I am officially on the A list

That’s right.

View all Austin 360 photos from The Sound and the Jury competion on Sept. 24 here.

Another more relevant update to the competition is the chance to catch T-Bird & The Breaks again, at the Continental Club tonight (Sept. 26). They don’t go on until 12 a.m. and I believe you pay $10 for their band as well as Ruby Dee & The Snakehandlers at 9 p.m. and Greyhounds at 10:30 p.m.

I’ve only seen T-Bird live, but Ruby Dee is an OK rockabilly duo out of Seattle and Greyhounds are an Austin-based funk and soul group, making great use of vocals and jazz organ.

‘The Steps’ to perform at ACL

“We want the steps! We want the steps!” cried a drunken and music-crazed crowd at the end of the Sound and the Jury competition at Antone’s last night. Bouncers kicked out a couple people, my friend’s glasses got knocked off during the show, narrowly surviving destruction–we were in the front, jumping right along with old guy and tall guy in blazer. It was a great pre-cursor to ACL and an awesome Wednesday. The modern day rock and 60s Brit pop sound of The Steps won them the spot at the festival on Friday, but five other bands put on great shows as well.

• The Scotland Yard Sale started everything off–the fun, talented and eclectic band centered on keyboards, vocals and of course their accessories player and stage dancer, fitted with aviators.

• The Quiet Company went up next, an intense group with 3 keyboards a set of bells and a ton of energy.They reminded me of Radiohead except that I felt happy afterward and not suicidal. (I love Radiohead, but that is just how they make you feel.)

• Good Morning Maxfield from Salt Lake City, Utah, provided a trippy but positive sound fused from classic and modern rock and folk. The best part about them for me was that their fill-in bassist is also the father of one of their guitarists and he was rocking out to the music. Though his dream of playing the festival didn’t come true, he got to play an awesome show with a great band in Austin, and I could tell he was loving it.

• T-Bird & the Breaks made the whole audience break out in a dance party. Their R&B, soul sound provided a fresh break from all the hipster-ness and the 11 piece band entertained the whole way through their set.

• 60 Tigres from Monterrey, Mexico sang mostly in Spanish and brought driving percussive sound into their rock.

And finally, The Steps ended the show with a bang and hopefully no injuries. Here’s some video I took of all the bands. Apologies for short clips of the last two bands, my memory card filled up at the end of the show. If you want to listen to more, go to their web sites or itunes.