Well, I was set to cheerily blog about my first day, but I am without Dr Pepper.  And upon going to get some from my car which I left at Mary Ellen’s place yesterday afternoon, I find it gone.  Not just the DP, but my car as well.  So, I must wait till 10am to call the office and find out who they use to tow.

I avoided the covered and labeled parking, but apparently I didn’t find the guest zone.  Good thing I took my clothes and computer into her apartment!

As for yesterday’s music.  Bob and I picked up our wristbands a bit after noon, and headed to Red Eye Fly.  The Explorers Club was playing and were quite good.  Lee was there.  Lance soon showed up.

We headed to Mohawk for the Austinist/Gothamist party.  They never seem to have a great line up, but we were there for the VIP free food and beer.  After that a stop at Creekside for free PBR and Catfish Haven and Midgetmen, then another stop back at Mohawk where we ran into Eric from the Houstonist.

We were heading for some more food, when we got some free ice cream, and then distracted by more music at Beerland: the Boss Martians and the Black Hollies were good.  Lee recognized the old-ish bartender as someone who used to help run SXSW.  Interesting conversation about its dysfunctional nature ensued.

The yearly meeting of the wristbands was at Lovejoy’s.  After that it was off to catch some shows, but I did not have a listing of addresses and as usually none of the doormen in Austin know Austin bars.  Making the going slow and reliant upon out of towners with maps.

I caught some Kalashikov at Bourbon Rocks, some Matt King at the alley-bound Ale House, back to Bourboun Rocks for a hamburger (bad idea), Light Bar – bad layout and away from the core, headed to Latitude 30 and caught the last song of The Young Republic, who were excellent.  I was there to see Kitty, Daisy, & Lewis, but after over 30 minutes of setup and delay I bailed on that.

I headed to Prague a little early, where Kid Beyond was still playing.  Everytime I see him, it’s worse.  It’s a novelty the first time, and he’s good at what he does.  But seeing a room full of white people bounce around to the pseudo hip-hop is a little nausea inducing (and the hamburger was already getting to me).

Thankfully, it was over soon, and after a short wait the Ironweed Project was going.  But, it didn’t match the promise of the first listening within the first few songs, and I was getting tired from a long day.  I cabbed it back to Mary Ellen’s place pre-midnight – not noticing if my car was still there – and went straight to bed.

Time to find my car…