SXSW 2011 Recalled Kind Of

Today I woke up in my bed.  It was the second time since returning home from SXSW. I've been thinking of how to blog about the experience, and came to the conclusion that to write something comprehensive and awesome about the experience would really be impossible...for me anyway.

We played 10 sets in 5 days, at points we were playing 5 shows in less than 24 hours...to say the whole week was a blur would be an understatement.

I read the following blurb on A Continuous Lean just now, and I think they hit the nail on the head.

Resist the temptation to try to come to terms with SXSW logically. These aren’t tax forms you’re dealing with, but 2000 bands, playing in clubs, in tents, on streets, in parks. By design, it reinvents itself every year, and there are countless pathways through the mayhem, all of them leaving you exhilarated and exhausted. You face the assault on your senses and then pick your spots for visceral gratification.

Thus I decided to pick apart a few of the moments that I remember between load-ins, load-outs, line checks, broken strings, drinks, smokes, arguments, nudity, and jump farts; and to simply map out whatever things came to mind in the 15 minutes I gave myself to draw this up.

I apologize to any native Austin residents if I get the scale, direction, or general location of anything on the map below incorrect. Serioulsy people of Austin you are the nicest people I have ever had the chance to generalize...so really sorry if I fucked up your city's layout here.

The number one thing I learned at SXSW was to just take it in. It's going to be stressful, things will run late, you will lose shit in all the madness, and in general, the city doesn't seem to be prepared for it...then again neither were we. But in the end, I can say we learned a lot and we actually came out $8 ahead.

Looking forward to another 9 days of waking up in my bed... but honestly I'm already itching for Pound Tour leg 2!