Kerrang! invades Texas! (Part Two)

K! Editor Paul Brannigan savours the flavours of the South By South West music festival.

THURSDAY, MARCH 13
So the plan today was simple: get up early then annihilate a fearsome hangover by checking out ENSLAVED, NAPALM DEATH, HIGH ON FIRE and MOTORHEAD at the Vice magazine party at Stubbs' BBQ. Barney from Napalm is an old friend (and former Kerrang! contributor) so we'd dropped him a line last week and were looking forward to hooking up. But arriving at Stubbs' just before 1 there's a queue right around the block. 20 minutes later there's still a queue around the block. And a further 20 minutes later that queue hasn't moved at all. That $650 all access delegates pass means fuck all here and now. After 15 minutes listening to Shane Embury's rumbling bass on the wrong side of the fence we have to concede defeat. Arse. Sorry barney. Around the same time I hear that The Blackout won't be able to play the Kerrang! showcase gig tomorrow night. I've had better mornings.

Back to the hotel then to revise for my first ever American TV interview. A cable station called DirecTV are broadcasting from the festival and I've been asked to talk about Downpatrick's THE ANSWER on a show called 'Champion'. I'll be talking to former MTV VJ Matt Pinfield - the man who signed Coheed And Cambria in his capacity as Vice President of A&R at Columbia Records - and the lovely Lauren Laverne. I get over to the 6th Street studio and am sat down to get 'hair and make-up'. The effect is roughly as glamourous as putting a bow tie on a pig. Then I'm pushed into the tiny studio and asked to share my thoughts on what makes The Answer special. I've barely got the words "Well, they're hairy and lairy and.." out of my mouth before the cameras swing back onto the hosts and it's 'Thank you, Paul Brannigan from Kerrang!" Simon Cowell-esque infamy Stateside is unlikely to result.

It's over across the river now for a special benefit show for Austin music legend ROKY ERICKSON. For those that are unfamiliar with his history, Roky was a founding member of the cult psychedelic rock band 13th Floor Elevators. In 1969 he was arrested in Austin for possession of one marijuana joint and - rather than face a 10 year prison sentence - he pleaded insanity, an ill-fated decision which led to him being placed in a hospital for the criminally insane, where he received barbaric electroconvulsive therapy. Erickson still needs medical treatment, having been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, and today's $20 admission fee goes to a fund to help pay his medical bills. Local heroes ...AND YOU WILL KNOW US BY THE TRAIL OF DEAD are blasting out their own head-caving noise as we arrive, but their high volume histrionics are rather out of tune with the laidback family vibe of the event. Taking a more low-key approach, with a fiddle and acoustic guitars framing his downbeat songs, Sonic Youth mainman THURSTON MOORE fares rather better... though the queues for the free ice cream noticeably lengthen during his politely received set. Then its time for the man in whose honour the benefit show is being held to take to the stage to rapturous applause. After 6 or 7 songs, Erickson introduces ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons - sadly now known worldwide as 'that guy with the beard in Nickelback's Rockstar video' - to massive whoops of excitement. The cult heroes hammer out a hard rocking version of the 13th Floor Elevators' You're Gonna Miss Me and exit with their reputations enhanced.

The queues outside Emo's Annex for the Relapse showcase - featuring the mighty Genghis Tron, High On Fire and Municipal Waste - are ridiculous so we head back to the Red 7 Patio for the Victory Records showcase. We arrive in time to catch promising emo newcomers SECRET LIVES! OF THE FREEMASONS, who're being watched by some of the UK's most respected booking agents, all eager for a piece of the action. Next up are our old friends THE AUDITION, fresh from their sell-out UK tour. Since their appearance on the 2007 Kerrang! Tour the Chicago quintet have made great strides as a live proposition and with ultra-confident frontman Danny Stevens at his charismatic best, songs like Warm Me Up and Approach The Bench are perfect for late night drunken dance-alongs.

Next we hit Emo's Jr - that's a bar, not a young chap with skinny jeans and a floppy fringe - for THE NIGHT MARCHERS. The San Diego frontman are fronted by K! hero John 'Speedo' Reis, a man who has blown our tiny minds in the past with acts like Rocket From The Crypt, Hot Snakes and Sultans. We've had a copy of The Night Marcher's soon-coming debut album See You In Magic for about a month at K! HQ and it's one of our favourite albums of 2008 to date. Tonight, then, was never gonna be anything other than a huge triumph. It's only the band's fifth gig ever, but under Speedo's command, the quartet barrel through killer blue collar rock 'n' roll cuts such as I Wanna Deadbeat You, Branded and Closed For Inventory to raucous acclaim from a devoted audience. They're coming our way next month people. Do. Not. Miss. Them.

Read Part Three.