sxsw day two: going and going and going

So, I think I’ve figured out the key to surviving SXSW: Go to enough shows that there’s no time to get tired—at least that’s what worked for me yesterday. Between noon and midnight I saw 10 artists at seven different venues, most of whom were pretty fantastic.

The day started with killer performances by our latest eMusic Selects bands, Man/Miracle and Hurray for the Riff Raff, and ended in (presumably) drunken chaos.

Some highlights:

eMusic lunch with Man/Miracle (top image) and Hurray for the Riffraff (directly above). OK, so maybe I’m a little biased, but this was the first time I had seen either of these artists live and they were both were incredible.

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings. Sharon Jones & co. can do no wrong. They played a handful of tracks from their excellent new record, I Learned The Hard Way (out April 6), including “She Ain’t A Child No More,” the title track, and “Be Easy.” She pulled some dude named Justin on to the stage to dance and it was sort of awkward (or, rather, he was sort of awkward), but hysterical. Jones did the boogaloo, the pony and the funky chicken, and ended with the title track from 2007′s 100 Days, 100 Nights.

Chilly Gonzales. I wandered into Lovejoy’s to find Chilly Gonzales blindfolded, wearing a robe, and banging on a piano while wearing gloves. I don’t know a ton about him other than his work on Feist’s The Reminder, and had never heard any of his own music, but he was taking piano requests (The Peanuts theme song, “I’ve Got Rhythm,” 50 Cent) and then did a song about how to get ahead in the music biz. At one point he called a girl up on stage to play a couple of notes on the piano while he rapped, then chimed in on the piano with his hands and then his microphone. I’m still not really sure what his own music sounds like, but he was hilarious (“You know the funny thing about Feist? I made her.”) and I was thoroughly entertained.

Sharon Van Etten (above) and Sarah Jaffe playing in a church. Sharon Van Etten blows my mind. If you haven’t heard her solo work, you may recognize her voice from a couple songs on the Antlers’ Hospice. Her voice is breathtaking and hearing her in a church was something else. Sarah Jaffe was great too — she played with a full band and I can’t get the song “Clementine” out of my head.

Peasant. This was one of my favorite shows so far. Peasant (aka singer/songwriter Damien DeRose) has gotten some lovely coverage on our site and I’ve been listening to his record Shady Retreat a lot in the past couple of weeks. DeRose started by saying, “This is my first official show at South By Southwest and I’m gonna do it right.” He totally did, despite being a bit self-deprecating between his delicately fingerpicked songs about ending darkness. After mentioning he has a new record out, he said, “I’m sure you’ve heard that a million times today, so you can forget about it if you want to.” Please don’t forget about it!

Those Darlins. These ladies are nuts! Their record is fun (the song “The Whole Damn Thing” is about getting drunk and eating a whole chicken) and their live shows don’t disappoint, either. This one got a little out of hand (on stage, at least), as ukulele player/bassist Nikki (all of them use the last name Darlin) seemed to be super drunk and the last couple of songs included this series of events: Nikki dropped her ukuelele on the stage, then grabbed singer/guitarist Jessi’s drink. Bassist Kelley then crashed into Nikki to send the drink flying out of her hand (much of it spilling on her) and across the stage.