King Pelican once again show us how it's done.

The GO-GO'Rillas make their SXSE debut.

Sheverb make their only SXSE appearance so far.

Two years later, Indian Roller was still very keen on doing SXSE, and by this time there was a vaccine and people had figured out that masking was working. So I put together 10 bands for it. I found an old pulp Sci-fi cover to be the central artwork that I thought was perfect. Here we are just emerging from our holes where we'd been living in isolation for two years, and the big pink blob creature looking kind of like a Corona virus was coming forward to try to zap us. It was perfect! Again it was very well attended, even bigger than the last one, being one of the first big events post-pandemic and with the GO-GO'Rillas and Sheverb at the top of the bill.

But despite this and several other events I threw and also booked there, Indian Roller went belly up within a year. I had even tried to have them charge cover for some of them, but they would not hear of it. I could not fault them, even though it closed them down.



AKAW! make their only SXSE appearance. Unfortunatey they are no longer a thing.


Abra brings her go-go magic again.

3 Balls Of Fire make their SXSE debut. The other go-go girl is April.


Ross Ott of The Del-Vipers shreds it!


Brooke with Betty Benedeadly of Sheverb.

Rahmus reveal they'd been toolshedding some brand new material that melted some faces, and a bitchin'n new T-shirt!

The Boss Jaguars make a new fan.

Toward the end of 2022, Cedar and I went around to check out some of the newer brew pubs on the East side. I had produced some events at places like Spiderhouse, billed as an invasion into parts West, and though they had turned out great, I was longing to get us back on mission to be in East Austin. So we discovered Hi Sign Brewing, and after a brief discussion with their manager, in the spring this was to be the new home of SXSE. I booked 10 bands and we made it happen. At the last minute though (2 days before), our headliner Sheverb told us that one of their number had come down with Covid and so they had to cancel. I then reached out to those I knew, and Daikaiju told us that though they were on tour and could not swing it, they recommended a band out of Denton called Crystal Shit. I listened to their music on Bandcamp and I thought they'd be perfect. Still, I made it clear that they'd need to be capable of bringing the house down since they'd be going on last. They did not disappoint! Though a lot of folks had filed out by then because they had not heard of this band, those that stayed forged a tight circle of moshers around the "stage area" and had their socks rocked off! Once again we were meeting our goal of creating a win-win for everyone involved.

Mike Vernon (3 Balls of Fire) and members of The Boss Jaguars and King Pelican.

During Prof Fuzz 63's set, a "granny flash mob" erupted. We hope they return, especilly because they left something behind, and I don't think they threw it on stage on purpose because Tom Jones wasn't here.

Some very fashionable Surf Rock fans.


This kid shoulda been a breakdancer in the Olympics!

Rahmus playing variatons in the key of Misirlou,and killing with it!

The GO-GO'Rillas planned to keep all those kegs of beer to themselves. I'm not sure what happened to it.


A packed house inside and out.

In the spring of 2024, Hi Sign were ready to do it with us again, and this time they had created a 2nd stage area inside the brewery so we were able to accommodate 13 bands! I scheduled it such that there was no break in between acts so the music would be able to flow from one stage to the other. And though we had originally planned to put the stages at opposite ends of their complex so people would walk between them and see all the vendors on either side of the thoroughfare, just days before the event, the venue told us this could not be the case. Still, they were blocking off their entire parking area for the event, and as it turned out we had enough people show up that no corner of the space was neglected.

By now the word had finally started to get out nationally, so I started to be contacted by a number of bands from out of state and was able to book them. I had decided that as we grew, I didn't want to leave anyone behind that had been with us before and who still wanted to be a part of the fest, so we would just continue to grow with the additions of those who could make the trek to Austin in the spring. But this meant that, since we were at capacity at Hi Sign at this point (and some other issues I won't go into, but suffice that we wanted a real stage area and that parking was now scarce), this meant I would have to find a new venue again.

Let me also add that my Googling up until just before this event had not revealed that there was anywhere else in the world where this many surf rock bands were being assembled annually to play, so I had been billing the event as the "largest annual gathering of Surf Rock bands (in the world, or sometimes on this side of the planet)", and no one had corrected me. But by the time this SXSE rolled around, I found out about The Surf Guitar 101 Festival, happening in Long Beach every year, and some of our bands were even getting out there to play it. They kindly gave us a shout out just prior as well, So I began to correct our claim to "The largest annual single-day gathering of Surf Rock bands", which we were, because theirs had been taking place over 3 days, and Surfer Joe in Italy is a whole week!

Chris Harrison of The Boss Jaguars again, looking smartly striped.

Darren Kuper now plays drums with King Pelican and rhythm guitar in The Boss Jaguars!

"Dude" from Los SuperAvengers sports one of their new T-shirts.

Crystal Shit tear it down again! Now they have become Crystalline and will be with us again in 2025!

Me and Cedar enjoy some spectator time. Though we have not been a couple for many years now, we remain best friends. She is wearing a Bat City Surfers t-shirt.

So I was looking for a new venue again and through a friend, Drinks Backyard was recommended and the owners were introduced as good people. I had been to Drinks Lounge, which they also owned, and had enjoyed some events there as a spectator and helper for Cedar's business, which is now the Natural Magic Co-op. This was their new club; larger, and still on the East side. After a quick discussion and tour of the place, it was decided that this would be ideal, with a real stage, and enough room and parking to make it work. We decided quickly that we should not try to cram it all into one day, because there was no way to have a dual-stage setup here -we'd need time between sets to set up each band and that would make the day too long. Expanding to two days meant that we could now accommodate 20 bands with enough room to setup, and it would fit how we've been growing, with more bands from distant locations than ever!

It went off amazingly! Visuals were side-by-side with all the incredible bands, many of which were new to this event (provided by Gellert Domany of the Fin-tastics, of Wichita Falls Tx). We made history as truly the largest gathering of Surf Rock bands ever assembled in Texas!

Chris Harrison of The Boss Jaguars and Mike Swarbrick of Cortége take a surfing pose in front of the Flameless Shirt booth.

Mudslinger Pottery.

Tinta Zombie from Juarez, Mexico make their SXSE debut.

The Baffles.

More photos from the 2025 SXSE here!

Drinks Backyard is where we will be again this year. Now we will be spread out over 3 days to allow for maximum enjoyment! Once again, we have invited bands from all over (including other countries), so that we have major Surf Rock talent each day to make this the best SXSE ever! Join us with friends old and new as we ride the waves of music in Central Texas! This will once again be the largest annual gathering of Surf Rock bands ever assembled in Texas, so we hope to see you there!

Event info here and here.