Yes, yes, all you music and madness lovers: SXSW has just taken place. Let's see, what can I say about the streams of mullets, tight jeans, aviator glasses, retro-vests (VERY in this year), and endless debauchery that crowded the streets of downtown Austin for the last four days??? How can I pay homage to the mother of all music festivals (at least, that I've witnessed) in such a humble blog? Especially since I could probably claim familiarity with only about 10 percent of the bands featured and I mean, look at my pictures--I'm not that cool.
What I DO have to offer, though, is the highlights of "SXSW on a budget." As a poor grad student, I was determined to do as much as possible with as little green stuff as possible, and I will have to say I did pretty well, though it did require endless patience with long lines and flexibility with plans. Every morning I got up and headed downtown around noon, not to return to my apartment till 2 or 3 AM most nights (if you were noticing that this post has a little extra "something"--yeah, that's sleep deprivation). The best part of all??? While many people paid nearly 200 dollars on passes or door fees, I saw the following fabulous acts:
1. The Walkmen
2. Peter, Bjorn and John
3. Architecture in Helsinki
3. Ghostface Killah (yes, the real one, not some skinny indies trying to be ironic)
4. Rakim (my pastor's hero--I got him into this show and he brought his 4-yr-old)
5. Peter and the Wolf
6. The Zincs
7. Cursive
8. David Garza
9. Faultline for Now (Austin friends)
10. Radiant
... and paid 0 dollars for all of it. With a little research, persistance, and doggedness in the face of unbelievable odds, you really can enjoy SXSW on a "shoestring", as they say. Oh, yeah, and the head cold from exhaustion was free too.
In conclusion, dear readers, let me say that, while I may not know about all the bands and their manager's shoe size or what-have-you like so many of the cool kids crowding Austin's streets this week, I really enjoyed myself. And, as Frank would croon, "I did it mmmyyyyy waaaayyyy....."
ps. and I saw Jessica and Ashley Simpson's dad at a show.
2 comments:
You are awesome. What a great post. I (Abram) so wish we could have been there. I know Sarah would have loved it, too.
NICO!!! What a great post. You can really hit the mark sometimes with your writing! I fell into a blogspot trying to make this post, though. You can see it at:
lookingforthetreasure
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