Jason and I made a pact last year that no matter where we are in life, we will be in Austin, TX, every year for the great festivities of South By Southwest.
This year topped last year in every department: from the boozing to the snoozing and everything else in between. I did much of the boozing and almost none of the snoozing. At one point it was 6 a.m. and I was in my friend's guestroom, sitting on the floor with my friend Ross sitting on the bed, and we were both drinking energy drinks after getting there a few minutes prior from a party hosted by Blender magazine where he decided to cause chaos. Free beers and energy drinks were chugged and shot-gunned, basketball hoops were dunked, rolls of toilet paper were launched into a crowd of hundreds, VIP lounge areas were trespassed.
And that was only the first day.
On Friday we heard about a show at a guy Hank Sinatra's farmhouse, where Two Gallants and The Heavy would be playing. We finally found the house in the middle of the woods. Once you start walking past the house, towards the back, you find yourself with the enormous backyard, equipped with a stage and behind that, a swimming hole.
We were there from around 4 p.m. until 10 p.m., since Two Gallants played last, and they were the band I was mainly wanting to see.
The Heavy
I never expected that show...it was way beyond amazing.
The next night we all went out to watch Ross' band play, and afterwards, Ross and I went to meet up with KRS1 and Christine at the Purevolume party, which started at 2 a.m., as had the Blender party we went to. This was when more mayhem ensued...
By 5 a.m., we were all ready to go, and had noticed people that were leaving were taking boxes of drinks with them. After having stuffed my back full of Jelleez headphones, we picked up a box each and walked out. Ross and I made it to the next block, when he stopped, put his box down, and told me to wait right there. He left and came back a few minutes later with three more boxes of drinks. He told the security guard at the door that he was told to start packing up all the leftover drinks in the van. He left again, and this time came back with a dolly carrying several boxes of Red Bull, Fiji Water, Vitaminwater, and Sweet Leaf Sweet Tea. He stayed while I ran 10 blocks to get my car. As I was waiting to cross the street to my car, I made friends with a couple of boys that were playing a showcase with their band that night, and had somehow gotten lost, as they were from out-of-town. I offered them a ride, so they packed into my car, and we went to pick up ross and the "stuff". Mind you, I drive a MINI Cooper, so you can imagine 3 boys, me, and 20 cases of water, tea, and energy drinks. We finally drop off the boys where the rest of their band was, and decided we should go to Kerbey Lane to eat food, as we had been forgetting to do that one little life-saving thing...
At Ross' apartment with the booty.
Ross with his bag of Jelleez
We went back to his place and crashed from 7 a.m. until 10 a.m. I went back to Mia's place since he had band practice, and we had a very lazy Sunday where we caught up on sleep, eating, and water ingestion. I arrived home this afternoon...reluctantly...
A list of things I should not forget:
*Blacking out from 3 p.m. until 7 p.m. the first day [Thursday] after having split a bottle of whiskey with Jason during the DJ set of Kathleen Hanna from Le Tigre. Apparently, we watched Film School...something I do NOT remember. My friends told me I got mad at something [?] and decided to "go home". I do not know where I was for those 4 hours, in downtown Austin, with the streets crowded with people. I was picked up on a corner at around 7 p.m. by Candice and her boyfriend Walter. They took me to a restaurant, where Elijah Wood happened to walk by, going to the bathroom.
*Walkie-talkie incident at the Blender party.
*Shotgunning Red Bull, Sparks, and Miller High Life, The Champagne of Beers at 4 in the morning.
*Ross' carpet being soaked with A/C water when we got to his place Sunday morning after the Purevolume party.
*Free Southern Comfort at the Dell party on the first day. 1 p.m. watching Nada Surf play and acoustic set and having a breakfast/lunch of SoCo on the rocks. No wonder I blacked out later...how scary.
