My SXSW adventure started off on a little bit of a sour note the night before I left. For those of you who know me know that I have a mortal fear of flying, and of course while watching ‘Lost’ on Wednesday night they opened with a 10 minute high impact intense plane crash scene. Not awesome. I numbed my senses with Dale’s to ease the pain, however my packing was impacted with that, and I now have no charger for my Dell (among other things) so it must be used with extreme caution and tact. Damn you MacBookPro for breaking.
The flight’s were pretty uneventful and upon landing in Austin we were greeted with 80 degree weather and a lot of anticipation, and nothing thus far has been let down. This city is just amazing, and vibe that surrounds during the blur of what this long weekend will become is a great one. We picked up our badges after checking into the Radisson and then went off to explore the glory of
We grabbed some amazing Texas BBQ at Stubbs and then walked around a bit and people watched, as we prepared for the night of music ahead. We ended up going to Rusty Spurs at 8:30pm and caught the end of local Josh Tatum’s set which was a mix of jock rock and southern hospitality. Dude could throw down on the guitar though, and his energy was high. Next up was the reason we were there, A Classic Education.
This six piece from Italy has been played on a few podcasts and I was stoked to be able to see them play live. Their sound seems passionately intelligent, and they put on a great show. They played some compelling new songs along with a cover of a French 60’s song and also a song inspired by a Croatian island. Good stuff, and expect to hear more from these guys, they’re too good to be ignored.
Next up was Sgt. Dunbar & the Hobo Band with their twisted blend of circus box car folk rock. This Albany group is just plain fun, and they seem more like family then band mates. All along while listening to them on my iPod I thought they employed the use of a theroman in their songs, but all along it was a saw….wow. They switched instruments from banjo, saw, horn, guitar, etc at an incestual pace and ended with a sweet sit down sing along.
After some shenanigans with local Texans on
From there we went over to Emo’s to see Boston’s very own Passion Pit which for us was the most hyped show of the night. We had to wait in line even with our badges and once in were not disappointed. The lead singer’s possessive voice was captivating and the Roland’s they used with disco beat drums swooned the crowd over and had the whole place jumping, screaming, and dancing. Looking back at my notes I wrote, “12:13am – had to wait in line but there’s a great vibe in here, these guys are hotter then a pistol right now, go boston.”
Don’t know if I keep up the updates like this, but I have 3+ days left of nights like this left, but if following me on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/digital_derek) you can get my real time updates. What I will say is this, if you have heard anything negative about SXSW don’t believe the hype, it’s amazing, and trust me, you wish you were here if you’re not. Endless music, amazing food, and good people, count me in. More later. Huzzah.
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