At any given time at SXSW, you can find free stuff all over the place – free beer, free booze, free tacos, free BBQ, I even stumbled upon a free oyster bar at one party! But the oddest iteration of free SXSW swag was the free tattoos that you could get at the Sailor Jerry House. Yes, from what I could see, one could choose from a selection of tattoos on a wheel. Just spin the wheel and whatever it landed on, that was your tattoo. I must confess I considered it for a millisecond or so; after all, what would be a more badass souvenir of Austin than a tattoo? Then I realized I’m not much of a tattoo guy and just took in the music at the event, which included the plenty badass (and awesomely named) Guantanamo Baywatch.
The Portland band offers up some straight ahead, dirty, fuzzed out garage rock and I had been waiting to see them live ever since seeing their name on the bill for last year’s SXSW because, really, with a name like that, you know it’s gotta be pretty good. The highlight of their set for me was their cover of Paul Anka’s “Diana,” to which they added a bit of grit. All in all, a fun set.