By: Lee Burbage
Day 1
7:14 We got on the road much later than we had hoped. We were supposed to leave around noon, but instead we left at 4:30. It didn’t really matter. Either way we were going to be getting into Texas pretty early. We were on our way to the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival. The festival holds many different events, from film screenings to panel discussions, but the main event is the music. There were tons of shows every day for about two weeks.
We stopped in Biloxi, Miss. for about two hours. We tried to get into a few casinos so that we could eat at one of the buffets, but they wouldn’t let us because two of us were not 21. We told the guy at the door all we wanted was food. He still said no. The four of us got some fast food and kept on driving through the night. It was around 2 a.m. when we left.
Day 2
11:43 We arrived in San Antonio, Texas. Not a bad trip. However, the idea of getting back in that car anytime in the near future made me feel a little sick. We stayed with our friend and fellow SCAD student Rhys Finch. I would like to say thank you so much to the Finch family for letting us stay in their living room and for feeding us. I hope that a copy of this story somehow makes its way to Texas.
7:30 I managed to climb back into the Toyota Camry. The first show that we attended was MGMT. Bad planning by the SXSW committee; the venue was nearly impossible to find. This show was supposed to be at the Urban Outfitters in downtown Austin. Turns out it was behind the store. You could go through the store to get to the show. However, you couldn’t even hear the music or the crowd from inside the store. They also did not advertise that there was even a show going on. After walking about a block away from the store, my friend Rhys received a text message informing us of the location of the show and how to get to the stage. We caught the tail end of their performance. MGMT’s show was OK, even though they don’t know how to play all of their own songs.
After the MGMT show had ended we decided to walk around to see some shops in the area. While at the register of a vintage clothing store called Cream, the cashier told us there was a band playing out back. “He’s just up on the stage singing and dancing,” the cashier told us. Walking through the back we looked to our left and saw exactly what our cashier had described. There in the middle of the stage we saw a man in rather short shorts and a T-shirt dancing his heart out to popish electronic music. After listening for a few minutes my friend informed me that he was doing covers of songs from the band Hey Willpower. When the song ended, the front man walked back up to the mic and said “Hey, we’re Hey Willpower out of San Francisco.” Turns out it was the real band. Who knew? Of all the shows we attended that was by far the most entertaining.
Day 3
We got started a little late, but made it in time to see one of the main reasons I went on the trip. I really wanted to see Black Mountain. We reached Waterloo Park at 7 p.m., about 15 minutes after Black Mountain took the stage. The band’s performance was top notch, except for one female vocalist who acted a little bored. I started to notice a trend with most crowds around the festival. Everybody seemed like they were enjoying the shows. When the song was over, everybody went nuts. However, while the song was going on most of the crowd was relaxed. They all had a semi-glazed look. Most of the time people were jumping around. Maybe it’s because of the massive amount of musical acts that Austin brings in.
After Black Mountain’s set was over, I headed over to the smaller stage on the left to see Matt and Kim. They lived up to all the stories I had heard about their performances. This was one of the few shows where the crowd actually had high energy. Since all three stages were so close to each other in the park, it sometimes was hard to hear the band that you wanted to see. None of this was the band’s fault. I just think it was poor planning by the SXSW committee.
After finishing up at that venue by seeing NOFX, I walked over to Sixth Street which is where many people told me I would have a wild time. The entire street was blocked off so that people could just walk around. There were bands in clubs, bands in bars, and bands on the street. There were punk bands, metal bands and blues bands. There was one strictly percussion group walking through the street attracting quite a crowd. By the time I made my way over to them, many others had decided to get in on the act. Drunk men and women were getting in the middle of the group to dance. I do hope that these people were at least drunk enough that they won’t remember the moves they tried to make. At one point, a drunken women had worked her way into the crowd chanting “Don’t eat meat, don’t eat meat.” Even a few small high school kids came out onto the street with their acoustics and started to play. I really enjoyed seeing so many different bands. It was just so crazy that I honestly didn’t know where to go or what to try to enjoy.
Day 3? Maybe 4
We found a cheap motel to stay in for the night. We looked through the list for Sunday and did not see anything that we really cared to listen to. So I supposed this would be the end of my SXSW adventure. The disorganization of the whole event was a little upsetting. I have to wonder how much forethought went into actually picking some of the venues. Still, I had a great time.
Photo credits: Lee Burbage
