Shabazz Palaces, played Old school rap backed by world-music beats and ghostly samples, which felt slightly nightmare-ish.
The Moondoggies, despite their terrible name, played enjoyable country-tinged bluesy rock with a bit of a Beta Band sound mixed in. There was a fair bit of fiddling around between songs and the singer seemed a bit breathless, so wonder if they played stronger sets elsewhere at SXSW, though this one was pretty good.
They had a really good warm sound, though, and created a good soundscape to colour the songs. The sound got pretty reavy at points, heading for Rage Against the Machine territory, but it never went over-the-top. They were a really tight band and good musicians and the swirling keyboards made it sound pretty psychedelic at some points. Jim Bob joined them for one song (presumably not the Carter USM singer - there was certainly no mention of his co-conspirator Fruit Bat)
Hunx and his Punx were a 60s-style girl group in the mould of [Leader of the Pack band] heading twoards indie punk pop like Kenickie, but fronted by a very camp band leader. The band were better than the singer or the songs.
Papercuts played psychadelia-tinged west coast pop. They didn't have any songs that stood out massively, but there was lots of appreciative nodding from the crowd. They made a welcoming and calming change of poace after Hunx.
Dum Dum Girls were a fun pop-punk band, with more than a hint of the Ramones and Go-Gos.
J Mascis was approached for a handshake and quick chat before the show by a man in the crowd. That would have been fairly normal if he hadn't done so just as J was leaving a toilet cubicle and if he wasn't at the front of the queue, leaving him wondering whether to cut off his conversation to go to the toilet and leaving other people wondering if they could jump in. After that, J did his own soundcheck as seems to be standard for him at SXSW these days.
J's set featured much more conventional guitar sounds than the earlier one. His guitar was much less distorted and his playing more delicate. It was really quite pretty for the first few songs. There was very little pedal use and a clean guitar sound with just a touch of delay on it, 'tastefully' deployed, some might say. Fantastic, soaring soloing and he won over some new converts as well as enthralling the dedicated hardcore fans at the front.
The Head and The Heart played to a packed crowd who were really up for it and into them. They went all out for their last set of SXSW and gave a really joyful performance which felt like a big hug and was really celebratory and uplifting. The set was quite different from the one we saw at the convention centre. It seemed much more easy and relaxed, like a homecoming show, possibly because it was their last show of SXSW.
Winter Song was, again, really good. The band seemed really proficient and just to be enjoying it and ripping through the songs rather than playing them for the sake of it. Though there is nothing incredibly original about the instrumentation they use, they really make it work well without seeming too hokey or tired.
At the end there was a mini stage invasion. It started with one man, who didn't look like he was part of the band's scene, and people in the crowd looked at each other, not quite sure what to do. But he knew all the words and was soon joined by others and the band seemed to enjoy having him on the stage, so maybe they knew him.
On the way out of the back of Red 7, a mariachi-ish New Orleans funeral band ripped through as at the beginning of Live and Let Die, or Black Parade-era MCR, which was weird by exciting and seemed to fit the moment perfectly.
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