sxsw

most vacations involve one or more of the following

-a temperate to tropical climate of warm sunniness
-a relaxing relatively easy schedule, or none at all
-time to unwind, whatever that means
-copious amounts of money to be easily spent
-dorky clothing
-who knows what else, the few vacations I took as a kid were never "relaxing"

Dorky clothing aside I arrived in Austin Tx with non of these. But tradition be damned and on a budget of under $150 (all dedicated to food and booze over 4 days) I was able to see 20+ national bands perform at venues all over Austin. And walked away with many lessons and a little tinnitus.

First lesson:
To the best of my understanding theirs a sort of hierarchy of purchase at sxsw. free/or cash shows are trumped by wrist bands which are superseded by the omni-badges. Wrist bands and badges are completely overrated. To make up the $160 investment one would have to attend primarily wristband only shows, and ignore that fact that many many times throughout the week a band that played a wristband show one day will often play a nonwristband show later in the week. Also with the exception of a few cases wristbands and badges could be substituted (like many things in life) with the loop hole of cold hard cash. Which also was only presented once while I was there, and it was a paltry $5.

Second Lesson:
Lone star makes you poop. I've never dropped the Browns of at the stadium so many times in one day as I did after my first night of Lone Star a la Carte. The inexpensive $2.00 took a much greater toll on my GI then my wallet.

Third Lesson:
Bring a good pair of shoes. Three days in a row our itinerary was from 12pm to 2am of non stop shows. All of them free and all of them within walking distance of the other. However all that "oh is just a few blocks away" really adds up, particularly when combined with all the standing around like terra cotta warriors of rock n roll.

Fourth Lesson:
Our biggest problem was being turned away from after party shows because we failed to rsvp properly. Though we did rsvp for a couple of venues there were some that were advertised as just a free show/party that up arrival were discovered to be rsvp only. So do the research. show list austin was an excellent resource but it still failed to provide all needed information, and sometimes left us hanging at 2am

Fifth Lesson:
sleep? on a vacation? seriously not necessary for this event.

Sixth Lesson:
Don't feed the crust punks. Also why do they all have dogs tied to ropes, isn't that just one more mouth to feed? And whats up with the all black motif (i know its got something to do with being an anarchist) I know they've never done anything antagonistic to me but damn stop asking for my second slice of pizza. Don't come between a bear and her cub or me and my pizza.

i'm sure I'll think of more lessons/non lessons and edit this post

sxsw ruled
top 5 best shows for me were
1)acid mothers temple .club 1808
2)this moment in black history .plush
3)japandroids .some club on w6th
4)some noisy female 2 piece whos name I can't remember .the french legation
5)efterklang .music gym

who knows all the sweet stuff i missed