Man Man impressed my pants off.

Priming the pump for a week’s worth of debauchery, Beauty Bar gets the buzz started for early SXSW arrivals with a crash course on some of the best bands Austin has to offer. On the outside stage, Belaire lets the sun shine in with infectious indie-tronica and huggable harmonies from last year’s Exploding, Impacting along with desert-folk troubadours Brothers And Sisters and funky art-school aces The Black And White Years. Inside, garage wunderkinds The Strange Boys headline a retro revival that includes souped-up rawk from Those Peabodys and swaggering Southern steez from Scorpion Child. Around 1 a.m., DJs from Austin, London, and Glasgow (and special guests like Yo Majesty’s Shunda K.) kick off a late-night dance party that will ensure you never make it to any of those Wednesday panels. They sounded boring anyway. Also playing: Golden Bear, AM Syndicate, {{{Sunset}}}, Murdocks, Sleeping In The Aviary, Future Clouds And Radar.
To win tickets to this show, email austinpromo@theonion.com with ‘Art Disaster’ in your subject line.

The members of The Greyboy Allstars, particularly keyboardist and Robert Walter and expansive saxophonist Karl Denson, have found as much success since the group’s “split” as they did while
still together. The solid, soulful jam band has reunited sporadically
over the past couple of years, but the reunion seems to have stuck,
first with live shows and later on last year’s What Happened To
Television?, the first Greyboy studio album since 1997. The sound
makes sense, as it saunters through new jazz-funk sounds that the Greyboys very much like to call “boogaloo.” Opening: Leon Mobley.
To win tickets to this show, email austinpromo@theonion.com with
‘Greyboy’ as your subject line.