sxsw: a photo round-up

There’s a lot to love about SXSW, and way too much to experience. This was my second time heading down, and I enjoyed the vast majority of it. Saw good shows, etc., etc. I wanted to wrap up my posting about South By with a collection of some photos that I took that, for me anyway, help crystallize the experience, including the much-ballyhooed (and inevitably a let-down) paparazzi shot, my first ever!

These two guys were standing in front of me at that Saturday Todd P show. They were not twins (a theme here, as you’ll see), but I liked the picture and it felt very “Texas,” whatever that means.

This woman was also at the Todd P show. One interesting thing about SXSW is that there are four different classes of people:

1) The hipsters/performers, very easy to identify.
2) The townies, mostly Texas students, also very easy to identify (especially on Saturday, St. Patrick’s Day, which was basically a citywide call to “beware dudes in green T-shirts,” which I most definitely did).
3) The music biz stereotypes, who would insist on wearing leather jackets during the middle of the day in some packed club (they exist!).
4) The old dudes and their wives, who have been going for years and (rightly) treat the rest of us as background noise.

The end.

Underneath this bridge, to hear folks tell it, live MILLIONS OF BATS. Only it’s more like a few hundred and it’s not like the sky turns black when they fly out or anything, but it’s still pretty cool. Also, I had to walk across this bridge at least twice a day from 17 DOTS HQ to SXSW. I grew to hate it.

The biggest obstructions at shows weren’t tall people or jerks or even crowds, but cameras, always reaching out for the perfect shot. Clearly I am to blame for this, too, but it was really striking, especially at that Stooges show. I ended up watching one song through someone’s viewfinder. Not even kidding.

These two dudes stood next to Joe and I at the El-P show. I am 99% sure they:

a) were not twins
b) did not know each other

I kept wondering how the presence of the other one made them feel. So weird!

I was way pissed that a bunch of sorority girls got to get on stage with Ghost. Very cool that that girl Sandra commented on Joe’s post, though!

Due to a scheduling error (or me not knowing how to read dates), I stayed in Austin an extra day, which allowed me to visit the legendary BBQ joint the Salt Lick with co-worker Kendel, her boyfriend and Scottish up-and-comers Frightened Rabbit. Good times!

And here they are, the 17 DOTS EXCLUSIVE photographs of Spoon’s Britt Daniel walking down an Austin street. The photographer of these pictures may or may not have followed the trio for several blocks out of curiosity to see where they were going. Additionally, the photographer may or may not have felt guilty and silly about such a thing, and decided to sulk off into another direction after snapping these photos. Allegedly. You saw them here first!