bittersweet good-southby, pt. i

there is no way to know where to even begin to start thinking about what just happened.

i will attempt to recap a south by southwest experience in a more painless fashion than what my body experienced and still feels a solid 3 days removed from the final act.

sxsw in its fullness is a gargantuan task not to be taken on by the faint of heart. just when you think you've got time to rest and recover, you realize it's thursday morning, and it's time to get up and go stand in line again. in a way, it's like disney world for hipsters.

after bearing witness to 28 live shows, walking at least a marathon, standing for no less than 10 hours a day, housing musicians from nashville, industry friends from new york, and drinking my weight in free southern comfort, white russians, and pabst blue ribbon, all in the span of 4 days, i feel like it is safe to say i am now a sxsw veteran and part of some sort of elitist hip club where i get to talk in vague generalities about musical genius and the transcendent nature of independent craftsmanship.

but all that aside, i did see/hear some really outstanding acts and there were very few moments in the 4 days of euphoria/masochism where i was left feeling any version of disappointment.

i kicked off the week on monday morning standing in line at waterloo records for a limited give-away of tickets for a private decemberists w/ gomez show. i arrived around 8:40 am. after i reached the door to the store at 10:25, i was left 5 patrons short of a ticket. while i guess i should've felt really upset, instead i ended up making great friends with a guy from wisconsin and his girlfriend while standing in line. they were down for their first sxsw and i was able to give them a few pointers and then send them my email list of rsvp events to guide them on some cool places to go. also, i randomly ended up standing in line with a guy whom i worked with at club deville last year during the event who had been growing a recession beard, which was wildly out of control and horribly unattractive. but since when i originally met him he had pink hair hanging down in his face, i'm guessing attractive wasn't what he was going for.

wednesday: i brushed off the bad luck with the decemberists ticket and got out early to see a swedish band i first saw open for andrew bird at the paramount theater called 'loney dear'. their traditional scandinavian sound blends well a mix of jens lekman and sigur ros with a folksy undertone. i would catch them again at the flamingo cantina on thursday where they played an energized afternoon set.

wednesday afternoon brought a stage-front view (which would become a common theme for the week) of elvis perkins in dearland, one of my absolute favorites, at the mohawk party (click the link to see the black cab sessions blog with photo from show). afterward was akron family, a nice little hodge-podge of sound. that's enough for wednesday.

thursday: all i can say is, there was a choice to be made thursday morning between the paste magazine party at the radio room and the npr party at the parish; we chose the latter, and we chose wisely.

kick it off with a bag of swag and a few free pbr's then:

thao nguyen and the get down stay down -- gem of the week. my favorite new act.
blind pilot -- came highly recommended and did not disappoint.
blk jks -- system of a down meets tv on the radio and the roots.
k'naan -- where did this guy come from? answer: heaven. tears in our eyes.
the dirty projectors -- music from the future. no basis for comparison.
blitzen trapper -- sub pop band makes us feel good again and again.

emerging from the parish in the middle of the day after spending 5 hours in a dark theater listening to a brilliantly cast eclectic mix of superb musicianship was slightly less than desirable, but it led to more adventures like kebabilicious, a $5 cab ride and the cold war kids at auditorium shores. we then braved the walk back downtown to fado where we showed just in time to see paul banks and the carousels play the set of their life followed up by a nice little solo set by chicago artist joe pug. it had been a full day at that point, and time to get home, rehydrate, and get some sleep.