagrined at our choice of shows, since it was clearly far better than Dosh and Viva Voce.  I picked up their new LP the next morning at Waterloo, since the show was so good, and I'm really into My Brightest Diamond, who appears on the album.