The first day of South By Southwest tends to be my favorite: my feet don’t hurt, the douchebags haven’t yet descended en masse, and I can actually see most bands I try to see. I met up with friends at the airport, took a cab to our Airbnb, and caught an express bus (Austin has bus rapid transit and it’s awesome!) to Cheer Up Charlie’s for the No Play Music day party, where I hung out for most of the day before eventually heading over to Hotel Vegas for their St. Patrick’s Day kickoff.

Tuesday’s Best Bands:

Susan, a 3-piece from LA who play tight, poppy, infectious garage rock and seem to have a blast doing it.

Listen to Susan’s 7″ “Just Call It” at Bandcamp

Sealion, utterly charming surf punk from Dallas.

Listen to Sealion’s LP “Heavy Fizz” at Bandcamp

Sheer Mag, intense, captivating punk rock from Philly.

Listen to Sheer Mag’s 7″ at Bandcamp

The Parrots, snotty punk from Spain.

Listen to The Parrots’ 7″ “Loving You Is Hard” at Bandcamp

Other excellent bands you should totally check out:
Adult Books
Death Valley Girls
Gal Pals

Other highlights:

• My friend John scoring a wristband for unlimited free drinks at the HFA Showcase at Side Bar, getting us all drunk between 2:00-4:00
• A dude jumping on the stage during Sheer Mag, attempting to take his dick out, getting told to put his dick away, and stage diving into the dirt (in general, a stage dive where no one catches you is about the most karmically excellent thing that can happen to an asshole at a show)

Biggest bummer:

• Overhearing some dude telling a story about the time he took his dick out in public right after the stage dive incident. Put your dicks away, dudes.