The past three days have been a complete blur of street food (not to hate, but the Korean BBQ taco truck we hit up last night had NOTHING on LA's Kogi), drink specials (Free Guinness!?), and bands (the good, the bad, and the DEAR GOD PLEASE TAKE THE MIC AWAY FROM HER MY EARS ARE BLEEDING).
Friday daytime was marked by a lot of walking back and forth between venues, but only catching the lineup at the Rhapsody.com tent, which wasn't too shabby. Standouts included Ty Segall, Glasser, and Deerhunter.
After grabbing the first sit-down meal of the trip (vegan bibimbap at Koriente on 7th), we ran up the hill to our favorite SXSW venue - the lawn at the French Legation Museum. This year's event, thrown by Other Music and Dig for Fire, was still family friendly and chilled out, but the sheer number of people was overwhelming. Forget seeing the artist - it was all about lounging on the grass and listening to the music as the tent area was packed. Taking pictures of trees and buildings while a roving helicopter whirred overhead, we caught the tail end of James Blake and the beginning of the Tune-Yards. We wished we could have called it a day there and then, but we had to gear up for the night shows, so we headed back into reality.
You'd be wrong if you thought the night crowds couldn't exceed St. Patrick's Day numbers. We totally were. Misjudging the people and the lines, we started late and ended up sadly missing Ariel Pink and Black Angels. On our way to catch Das Racist (who've eluded us for the entire festival), we caught a bit of DEV and The Cataracs (the woman who sings the "Like a G6" hook on the Far East Movement's song of the same name).
We were pulled into her family's bottle service booth by accident and treated like one of the gang. We wished we could have stayed, "poppin bottles in the ice" (sorry, couldn't resist) to see if Das Racist showed up (or maybe they played first?), but we had to jet to the Vibe Magazine party for a chance to see EPMD. We ended up getting on stage for Slaughterhouse andDJ Quik, but got kicked off for EPMD (can't win 'em all, we guess). EPMD was amazing as expected and props to the Vibe crew for really knowing how to throw a party. Highlight of the festival thus far.
PREVIOUSLY:
LAist @ SXSW: The Real March Madness Begins In Austin
LAist @ SXSW: Day 2 - Queens of the Stone Age, Duran Duran, Black Angels
LAist @ SXSW: Day 2 - Bad Brains, Duran Duran, OFF!, Trash Talk
LAist @ SXSW : Day 3 - TV On the Radio, The Bangles, The Kills, Portugal.The Man
LAist @ SXSW: Day 3 - Dominique Young Unique, Spank Rock, La Sera, Dum Dum Girls, Boys Noize, Gary Wilson
LAist @ SXSW: Day 4 - Chromeo (ohhhhh-oh!)
