SXSW Day One

South by Southwest, one of the largest music conferences on Earth, is in Austin again this weekend. The first night was Wednesday. Even though we both had to work the next morning, we were itching to go check out some music.

Ironically, one of the great things about SXSW is all the shows that are unaffiliated with SXSW. The conference draws so many people to Austin that every venue takes advantage of the crowds, whether they're affiliated with SXSW or not. So for people with no badges or wristbands, there is still a lot to take in. Both events we went to on Wednesday were non-SXSW and entirely free.

The first show was this Datapop 09 party that featured guys making music with Gameboys. It was held inside what used to be a Salvation Army, located at an old plaza-style mall in South Austin. The music was awesome, but it was hard to see the performers because the stage was only about six inches high. Thankfully there were large screens projecting mashed up video art to make up for it.

After that show we went back downtown to a bar on West Fifth street to see New York City DJs The Rub. My camera's microphone sucks and the heavy bass from the speakers made most of what I filmed sound like shit, so I only put a few seconds in the video. But it was a great party time!