A Few Random Musings on SXSW

Well 12 gigs and 5 days later, the madness known as SXSW has come to a close. The Band of Heathens played a bunch of great shows and had some time to catch up with some old friends.
The amount of music is truly staggering, and making an effort to catch all of it, will only leave you chasing empty parking meters and wiping mustard stains off your shirt.
… I digress
Got to see a couple of cats that I’ve been digging on for a while now. Malcolm Holcombe was a ball of fire and a sight to see as he put on a blistering solo acoustic show at a posh little bar, complete with leather couches and long stem martini glasses. Malcolm had other ideas in mind as he navigated us through some raw and real tunes. Definitely gotta catch him if you dig acoustic songwriter blues troubador minstrel stuff.
The Band of Heathens played at the Enchanted Forest on Thursday night, man what a trip. After we exploded the sound system, I got to hang out and take in some of the sights, sounds and lovely smells of the place. The venue was a little hippie haven with black lights, teepees, and a creek running between the stage and the crowd. The vibe was totally cool, so I decided to hang for a bit… Caught Dan Dyer’s set and sat in on a couple of songs, played some keyboards with him and got to sing a little harmony, (always a fun time).
I kinda lost track of the other guys in the band by this point, but I decided to stick around and catch Mike Farris. Man, he put on a killer show, twelve piece horn driven soul shaking sanctified righteous rock n roll. He was sporting a great band with some cats from Nashville (including Audley Freed) and some local Austinites. He can really sing and the band was matching him step for step. Definitely go catch that show if he’s in your area.
Just wanted to drop a quick note to y’all, I hope the world is spinning in the right direction for you. Talk to you soon.
Peace,
Ed