I went to Austin, TX last month for the famed SXSW Interactive and Music conference. I put in a lot of work, had a lot of fun, ate a lot of pizza slices, drank a river a beer and didn’t get a whole lot of sleep for eight long days.
It’s been almost six weeks since it all went down, and my procrastination in posting about it has since turned into foggy memories and apathy, so I’ll spare you the longwinded, drawn out play-by-play of the whole thing. Here, instead, are a few highlights, and the best of the video and photos I shot while I was there…
- Hung out with, interviewed (see below) and then saw High On Fire. They killed it.
- Managed to connect with David Wm. Sims in Austin (he was in town visiting family), and, in a moment of extreme bass player nerdgasm, was able to introduce David to High On Fire bassist Jeff Matz.
- Caught up with my favorite Minneapolis trio, The Blind Shake (who Ovipositor played with at Thee Parkside in SF last year). They absolutely killed it.
- Stood in line for 35 minutes to get my Fader Fort wristband, then never went back. That’s 35 minutes I’ll never recover.
- Cured a slight case of homesickness at a Bay Area rap show with Mistah FAB and The Jacka. Freeway jumped up for one song with The Jacka. We left after The Pack played “Vans.”
- Saw Fat Mike do his “Cokie The Clown” routine. I can get down with the whole “so fucked up it’s funny” schtick, but I’ve never been much of a fan of NOFX or Fat Mike, so I was kind of at a loss for an opinion. I will say that I did laugh outloud when he served the whole front row, unbeknownst to them, piss-spiked tequila shots.
- Pumped to have caught Finale at the Audible Treats showcase. Dude is the real deal.
- Rolled with Serg Dun & DJ Stef to see Burlesque Design‘s Mike 2600 DJ at an office space. He’s a good DJ, and he was giving away cool mix CDs with even cooler stickers.
- Got red carpet access to see LEMMY: THE MOVIE, and really, really enjoyed it…especially since Lemmy himself was in the audience. (Seeing Motorhead with The Sword the next evening was icing on the cake.)
- Finally got a full look at TopSpin Media‘s software, a demo from company CEO Ian Rogers. All I can say to describe it… Next level game changer, or in other words, The Future.
- Saw J. Mascis and Fucked Up back-to-back on the last night, effectively ending the show on a very high note.
And now, the fun stuff: Videos and photos…
High On Fire’s Matt Pike on his First Act Custom 9-String Lola
High On Fire’s Jeff Matz on his First Act Delgada
The Blind Shake Live at SXSW 2010