Ok folks here it is. This is my personal recap on SXSW 2009. This is only my second visit to SXSW and I must say it was more than 
overwhelming. With one month prior to SXSW I began my epic search for official band listings and parties. This is just my own personal view but buying a badge or a wrist band is kinda pointless. The best thing about SXSW is the free parties, the great music and the interesting people. The bad part is that everything is going on at the same time. Here is my personal word to the wise. Don't waste time watching a band that is from your hometown. Why watch them at SXSW when you can see them play the local venues every weekend. I went through all of the bands on the SXSW website and downloaded all of the free mp3's. Trust me there is alot of music there! So anyways, I spent all of this time checking out bands on the Internet, RSVPing for parties and talking to people about events on Twitter. Finally the day has come. Its Thursday morning and I'm packing up the truck and leaving Houston. We arrive in Austin and its a beautiful steaming hot Texas day. We are RSVP'ed for about 10-15 different parties each day but the only bad thing is they are all going on at the same time and they are not all close to each other. We reminds me to tell ya to bring some comfortable shoes! Every party has a huge line so ya gotta be patient. Also ya gotta understand that some people sweat more than others so expect some bad B.O. You can only do and see so much. All of the planning I had done prior had pretty much all gone out of the window. Going to SXSW is kinda like jumping into cold water. Its a big shock there is so many exciting sights and sounds. There is a band playing on almost any stage they can find. Drinks can get expensive so we tried to spend most of our time at the parties with the free booze. This ended up being our downfall. I will honestly say I was a little disappointed in myself for only catching about 5 bands the whole week. I cant believe with thousands of bands playing and I only really caught a few. I got to watch Peter, Bjorn and John, Kanye West, Jada Kiss, Natalie Portmans Shaved Head and Crystal Antlers. There were a few others but I didn't really give them a listen because I was to busy at at bar loading up on the free drinks. I gotta say the free food was nice too! So pretty much SXSW is more about planning then actually doing. I had a great time but wish I saw much more. Some of the best parties we went to were the Fort Fader, Pure Volume, Village Voice and The Texas Nite Club Party. Yes all these parties had free booze! I love Austin. It is the most beautiful city in Texas but after SXSW I was somewhat happy to be leaving. I had a blast even though I didn't see everything I wanted
to. I didn't do much networking this time and I didn't pass out a single business card but I had fun and I got out of Houston for a few days and I cant wait to do it again next year. This year seemed to be the year of skin tight jeans, white sunglasses, guys in short shorts, suspenders, colorful shoes and retro hair. I'm kinda anxious to see what next year hold. I wish I could share some fun and exciting news about this visit but it was more like normal visit to Austin for me. A drunken party that lasted for 4 days. In the end all I have to show for it is a bad full of CD's, condoms, stickers, magazines and posters. But it was awesome! See ya again in 2010 SXSW!!!
overwhelming. With one month prior to SXSW I began my epic search for official band listings and parties. This is just my own personal view but buying a badge or a wrist band is kinda pointless. The best thing about SXSW is the free parties, the great music and the interesting people. The bad part is that everything is going on at the same time. Here is my personal word to the wise. Don't waste time watching a band that is from your hometown. Why watch them at SXSW when you can see them play the local venues every weekend. I went through all of the bands on the SXSW website and downloaded all of the free mp3's. Trust me there is alot of music there! So anyways, I spent all of this time checking out bands on the Internet, RSVPing for parties and talking to people about events on Twitter. Finally the day has come. Its Thursday morning and I'm packing up the truck and leaving Houston. We arrive in Austin and its a beautiful steaming hot Texas day. We are RSVP'ed for about 10-15 different parties each day but the only bad thing is they are all going on at the same time and they are not all close to each other. We reminds me to tell ya to bring some comfortable shoes! Every party has a huge line so ya gotta be patient. Also ya gotta understand that some people sweat more than others so expect some bad B.O. You can only do and see so much. All of the planning I had done prior had pretty much all gone out of the window. Going to SXSW is kinda like jumping into cold water. Its a big shock there is so many exciting sights and sounds. There is a band playing on almost any stage they can find. Drinks can get expensive so we tried to spend most of our time at the parties with the free booze. This ended up being our downfall. I will honestly say I was a little disappointed in myself for only catching about 5 bands the whole week. I cant believe with thousands of bands playing and I only really caught a few. I got to watch Peter, Bjorn and John, Kanye West, Jada Kiss, Natalie Portmans Shaved Head and Crystal Antlers. There were a few others but I didn't really give them a listen because I was to busy at at bar loading up on the free drinks. I gotta say the free food was nice too! So pretty much SXSW is more about planning then actually doing. I had a great time but wish I saw much more. Some of the best parties we went to were the Fort Fader, Pure Volume, Village Voice and The Texas Nite Club Party. Yes all these parties had free booze! I love Austin. It is the most beautiful city in Texas but after SXSW I was somewhat happy to be leaving. I had a blast even though I didn't see everything I wanted
to. I didn't do much networking this time and I didn't pass out a single business card but I had fun and I got out of Houston for a few days and I cant wait to do it again next year. This year seemed to be the year of skin tight jeans, white sunglasses, guys in short shorts, suspenders, colorful shoes and retro hair. I'm kinda anxious to see what next year hold. I wish I could share some fun and exciting news about this visit but it was more like normal visit to Austin for me. A drunken party that lasted for 4 days. In the end all I have to show for it is a bad full of CD's, condoms, stickers, magazines and posters. But it was awesome! See ya again in 2010 SXSW!!!
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