The lines are worth it, SXSW Day 4

Well, all week I had been showing up to things embarrassingly early, and had been first in line more than once. This day I gave MrB a break and agreed to show up only maybe a half hour before doors opened - but then nearly freaked out when I saw the line to get into Rachael Ray's party. She has a great lineup with not only free drinks but free food. The first people in line got there at 6:40 AM for 10:30 doors. Very hard core. The line, from this point of view, turned a corner on the right and went another half city block. I was ready to give up, but he said we might as well stay to see what happened, and sure enough, we got in and there was plenty of room to spare. The food line was about as long as this one, so we called our orange wedge Blue Moon beer garnishes and Bloody Marys "food."

Skipping the food line allowed us to head to the indoor stage where we miraculously snagged a table and chairs on the upper level with a perfect rail view. I was amazed. Here's an example of the view of Jack White's label all-female The Black Belles. I was sort of hoping he might make an appearance, but this year I did not get to lay eyes on him.

The Black Belles

Rachael Ray
Also viewed from this vantage point: The Wild Feathers and Click Clack Boom. Then it was outside for GIVERS and we were headed home to prep for our final event. By 'prep' I just mean get off the bus and get the car.

One last walk down 6th St. for Southby sightseeing. Here is the weirdest-looking stage I ever saw (Rolling Stones excepted). It's hard to tell, but at ground level it's a music stage and the top of it is a giant Doritos vending machine.

To draw attention to your band, put a penis on the sign.

We were 2 of ~10,000 people who had won free tickets to an outdoor screening of Big Easy Express, a tour documentary about the Railroad Revival Tour including Mumford & Sons, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros and the Old Crow Medicine Show - so we faced our second monster line of the day. This one must have been a couple of miles long, but it was very organized and moved quickly. I was starting to feel the effects of a cold coming on, so it didn't matter to me (for once) that I didn't get up close to the stage.

Here's the trailer for the film, which was absolutely pure joy, especially given the way that we got to see it - sitting on the lawn of the LBJ Library on the UT campus on a beautiful night - followed by a full concert performance by the musicians involved. Old Crow has sort of broken up since this happened, but they had representation there by a former member.

They even brought in the Austin High School Marching Band to perform with them on a number, because they had done that during the filming of the documentary. It was just so cool. We got a video here, and more goodies on my channel here. It was an amazing finale for our annual mad music bash. Cost for today's tickets = $0.


SXSW is a Rite of Spring. Very soon it will be hot as blazes and I won't want to go out. Very soon. Time to get some rest, and hit the Cold-Eeze. Tomorrow is another work day.