DAY TWO RECAP >>>>

Yesterday was mostly spent at the Spider House - an awesome venue with three stages. If you weren't into a particular band you could walk to another stage and see what was happening there.

The mission for being at the Spider House was to see Butts (Seattle) and Christmas (Olympia). Butts-a two-piece comedy-punk group-played first. The band's set is about half music and half banter, with the guitarist and drummer joking around before launching into one of their mostly under-a-minute songs. Topics covered: alcohol, cigarettes, taking naps, and the female tradition of doing the "wiggle dance" in the absence of toilet paper. Their set was short, sweet, and refreshing given the abundance of self-important bands that surrounded them.

Later, Christmas played a high-energy set of reverb-heavy surf-punk. Lead-singer Emily Beanblossom did well at establishing and maintaining a dancy, fun atmosphere, and watching the interplay between the guitarist and bassist was great.

However, my favorite discovery out of the ten or so bands I saw at the Spider House was a duo called Carletta Sue Kay, a duo out of San Francisco. One man on guitar, the other on a microphone-a mountain of a man, wearing tights, a wig, and a skirt. The band's music could best be described as torch songs, but with a bit of an edge. The singer had a great, expressive voice. It was the kind of voice that inspired applause breaks mid-song. They closed with a Gladys Knight and the Pips cover and brought the house down.

Here's a video of Carletta Sue Kay from last year's SXSW ...

In the evening, I caught up with the Nightgowns and saw a little bit of a set from the Growlers, whom I have previously covered in the Volcano. The Nightgowns and I waited for about an hour in line for Duran Duran before calling it quits and going to bed.

On deck for today: sets from Oberhofer, Tune-Yards and the Nightgowns.