Kiss SXSW Good-Bye

Now that I have recovered from nine days and nights at SXSW, I can tell you that it's all downhill from here for the world's greatest music festival. No way could anything top that. 1750 bands and hardly any of them sucked. How does that happen?

Plenty of free food, beer, no lines if you had a badge. Stalwarts like The Stooges, Pete Townshend, Robyn Hitchcock, Public Enemy, Peter Case, Rickie Lee Jones, and Slash were there. And youngins like Lily Allen, Sondre Lerche, and Oreskaband were there too. Mere drops in the bucket in the perfect town for something like this, at the perfect time in the festival's growth, at an excellent time in music thanks to Myspace, blogs, and YouTube. Not to mention the best time in technology. When Amy Winehouse pushed her show back an hour, it was on Twitter immediately and those in the know were able to see the Naked Trucker's Iron Maiden cover band during that hour... or Bloc Party.

The venues were good about not letting too many people into the clubs, so there was plenty of room to stretch out and rarely were the beer lines an issue even in huge places like Stubbs.

Therefore something has to ruin this thing soon because it can't stay this perfect forever. Because it is perfect, you see.

After the jump check out just a few more pics from the festivities by Sonny I. LaVista.