SFist at SXSW: Part Four -- Subterranean Homesick Blues
Sorry to plagiarise the title, but there's something about Austin that makes us think of Dylan, both the good parts and the bad. If Austin were a person, we have a feeling that it would be a folk-singing kid from Minnesotta with a talent for songwriting. It also makes us think of Kinky Friedman, but we're not sure if that isn't just because he wants to live in the Texas Governor's mansion. Now there's a celebrity politician we would vote for. Of course everything we know about Austin we learned from Richard Linklater, Molly Ivins, and the few chances we had to get away from the convention center.
So Wednesday was our day to just hang out. Only a few geeks remained, and they were lost in a sea of pretty kids wearing ripped jeans and fauxhawks. Wenesday night is the official kickoff the music portion of the event, and even we had no idea the scale of the event -- we're talking over 1,300 bands all playing in a ten mile radius over five nights. Of course, if you got a spare DVD-R lying around, might we suggest you download the 2.6 gigabyte file of recordings from bands who agreed via BitTorrent?
Of course, as you know, we went to Gene's for a fantastic oyster poboy. After that we ran some errands around town -- our host, Topaz, was busy getting the word out about his party on Friday night (a must attend -- check out Austinist for the details). We also checked out the Barton Springs pool, which was really neat. Too bad we hadn't gotten a chance to take a dip on Saturday or Sunday when it was topping 80 degrees. A stop by the offices of the Austin Daze to drop off some audio gear for the party, and HEB for a bottle of water, and then back to the compound where SFist got some work done.
After darkness fell, it was time to start arranging plans to check out the music going on downtown. People were all over the place, and frankly the logistics of such an event defy logic. Our hosts drove down and parked within walking distance of downtown. We took the bus a little while later. Mostly we wanted to get a chance to say hello to SFist Krissy, who will be busy recording her impressions as an expert (we are the first to admit that power chords, major keys and post-pop styling make us cringe). We caught up with our hosts at Arirang Sushi, a Korean sushi joint on sixth, around the corner from Emo's. Krissy made it by just as we were polishing off the soju, and we were glad to see that she was energetic and excited (we'd already been conventioneering for nearly a week, and it's harder than you think).
After that it was a blur of bars and sounds. The English Department sounded very together, even considering that the guitarist's amp exploded before the performance. We could tell that they could break the hearts of teenage girls across the country, if not ours. Then there was a country-folk-styled Coldplay soundalike at another bar, but we were more interested in hitting up the promotional cigarette table for a free pack of smokes (our seventh for the week). Then it was on to the Ritz for a more intellectual performance by a jazz trio. The rhythmic sense was very Dave Brubeck, and the tone redolent of Gil Evans, though we liked their rare breaks into straight-ahead and when they finished on a seriously jazzy rendition of Black Sabbath's Iron Man. Hott.
And on a final note, we'd like to thank all the volunteers and techs who made SXSW run so smooth and sound so good. Check the sound guy at the Ritz rocking the notch filter! We'll have one last despatch tomorrow, as we had to get to bed early and get home. We're gonna go over our notes and try to come up with both some answers and, more likely, a lot more questions that will have to be answered next year. In the meantime, gaze upon our beautiful, talented hosts Brie and Topaz, who gave us four-star accomodations on a zero-star budget. Cheers and all the best from SFist!
