Photo by: Jan Janner
When I first briefly glanced at the lineup for Austin’s South by Southwest Music Festival my immediate thought was, “Shit, I only know about five bands from this list. Does this make me a poser? Pitchfork is totally going to reject me from their party now.” But upon closer inspection, I realized that there were loads and loads of artists and bands that I feature on Music:Backstage who were coming to Austin, that little live music oasis in the middle of the big red sea of conservative Texas. And for a week, all the weirdos of the world flooded sixth street to experience the mayhem. At the end of my stay at the “live music capital of the world,” I was looking a bit like a cracked out Amy Winehouse- sleep deprived, malnourished, and bloated with beer. But as my taxi neared the airport to go back to reality, I couldn’t help but grin with BBQ-stained teeth as I thought, “Damn, that was a hell of a ride.”
Long haired tattooed guys with skinny jeans, media moguls drunk not on power but beer, and local hooligans vomiting in the bathroom are just a snippet of my experiences at SXSW - Austin’s annual convergence of tech/start-ups, underground film, and indie music. As a first-timer to the 26-year-old festival, I was a “newbie,” a “novice,” and a “freshman” who never experienced anything quite so wild in the United States. It was like a hipster Mardi Gras, where massive crowds paraded in the streets at all hours of the day and night, party buses rolled by wolf-masked violin players, and impromptu mosh pits in the street prevented you from seeing your favorite bands - it was glorious.
