The first day of SXSW Music 2015 has come and gone, leaving behind loads of St Patrick’s Day beads, hats, and other party attire strewn across Sixth street. I didn’t spend much time partaking in any of the holiday festivities, but I did do quite a bit of people watching while standing outside various events and showcases late last night. The scene was, to say the least, a crazy one. That’s kind of what Austin is known for though, at least around this time of year, and from what I have seen thus far it seems this SXSW is going to be one for the record books.
I arrived in Austin just before noon on Tuesday morning following a direct flight from Boston that required me to rise from my slumber at 430AM. It was overcast and humid, but I didn’t mind. Having spent the last three months living in a frozen New England, I embraced the warmth and quickly called an Uber to help me get from Austin’s gorgeous airport to the Hampton Inn downtown. There I met with Jesse Richman (PropertyOfZack) and Dan Bogosian (Reybee PR), the two men I will be spending the week living with, and not long after I hit the strip in search of tacos. Being in Austin, that search didn’t take long, and before anything else happened we made it a point to put SOMETHING on our stomachs.
Once fed, I quickly rushed across town to Esther’s Follies in order to meet with our clients and friends at The Syndicate. They were working with Comedy Central to put on a special two-show event at night, and during the day they used the same venue to host a round of interviews with the evening’s two headliners (Ari Shaffir and Big Jay Oakerson). I chatted with both for about twenty minutes each, shook hands with the team from HitFix, and headed back out into the Austin afternoon.
I didn’t expect to do much else with my day, as Tuesdays are historically slow, but I ended up crossing paths with over half a dozen Haulix clients while simply roaming up and down Sixth street. We swapped scheduled, discussed the horrors of air travel, and made loose plans to connect again once everyone else got into town. Having been here before I know some of those people will never be seen again due to scheduling conflicts, but regardless it was nice to meet people who use and love our platform.
As the sun began to set I made my way back to Esther’s Follies to enjoy the aforementioned Comedy Central show. It was a fun time, highlighted by unannounced appearances from Sinbad and Hannibal Burress. Here’s a photo I snapped of Hannibal shortly after he arrived on stage:
Once the first of the night’s two comedy shows came to a close, I ran down Sixth street to see Unlocking The Truth play their first set of the festival. Metal is not really my thing, but watching fourteen year old kids shred as if they were members of Iron Maiden is something I wouldn’t miss for the world, and having now seen it I can tell you it was well worth the effort made to make it in time for their set. The band also stars in a documentary playing the festival this week, so you may see me write about them again before the week is over.
After that set came to a close I headed over to the Alamo Ritz in order to catch a midnight screening of a new film called Turbo Kid. It’s absolutely insane and has nothing to do with music in the slightest, but it was probably the greatest thing I saw all damn day. If you get the chance to see it, please make it a point to attend.
Today I’m starting things off with a panel on music discovery and the future of content creation, so expect far more industry focused updates in tomorrow’s blog. Until then, follow both me and Haulix on Twitter for a constant string of updates from Austin.
