Update: Congratulations to The ARTISANALS for their 2019 Jammy Award!

After seeing more than 50 bands/shows this week, it’s been decided. The Artisanals are the band you should listen to right now. Good ol’ fashioned mid-American rock sung by a guy who looks like Jesus. These guys look like they are having fun while also sounding great. They “brought” the performance with a shirt-off-on-your-knees ending, winning them this years Jammy Award! Congratulations fellows.

The Artisanals at the Shiner Saloon started us off and boy, did they!!! This was Rob’s #1 priority for the day and I’m glad we tagged along! They sounded so good and they played like the place was packed and they weren’t the opening band in a day-show line-up. With a knee dropping jam at the end, I was not sure it if it was 3am or 3pm when they were done with us. They were a really good-time and head-banging Jesus (aka Johnny Delaware) hugged me after the performance and thanked us for coming. Now if we could only get Alexa to recognize the request of playing The Artisanals.

Following The Artisanals, we got a nice surprise and got to see The Brother Brothers. This showcase was curated by a Bay Area nonprofit, Conscious Immaturity whose mission is to bring music to schools. I will say this line-up should have probably been reversed, as The Brother Brothers are quiet and mellow and beautiful (and yes, Andee, they are brothers) and The Artisanals were loud and rocking and totally brought it!

Dogs are fucking cool! Yes, dogs are fucking cool!!! Things you learn from the bartender….

Then we tried to decide about food… one of us mentioned hanger, so we ate at the food trucks and then we walked to Hotel San Jose for SXSJ2019.

On the way, we stopped at Yeti and saw Jackie Venson. I liked the Yeti store, but I didn’t like the people at the Yeti store. The crowd was there to be seen and that’s not my jam, so we moseyed onward to SXSJ.

Robert Ellis entertained us in his white suit sitting behind his piano. At some point, he sang a song about Topo Chico’s and lime and then sprayed the crowd with a Topo.  This was much preferable to the time I saw him open for Deer Tick when he sprayed the crowd with a beer. At the time, the bro crowd loved it; I did not, but I guess that’s the price you pay for liking Deer Tick. They attract the bro’s. (See Trampled By Turtles)

The Black Pumas (with Adrian Quesada)

These guys and gals jammed. We were tired but they still had us on our feet dancing.