This year's SXSW was different in a few ways. First, I was only officially attending the Music portion this year for the first time in 4 years. Secondly, the wife was joining me for the first time. As the festival/conference/whatever seems to grow every year, the wide eyed enjoyment has yet to wain. The stupid amount of amazing bands to see, the drinking, the eating, and hanging out in a city I adore, in venues and bars I adore is still as fun as it's always been. The crew has grown quite a bit, which makes plans difficult to execute, but that's probably part of the fun.
I finally got my photos uploaded to Flickr.
I thought I'd mention the bands I saw that I really enjoyed (there a quite a few) and I urge you to check some of them out if your taste falls anywhere near mine. I won't bore you with reviews or any of that nonsense. Just follow the links and enjoy some amazing music. Some are completely new to me, some I like but had never seen, and some are old favourites.
- Bad Veins
- Delicate Steve
- Grass Widow
- Thee Oh Sees
- Withered Hand
- Stepdad
- Weekend
- Esben & The Witch
- Cloud Nothings
- Royal Bangs
- PS I Love You
- Josh T Pearson
- Low
- Parts & Labor
- Okkervil River
- The Joy Formidable
- The Antlers
- Nite Jewel
- Retribution Gospel Choir
- The Strange Boys
- The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
- Burnt Ones
- Headless Horseman
- Asobi Seksu
- Puro Instinct
- Other Lives
- Ringo Deathstarr (My favourite show of the week, despite technical difficulties)
- Toro Y Moi
- Kurt Vile
- Teen Daze
- Big K.R.I.T.
- Odd Future