Thursday Recap: Swim Party & Austin James Band, The Corvinas

As anyone who regularly reads this site knows, Thursday was a really strange day for me on account of this blog. In a day I went from about 250 hits to almost 10 times that because of my experience with Band of Horses, my posts about it all, and then an interview of Ben Bridwell by Pitchfork. I opted to not respond to commenters and I still won't, because most likely, they've come and gone and are now hating on the next indie nation whatever. I feel like that's all subsided now and while I appreciate many of the comments, I will keep my thin skin and my Mexican temper, thank you very much. It's who I am.

Anyway, it was nice that night to be surrounded by friends at my various stops of the night. Swim Party were already playing when I arrived, but I walked in on my favorite song so I was happy. I was also told that I could video whatever I wanted, though I guess I have to edit it down since the two songs I captured went over the 100 meg limit on YouTube.



The band sounded so great and they've added some light trees to their light boxes making for a better looking stage than the 4 Beauty Bar lights can provide on their own. As I mentioned in the other recap, a couple of the guys from Adam Franklin's band stuck around a couple days. Actually one of em missed his flight and I hear it was a great story, but that's neither here not there. So it was nice to chat with them a litle bit at the Beauty Bar.

The Austin James Band played after Swim Party and had these killer harmonies. And not just a couple of them, but the entire band including the drummer would join in. Their second song was a cover of Jumpin Jack Flash and in between their mostly originals, they'd throw in another cover that were singalong worthy. They have the look of a hippie jam band, but I loved their soaring harmonies and am glad I stuck around. I also liked how, much like Swedish Models, the band moved around a lot, switching up instruments between one another. I didn't ever find out if one of them is actually Austin James, but it didn't really matter.






Matt Binder's doppelganger?

Once the bands ended, I headed to Kadan for CatDirt's show, but I missed FOTH. I was in time for The Corvinas who rocked the enthusiastic crowd.





It was kinda claustrophobic for me, so I ended up talking with David the door guy about the shooting that occurred a week before around the corner from the bar. He was really nice and had a lot of strong opinions about the situation. Until the investigation is complete, however, he wasn't really passing judgment. A friend of mine wrote on his blog that there wasn't crime in the area until the A/C lounge opened and brought douchebags to the neighborhood. I didn't buy his argument, and neither did the door guy, who recounted instances of crime associated with the former tenants, Your Place. Bad shit happens everywhere.

After that, I returned inside to hang out for a little longer and then was on my way to close my evening at the Ken feeling better about all the drama that had occurred just a few hours before.