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Forget your brackets and your cinderella stories, SXSW is the true March Madness. 4 days and nights of non-stop music, and that is only a slight exaggeration. Bands are packed into every bar and tiny venue hoping to be noticed and break out. While the meat of the festival is the official slate that SXSW has organized, there are "Unofficial" parties and performances that nearly every band will play along the way. From around 11 in the morning until 3 or 4 am, Austin becomes a musical playground as a walk down 6th Street during SXSW is akin to a walk down Las Vegas Blvd, however, instead of the sounds of slot machines pouring into the streets, it's the sound of bands.
Los Angeles wasn't about to let Austin have all the fun. An army of local bands, press, publicity agents and promoters descend upon Austin to make sure our voice is heard amongst the noise. Har Mar Superstar, No Age, Dum Dum Girls, Airbourne Toxic Event and even Queens Of The Stone Age (Ok they aren't exactly LA but close enough to count) are only a fraction of the bands that will represent the City Of Angels in the land of breakfast tacos. FYF, KCRW and LA Record are also here as a few of the many LA tastemakers with their logos on showcases and venues around town. It was hard to even walk down the street last night without running into someone from Los Angeles.
While the music "officially" starts today, there were still a few choice shows Tuesday night to help ease into the madness of the next four days. Swedish dance-rockers The Sounds played the Syndicate/PureVolume House and local heroes No Age played to a packed and adoring crowd at Red 7. It is amazing to see a band like No Age pack a house halfway across the country. They are one of the bands that LA has nurtured from shows at the Smell and the LA RIver to now lines around the block at SXSW. Ahh how they grow.
It is hard to tell what lies ahead in the next few days, there is an unimaginable list of bands and parties to attempt to attend, these are the times when cloning would come in handy. The only guarantee at this point seems to be massive lines (a situation that warrants its own post), tons of music and tons of booze. And Breakfast Tacos.
