Wow, this came way too late for it to really matter, but whatever, you try moving out of your place of 5 years, hosting an out-of-towner, finishing Season 2 of Damages AND maintaining a blog.  Anyway here's my recap of this year's SXSW:

I have highlighted the bands I saw with a green (for totally awesome), yellow (for good) and reddish/pink (for meh).  I would normally have another color for bands that were really bad, but I can't say I saw one, so that's the rating system.  Here we go!

Tuesday 3/16 (Day 1): Usually day one is reserved for Wednesday, but thanks to a tip-off from "Huggy", a HR rep for Zynga in San Fran, I was able to head out to the Fader Fort on Tuesday to catch the interactive Zynga Party which had The Constellations opening and Metric headlining.  The party was a perfect way to kick off this year's festivities, with almost all of the ammenities of the Levi's Fader Fort plus some great features like a fake cow milking game, bull riding and ping-pong tables.  I skipped the bull-riding as I had already learned my bow-legged lesson in Hollywood at the Saddle Ranch, but we did use a ping-pong table for a flash-mob flip-cup game which was a major highlight of the night.  

The main event though was of course Metric who rocked the place with a fairly similar set they did a few months earlier at LZR but with a few less tunes (this is SXSW after all).  Only issue had to be the stain of an audience member in front of me who gave me "the look" after I guess I bounced around near him too much...dude, it's Metric, take your earplugs out and rock a bit would ya?  On the opposite end of the fellow audience member spectrum was Sarah who somehow didn't mind the rocking and whom we cleverly dubbed "Day 1 SXSW friend".

We decided afterwards to head back to my place for a little after-party (non-R-Kelly style) when, off my balcony, Anthony heard some music playing in the distance as well as, what else: a pulsating fireball.  Of course we had to go find out what this was, so we had a friend drive us to the gated off front entrance to the old power plant (Seaholm) where we found the source of this oddity: an RV and a band.  The RV was actually a karaoke lounge and was called the {RV}IP.  Its main task during the week was apparently to drive around town (with random sxsw-goers), throw mini-parties and allow people to sing karaoke in their beer and liqour stocked RV.  So we listened to some bad Spice Girl karaoke and then hopped in the RV to be taken off to its next stop, which ended up being The Driskell hotel.  While we could have probably stayed longer, we decided to call it a night since it was a Tuesday after all, and we had four days to go.  

Wednesday 3/17 (Day 2): This day started out at the Galaxy Room (I like that this venue has a new non-sensical name every year) for the Paste party.  I stayed for Roman Candle and one $1 vodka before I realized that paying $1 for drinks was absurd for SXSW and headed over to the Austinist's party where I knew there would be some free stuff.  Thanks to Allen Chen who wrote an Austinist article about me being the victim of a Prius Drive-by (don't worry they caught the guy), I wound up as a VIP there which basically meant I got to go upstairs for the free stuff.  Unfortunately though, I knew no-one besides my phone and the free vodkas, who weren't the best company, but kept me occupied until some friends arrived.  While here, I caught Warpaint, Royal Bangs, Dan Black and Phantogram with a bunch of other cramped and sweaty festival goers.  Thanks again to Allen for the invite.  

After dinner (read: St. Patty's Day pint of Guinness), it was off to Stubbs, where we met three Oklahoma college students, who were later dubbed "Day 2 SXSW friends". While we waited in the very slow-moving line, we missed Walkmen thanks to the massive(ly annoying) badge line but made it in for Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings as well as Broken Bells who ended up being kind of a disappointment (never build a live show up based on an album people).  One thing I noticed in the crowd is that it seems in 2010, crack is back in a big way...even though it is still indeed whack.  While I just passed off the couple of crack-sightings as one-offs, I got a re-assurance later when leaving the incredible Miike Snow concert at the Galaxy Room backyard.  As I walked out, a guy comes up to me and gets in my no-creepy-people bubble and starts singing a portion of Miike Snow's "Animal" right in my ear.  Sorry, buddy, Day 2 friends are taken, try again tomorrow.  That's when he delivers me one of my favorite quotes of the festival "Hey maann, you need somethin to get you in the zone-zone??"  Bwaaahahahahahaha  aaahhahaha...the "zone-zone"??  Are you in a movie??  No-no...I'm all set guy, but thanks.

Thursday 3/18 (Day 3): Oh Thursday, you were the coolest.  I spent the whole afternoon at the Yard Dog party and saw pretty much their entire lineup, front to back.  Even though the free beer and vodka made the last few acts pretty fuzzy, everything about that day was exactly how SXSW should be: Beautiful day + awesome friends + free everything + intimate setting + in a random location + awesome bands - drug dealers trying to get you in the zone-zone.

Here's who I saw in no particular order: Born Ruffians, Freelance Whales, The Hood Internet, Japandroids, Maps & Atlases, The Rural Alberta Advantage, The Smith Westerns, We Were Promised Jetpacks, and Sharon Van Etten. Ya, that's right, alll green baby.  If I could make a darker green for Born Ruffians I would...their new album couldn't come any sooner.  Thanks to threadless tees for putting this whole thing on.  Here's a quick video they took of the event (I'm in the back middle):

Another highlight was my out-of-towner: BJ coming in from Michigan.  I greeted him by telling him to take a taxi from the airport since driving at that point was not an option for me.  Sorry BJ, it's SXSW, that's how we do.  After some much needed food at Polvo's and getting BJ settled back at my place, the two of us strolled over to Lustre Pearl for the Dickies Filter party.  Both of us were a little exhausted and not really into the bands that were playing when we first got there so we sat in the front and caught up a bit before eventually heading back to the stage for Temper Trap.  HOLY F!@#, this band knows how to entertain.  Between the goofy bass player dancing, a singer who brings the passion in spades and spot on sound, you think that they would be done with their awesomeness, but no, they're not.  How about they throw in an extra bass drum, throw water on it, shine a light on it, and play it like they're a part of the mutha effin blue man group.  That peek your interest any?  After they were done, BJ and I headed home while trying to unmelt our faces from what just happened.  Best show of the week...hands down.

Friday 3/19 (Day 4):  We started this day off right with a few tacos from Tacodeli before heading straight to Cedar Street for the killer line-up Filter had put together.  First up was Nneka whose vocals are like having honey poured in your ears and who was so into her songs that I'm pretty sure she was crying a few times.  I get it though Nneka, I do that sometimes at work, like when I happen to write some really amazing code.

Add to it free Magic Hat #9 and once again vodka drinks (did vodka not sell well last year and we have a huge oversupply or something?) and I'm once again overly-happy about this festival. Nneka was promptly followed by the UK group Band of Skulls who once again blew me away as they did the year before warming up for Metric.

After Delta Spirit, we got the pleasure of once again seeing Temper Trap who were unfortunately riddled with sound issues but still managed to put on a pretty good show.  Thanks to Natalie who braved the loud speakers for the shows and was able to take these amazing photos.

Afterwards, we left during BRMC who decided they wanted to put me into an afternoon siesta instead of rock (come on, M = Motorcycle, how are you this boring?) and headed to Kenichi for a party that we had VIP badges for.  In our collective heads, Kenichi was perfect because it would give us some much-needed food and an always-needed live band, and allow us to rest our dogs that were all barking.  While we did get to quell those dogs, the band, Nuke the Soup hadn't showed up yet and there was no free sushi, or even sushi that you could buy.  Seriously? I can't even pay you way too much money for your semi-decent sushi Kenichi?  Luck Media & Marketing, who put on this disaster, refused to comment on this catastrophe, though in their defense, I didn't ask them anything.

After a quick pit stop for some food at Which Which, it was time to go to church (you read that right).  In what ended up being the second huge blunder of the day, Natalie, Anthony, BJ and myself head over to the Central Presbyterian Church to hopefully catch Band of Horses, jj and The XX at this acoustically superior venue.  Turns out that this was a badge only event, and even though only about 50 badge people showed up in line while we were there, they were sticking to their guns and refusing wristband-clad sheep from their flock.  We left after about a 2 hour wait but Natalie randomly ended up running into a fellow line member who we had previously talked to while waiting.  She said that they eventually were let in for Band of Horses after having an altercation with a event runner and that there were a ton of open seats.  Not cool CPC, not cool.

So as a backup, we head to the Galaxy Room backyard once again to catch Freelance Whales, Local Natives, The Suckers and An Horse who all put on great shows and satiated the anger that was remaining for the church and sushi mishaps.

 It was then to The Dirty Dog who also turned us away from seeing Hole because once again we didn't have badges.  Ok, SXSW, that's it!! You stop me from seeing the train-wreck that is Courtney Love in one of the crustiest venues on 6th street and now you've gone and really upset me.  You need to slow your badge-giving roll or charge a lot less for your wristbands or I'm done with buying these useless things.  Feeling defeated once again, we head to some bar that has changed names a hundred times but is always randomly muggy and moldy inside to catch the end of the Memory Tapes set.  While we only caught about 1.33 songs, it was apparent that these guys were rockin and deserved a second watch...people, let me know if they're coming to town again cuz I'm in.  Afterwards, our small group split and BJ and I tried to get into Club De Ville for Ra Ra Riot, but once again were left cold and hopeless in a wristband line that wasn't moving...even for the lead singer of Born Ruffians who got in line with his two ladies on either arm behind us.  Really? Born Ruffians lead singer is a pimp?? Umm...alright.

So it was back to the old stand-by of the Galaxy Room backyard which apparently was so hidden that even us lowly wristbanders could get in to see the always ridiculous spectacle that is Les Savy Fav.  Per usual, the lead singer was insane and came out in what could only be described as a Mexican Pancho Snuggie (MPS) and got the crowd worked up with his usual awesomeness.  Even the We Were Promised Jetpacks guys next to us were digging it.  After watching the very large lead singer surprise crowd dive, climb on everything, remove his MPS and lose sound on pretty much every piece of equipment on stage, BJ and I decided that we were all set for the night and headed home for some much needed rest.

Saturday 3/20 (Day 5):  WTF happened to the weather? I think the temperature dropped about 30 degrees because it was cold as balls out there and there's me, like a jerk with no MPS to cover up with.  No need to panic though, the show must go on, so we headed out the door to the do512 "The Big One" party which promised a great line-up even though I had already seen half of the bands (a common issue on the last day).  

We started off with WhoMadeWho, a quirky but entertaining band from Denmark who got our slowly growing group into the mood on what is usually a hard day to keep rocking.  They were promptly followed by Royal Bangs who far surpassed their Mohawk performance and then right after came a magical SXSW moment: a middle school inspired dance circle.  Starting with our small group of 7 or 8, we slowly grew the circle to about 20 people who all displayed some inspiring dance moves.  Unfortunately, just as quickly as it started, the circle died with some guy getting up on stage and telling us to keep the area clean and make sure to dispose of any garbage in the receptacles...sure thing guy.  

Anyway, back to the bands, up next was Jessica 6 who provided the age old question: "is that lead singer a lady or a dude who looks like a lady".  We should have trusted the gay guys of the group who kept insisting it was a guy and who later found out that they were correct when apparently they walked up and asked him "are you a lady or a dude who looks like a lady?"  At this point, our group had swelled to about half the audience, most of whom had been taking in the free shiner and you guessed it: vodka for the last 3 hours.  After about the 20th person coming up to talk to sober me about random things during Warpaint, who unfortunately didn't sound as good as they did at Mohawk, I decided it was time to leave.

On our way back to the place, we just so happened to be passing by Cedar Street and by some other SXSW miracle, it was Frightened Rabbit finishing their set.  We caught only a few songs but happened to get the freezing-day-appropriate song: "Keep Yourself Warm" which sounded incredible.  Taking their advice, we jumped in my car, cranked the heater, and headed out to Rudy's to get some BBQ and get a little break from the downtown madness.  The food was awesome as always, and we even got to replace some of the downtown madness with March madness, as we watched number 1 seed Kansas fall in the second round.  

Completely satisfied, we made it back to my place and chilled for a bit before heading out to the Yelp Elite party taking place on the East Side.  There, at the Iron Gate, we were like kids at a toy store with free t-shirt screen printing, a photobooth by Annie Ray and free Lonestar tallboys (ok maybe not exactly like a toy store, but you get the point).  

Bands that officially rocked me were Rafter, Fictionist and Wakey! Wakey!  Unfortunately, the band I was really excited for, Fyfe Dangerfield, ended up sounding really terrible.  I'll blame 1/3 on the sound guy, another 1/3 on Todd who was in my ear half the time (maybe that makes it only 1/6), and the other third on Fyfe.  Turns out the outside band was way better, but BJ and I decided that we were running on 5hr energy fumes and needed to throw in the SXSW flannel colored towel so we headed back.

Final Thoughts (Springer Style): SXSW 2010 was another great event that comes from months of planning and research on bands that I'll be spending the rest of the year ear-digesting.  As always there were some setbacks, and it seemed this year all of them were caused by the massive amount of badge holders.  Amazing that so many corporations shell out the $500 per person needed to send their people to this event, but that's the way it is and it sucks.  What doesn't suck is how close you really get to these bands while they're here.  I got to warm my hands on a space heater and talk to the lead singer of Wakey! Wakey!, stand in a beer line and converse with a band member of Freelance Whales, rock with We Were Promised Jetpacks, and get discouraged at the long line with Born Ruffians amongst others.  I'm not just name dropping here, I'm talking about how cool it is to just walk up to band you enjoy and tell them "that sounded great, really nice set" and actually have them respond with "thanks" and mean it.  You don't really get that at any other festival that I know of and it keeps me coming back.  Also, I didn't mention how many other friends we made, and how many times I saw Sarah (Day 1 friend) but there is truly a great vibe at this event where you meet and stand next to a lot of like-minded thinkers/rockers.  If you're the type that boards up their house or head for the hills during this event, I would advise otherwise next year because you really have no idea what you're missing.  See ya next time, thanks for reading.