Live from SXSW 2008: White Denim @ Purevolume.com Ranch, 3.8.08

Let the music begin! The past couple days at SXSW 2008 have been geekfest central, complete with a horrible keynote interview featuring Facebook’s quasi-demigod of a CEO named Zuckerberg and a s***load of panels dedicated to building (killer) web apps. Last night was the start of a whole new crowd here in downtown Austin, and today is just the beginning of a lot of Shiner Bocks and free swag that no one really needs too much of. Good times.

I haven’t really caught too much music yet except for Saturday night at the Purevolume.com ranch; my good buddies from work and I got to the party to catch up with the Austinist crew and see a little bit of music to finish off the night. I was ecstatic to be there, as we caught the end of a band called Brazos which was pretty good. The real highlight of the night was the next band up: White Denim. They were a power trio with a nasty amount of soundcheck feedback and wah-wah, which immediately clued our crew in that this was going to be something to see.

When the band started and I grabbed a spot behind the guitarist, my ears were immediately pelted with some awesome garage noise-rock while my eyes were treated to a crowd totally into the band and their performance. It was high energy all the way through, and I immediately decided that I would be catching these guys again soon. Give their MySpace page a sample yourself, and imagine that what you’re listening to is 1000% louder; that’s exactly what the show was like. Plus, Eugene Mirman was there and I got to shake his hand and tell him that I loved his work on Flight of the Conchords. I also got to meet the keyboard player from Voxtrot, who I saw last year at the Austin City Limits studios. Extra good times.

I’m going to try and get some live updates from the shows as I go, which is assuming I don’t get too liquored up on free booze. We’ll see if that’s too ambitious or not.