the sharp things at sxsw: part three

19 March 2006 by The Sharp Things

Well, this was what we came for: the show. On March 17, we were the lead-off band at the Bar/None SXSW showcase at Friends Bar on Austin’s Sixth Street.

What can I say? It was our best show ever, topping even last summer’s highlight performance at Knitting Factory. With all modesty, when we click, it’s magic and we were bringin’ the love this night.

The SXSW staff at Friends were, well, friendly, and their experience showed in a super-fast soundcheck that gave us excellent monitors, and good sound out front that made our audience happy. It was a nice, big audience — close to 200 people, by my estimate (though I wasn’t counting). And they ate it up!

Judging by the applause, crowd favorites included “Demon Of Love,” “Homeless” and “The Suicide Bombers,” as well as a new song, “Don’t Leave Me This Way,” that we’ve been playing for several weeks and is becoming a band favorite, too.

The entire show was videotaped by Steve Gordon, a director on assignment from NYC cable show New York Noise — hopefully we’ll have some of that footage for you here on the site in a few weeks. Join our mailing list and we’ll let you know when that happens.

Bar/None’s Glenn Morrow proclaimed himself impressed and introduced Perry to some bigwigs. That’s what it’s all about, right? Ah, not entirely. Dreams of fame and fortune are delightful, but at the end of the day, we were there for good music and fun times — and both were had in abundance that evening.

Not much to say about what happened after the show. We all got righteously drunk and silly, enjoyed sets by labelmates Oppenheimer, El Ten Eleven, Hotel Lights and The Spinto Band and just generally had a marvelous time.

previous: the sharp things at sxsw: part two
next: sxsw show review from high bias