A bar in Austin

Mikey B Trippin: SXSW Day 1

Dive bar blues and one major musical discovery on day one of Austin’s mega-music-festival SXSW.

Mikey This is my eighth consecutive time hittin’ up South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas. For those who don’t know, SXSW is one of the world’s most renowned industry shindigz of all time! It’s the perfect threesome conference for Film, Interactive and Music.

I’m attending the music component even though I had the Platinum pass for all three, meaning I basically missed out on special appearances by Seth Meyers, Jimmy Kimmel, Fred Armisen and, believe it or not, a live broadcast with Edward Snowden via some super hi-fi cyber shit.

A bar in Austin
A bar in Austin

Upon my arrival at the airport, there were live bands literally performing on stages outside our arrival gate. SXSW is some serious business for the state of Texas. Every single Billy & Bob in town know all about it.  Even though its original purpose is serving the industry, its become a huge, wild party. It’s also looking more & more like the Coachella/Osheaga crowd taking over the city streets. It’s where everyone wants to be, and there’s a bunch of more options than at your average festival.

I was once again unprepared for all the bare skin and daisy dukes passing by left and right.  Coming from our so-called spring in Montreal, this was very hard on me, if you know what I mean.

highasakite
highasakite

I spent Tuesday hanging out in local dives watching local bands playing Pearl Jam covers and some dude covering Metallica songs on cello. My highlight of the day was highasakite from Norway. They were recently namechecked in Time magazine’s “Bands to watch @ SXSW.” Picture Austra & Thus:Owls hooking up and having babies. The goddesses in this band came dressed to impress.

That last band made me so hungry that I ended my night at the Texas Chili Parlor instead of 50 Cent & Dam Funk. I slammed a chili cheeseburger and haven’t walked properly ever since. I need some Pepto Bismol. I’ll be back. ■

See all of Mikey’s previous festival reports here.

Who is M for Mikey?

Leave a Reply