I just flew back from SXSW, and boy are my arms tired!
What was that title???! Ha, my goodness. SXSW was a trip…I’d never been to Texas before, so it was a double whammy of new culture. Although, I’m sure Austin doesn’t usually have 87% of all the Wayfarers created, ever, on 6th street every night like it does during SXSW. I wear Wayfarers by the way…ha. I was actually there promoting INDISTR.com to a scene that was certainly in need of hearing about it, went pretty well. The music ‘industry’ is so wild right now…who’s idea is going to win? But yeah, SXSW was almost overwhelming…so many groups playing in such a sort span of time. I heard there are like 1,500 official shows and like 3000 other non-official shows?! Sheesh. My favorite sets: Diplo tore it down, done and done. MGMT was too good, my new favorites right now - thanks to Rob F. All the reggae groups at The Flamingo, too many names. N.E.R.D. did it up nicely too, quite few people in the band. The Virgins, so classic. Matt & Kim, never seen artists have that much fun before. But besides all the bands, swag, really good looking hipster girls, and free drinks…I had more fun than ever sneaking into these spots. Ha, seriously. I’ve never done so much funny stuff to get stuff for free, sneak into VIP, skip lines, get into the press area, etc in my life. Ha, seriously. I was running thru kitchens Stubbs to get to teh VIP section for a better view of N.E.R.D.‘s set, posing as a member of the clean-up team at the Nylon Party to steal beers for the whole crew (they were free, but the line was an hour!!), skipping a massive line by walking in with Michael Stipe - even though he has no idea who I am, ha, etc…too much. Ha, it was like a sport down there. I got busted a handful of times, which is even funnier. My advice to anyone hitting SXSW: don’t wait in line, just get creative…you’ll have a lot more stories. My other bit of advice, splurge for the hotel downtown…we didn’t and it was a mistake. I felt like I was going to be in a scene from ‘No Country For Old Men’ in our hotel. So yeah, it was a great time…super crazy. ***Best scheduling site ever for the event: sched.org.