SXSWaterloo was the first show we booked and the one I was looking forward to the most because of the incredible lineup:

Thursday 17 March
3.00 Boonesboro
3.45 Mercury Girls
4.30 Diet Cig
5.15 Hockey Dad

Friday 18 March
3.00 Sofa City Sweetheart
3.45 Vulkano
4.30 Pinact
5.15 Dressy Bessy

Saturday 19 March
1.00 Special Surprise Guest
2.30 Gentle Brontosaurus
3.00 Leticia Rodriguez
3.45 Expert Alterations
5.00 The Spook School

It's a free indie pop showcase hosted every year at a bike shop called Waterloo Cycles thanks to the efforts of shop owner/pop connoisseur Michael (our Michael introduced himself and he said "hey, I'll actually probably remember your name!"), and there's been some incredible talent there in the past as well, including acts like Mirah, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Veronica Falls, Allo Darlin', and Tacocat.

It turns out that the Special Surprise Guest who played before us was Rozi Plain from England, and she and her band were incredible! It was a very nice surprise. Dreamy synthesizer and guitar and floaty vocals and drums.

It did not disappoint! We played outside on a sunny, windy, beautiful day and got to see various old friends who came to our show, which was wonderful. Michael was very nice and I recommend his shop for all your bicycle or indie pop needs.

After us were Leticia Rodriguez from Austin, who sang with a Spanish guitarist and radiated positive, exuberant energy, Expert Alterations from Baltimore tearing it up with some nervy, minimalist rock 'n' roll, and The Spook School from Edinburgh, with subversive lyrics and punky swagger. The Spook School borrowed our bass amp! (flailing Kermit arms)

We drank some delicious free beer from Hops and Grain, and met some nice people, I geeked out because I randomly started talking to a couple of people who turned out to be the NYC blogger behind The International Pop Underground internationalpopunderground.tumblr.com which I read regularly, and I got a copy of her brand new zine Weirdos at the Gates from her in person!--and Sean, the founder of Fortuna POP! Records in the UK, a label I love.

I also found out we had the honor of being a small baby named Rainn's first show EVER!

It's right across from the Spider House Ballroom and some of us popped over to check out music over there as well.

Later on we had tacos and bought bolo ties on South Congress St. (Cal is wearing his every day now along with his cowboy hat) We stayed with Cal's friend Tim and his roommate Ben, and that evening we had an amazing time at Petefest, a backyard show, seeing Tim's band Finite Fidelity! They played a fantastic heavy cover of "Toxic" by Britney Spears and had a tiny child fan who was headbanging with them and probably losing a lot of his wee little ear cilia but I AM SURE it was DEFINITELY WORTH IT. \m/

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