Top o' the fuckin' mornin' to ya!!!!
Day four of SXSW fell on Saint Patrick's day, so the crowds were bound to be heavier and even more obnoxious than normal.
The first Wedding Present gig of the day was a bit later than normal and this gave us the opportunity to see the Twilight Sad at a different venue.
I had never really listened much to this band even though friends had raved about them, in fact all I have ever heard from them before this was them covering TWP and The Smiths and those were pretty good efforts.
We got to the venue a bit early but things were running late and unfortunately for us we had to endure the dreadful Andrew WK and an even less talented prat helping him out who happened to be English. These two were as embarrassing as they were annoying and you could see the Twilight Sad getting pissed off onstage while rushing their soundcheck as these two buffoons kept referring to them as Twilight.
Twilight Sad
When they finally were ready to play, singer James Graham announced. "Hello everyone, just to let you know, we are not Irish. We love the Irish and we love Ireland, but we are fucking Scottish." Obviously this was probably down to Saint Patrick's day and perhaps every American they met today asking them if they were Irish. Then it was the turn of Andrew W(an) K (er) and retarded friend to feel his wrath as he added,
"We are not fucking called Twilight, were are not fucking vampires.
We are The Twilight Sad, that's a fucking shite film."
Twilight Sad
The performance was great, it brought the house down. I was really impressed and also dug the fact that he was wearing a cracking pair of Adidas Beckenbauer's. Good music, beer and trainers, it doesn't get much better than that.
James Graham's trainers, Adidas Beckenbauer's
Menu stolen from the Gingerman.
Next up for us was TWP at the Gingerman.
The place was very impressive, it had a 4 page menu for the beer and a single sided menu for the food. I love it when a bar has it's priorities in order.
Sadly though for the band this was a predominantly St. Paddy's day crowd. The beer garden was packed with wannabe Irish party people even older than us, all bedecked in green enjoying some god awful Irish American folk band. I did spot one other person wearing a Bizarro shirt, but that was about it and he was busy sending out texts on his phone. Probably asking friends if he was in the right place no doubt, as we were certainly wondering the same thing ourselves.
Non-Wedding Present crowd at the Gingeman.
The folk band finished and TWP showed up and set up rather quickly. I noticed some scruffy, beardy bloke at the opposite side of the stage from us and instantly recognised him as Joaquin Phoenix, Ian from I&S was a bit skeptical, but I have seen him on Letterman a couple of times in between films and this is an image he always adopts.
Joaquin Phoenix at the Gingerman checking out TWP.
The sun was beating down and I guess the band weren't feeling the love from the majority of the crowd as they skipped one on the songs from the list. At least the barmy army and a few other WP fans in the audience really enjoyed the show.
In fairness to the drinkers, they were very polite about the performance and some tried to get into it, they met each song with mildly warm applause, it just wasn't their thing and wasn't what they had come to see.
Gingerman setlist.
After the show Kellie and I left to get a kebab, while the others went and had a Mexican meal at Carlos Santana's restaurant Maria, Maria. We met then later on for drinks and I have to say that this place was really nice. Beautifully decorated, the service was great and the prices very reasonable for such a swanky joint.
The rather impressive Maria Maria.
The last Wedding Present gig of the week took place in the wonderfully named Beerland. It was a bit of a dump and very small and narrow, but served its purpose and the beer was the cheapest we had seen all week.
We bumped into Andrew Scheps again, said "Hello", had a bit of a chat but he politely declined my invitation to have a bit of a bounce down at the front. Clearly he is smart as well as exceptionally talented.
DLG at Beerland by Mark Venton.
The gig was being broadcast live on local WFMU and was a bit rockier than all the other sets mainly because there was only one microphone stand available so all songs that Pepe sung backing vocals on had to be skipped. This meant that we got Dalliance instead of DDR, which was a bonus in my eyes, as it's in my top ten WP songs.
There was the added bonus of a really drunk WP fan at this gig, and naturally he had to pick me out to stand next to for the show. Harmless enough, but quite annoying. He kept bumping into me, yelping and slapping his hand onto the stage. Patrick and Pepe gave him that "What the fuck do you think you are doing?" look on more than one occasion. In between songs he shouted for "Give my love to Kevin" David said it wasn't on the setlist and the drunkard replied "Play it for my best friend" as he put his arm around me "He's here, my best friend Kevin"
David laughed,(probably at my expense) and said "That's funny, the last time I checked his name was Andy"
I was bit annoyed with this drunk person to be honest, but he clearly didn't really mean any harm and I could hardly give him a dig, that would have been really rude.
Anyway during "Don't talk, just kiss" he gets really over excited and falls onto the stage and did a face plant right into Pepe's pedals. Jessica and Patrick glanced at me with a look of horror, maybe for a split second they thought I had decked him, I didn't.
I helped him up and he had a big red mark right in the middle of his forehead, I guess they called that karma. He probably woke up with an massive head ache the next day, or at least I hope he did.
After the gig, we chatted with the band and made plans for a wild after SXSW party back at our hotel room. Jessica squeezed us all back into the tour van, it was technically illegal, but sometimes even TWP live life on the edge.
Beerland setlist. Dalliance was played last though.
Back at our room, all the couples except for Charlie and Sarah said goodnight and retired to their rooms (lightweights).
So the big after party consisted of Kellie and me, Mark, Sebastian, Patrick, Charlie and Sarah. Our room was a bit of a mess already, so it's not like a party would make any difference. Everyone was starving so we ordered 3 pizzas, and started on the beer and wine. We had a few laughs recalling everyone's take on the Iron Bear and the incidents we all had. Sebastian and Patrick brought some beer from the Ranger Creek brewery, "It was free" they said, and we soon figured out why.
It was described as mesquite porter ale, which basically meant that it smelled and tasted of beef jerky, it was fucking vile. Me and Patrick both tried it and nearly vomited, as a result of this Charlie and Sebastian passed. Mark however was a bit drunker than we were due to the bucket sized margaritas that he drank at Maria, Maria's, so he had a couple of them. The pizzas took forever to arrive, so we called the pizza parlour again in order to bollock them and finally nearly an hour after we placed the order, they showed up, lukewarm. Despite this, I tipped the bloke a fiver and must say that they were really good pizzas. We devoured them until there was only one slice left and I could tell some of the lads were eyeing it up, but were acting too polite to take it, so I spared them the embarrassment and ate the fucker myself.
It's just all part of the considerate service that I offer.
The party room. What happens at SXSW, stays in SXSW.
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