Sara Montour SXSW Day 2 slideshow and report

(Photos and text by Sara Montour.)

Friday was a magical day in Austin and ended up being my favorite day of the whole trip.

The first stop on Friday's musical whirlwind was the Iron Gate for the Cash Moneyapolis show. Shayna and I hung out there to catch sets by KaiserCartel, Romantica, and John Swardson. The sound was a little sketchy in there and there weren't any lights on the "stage" at all, so it was really hard to shoot, but it was nice to hang out with fellow Minneapolitans and watch the Minnesota music that I love filter into Austin.

After Swardson's set Shayna and I decide to head over to Mohawk because I wanted to see Alela Diane. I had no idea what else was going on there, I just knew that she was playing and I missed her when she was in Minneapolis, so I wanted to catch her set. We got to Mohawk and to our pleasant surprise Port O'Brien was in the middle of another rockin' set. After their set I noticed some of the members of the Rosebuds were setting up and I was completely confused because I knew that Alela Diane was suppose to be playing at that time. Josh then pointed out that there was another stage inside, so I ran in and caught the last few songs of her set. When I came back outside the Rosebuds were just about to start their show and the timing of every set continued on this perfect streak throughout the rest of the day.

Delta Spirit played next with more energy than should be humanly possible. As we were leaving Mohawk to go find some food we passed by another tent and noticed that the Hold Steady was playing and there wasn't a line at all, so we jumped in for their last song.

After dinner at Habana (yuca frita, YUM!) we made our way to the Elephant Room to see local band Josiah Wordsworth in a gritty basement jazz lounge where the bartender almost punched me in the face because I dared to ask for a red bull. Josiah Wordsworth totally rocked the Elephant Room and the crowd was completely captivated.

We rounded out the night dancing like crazy with a bunch of Minneapolis peeps as White Light Riot and the Alarmists rocked our socks off.