Bright sun, warm breezes, hot dogs, beers, pretty coeds from the campus nearby, and plenty of young married couples in faded black rock T’s pushing their toddlers in ORV/ATV strollers. The scene at Saturday afternoon’s Mess With Texas festival, held amidst the rolling hills of Waterloo Park, was quite different from the hustle back on Sixth Street. But it was nice to relax a little after three days of crazy, and besides, at what other daytime music event could babies basking in the sun coexist with the blistered punk rants of Toronto, Ontario psychos Fucked Up, the heaps of cynicism and sarcasm coming from the NYC-centric comedy stage (Aziz Ansari from “Human Giant,” Janeane Garofalo, Eugene Mirman; various “Best Week Ever” heads, etc.), the scraggly indie soul music of San Diego’s Grand Ole Party (watch for them), and Two Gallants‘ loud and preachy folk-punk?

The interplay didn’t end there. Mess With Texas also featured Jay Reatard, the scattershot Memphis punk-garage shouter who’d wowed parts of the Detour crew over the course of the week, but proved with a scrappy and rudely brief set that music like his is better after the sun has gone down. During Reatard’s set, a throng of crust punk-type kids — sleeveless denim, grease-streaked shirts, bullet belts, homemade punk and hardcore patches — started a roiling pit right in front of the stage, really driving home the dichotomy between themselves, the music, and the nice young couple with twins standing a few feet over. Luckily they were far enough back from the stage that they didn’t have to worry about catching the trash brat in pink hot pants who stage dived repeatedly during Reatard’s set. Texas certainly would’ve been messed with then. — Johnny Loftus

Pics: Erika Rich

Tags: SXSW, Jay Reatard, Fucked Up, Mess With Texas, Grand Ole Party, Two Gallants