"Can't Talk Now -- I'm Blogging!"
So I totally thought that blogging from a rock show would make me feel like a big man -- that people would come up to me, and I'd be all, "Can't talk now! I'm blogging!" And they'd say, "Whoa!" But actually, I feel like a total wad.
That said, I haven't streamed any music in a while, and I absolutely love the singer-songwriter I just saw, so here goes. This is "To Be Alive and Alone" (audio), a song by an amazing (and sadly defunct) band called Troubled Hubble. The group broke up only a few months after putting out Making Beds in a Burning House -- one of my favorite albums of 2005 -- and now singer Chris Otepka is making music as a one-man band called Heligoats.
Otepka is, in many ways, everything I love about SXSW: a guy who drove with his girlfriend 18 hours to play eight songs as part of an afternoon showcase, then gathered his stuff to drive 18 more hours back home. Halfway through his set, dissatisfied with the sound, Otepka unplugged and played with no amplification at all, surrounded by maybe 15 or 20 people. Eighteen hours, eight (fantastic) songs, zero amplification, 20 people, 18 more hours home. He never even seemed to think it wasn't worth it.
7:23 PM ET | 03-14-2007 | permalink
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