SXSW is here

Yes it is.

The music portion starts next week but the interactive/movie part starts this weekend.

Already crowds downtown, lines to get into places snaking around city blocks, 6th Street and adjacent roads blocked off. And this was Friday trying to load into BD Riley's. ETB had a good crowd that night, thanks to the temporary increase in the population. But load in/out was bad and will only get worse (roads blocked off, nobody thru the barricades...).

Grumpy Cat is indeed in town. SXSW used to be about local Austin cats, just sayin...

Last night ETB at the Saxon was amazing. Didn't have to deal with downtown traffic/roadblocks. Line of storms bearing down on us, but no one cared. Great crowd, probably the biggest we've played to there. All tables full and people standing all the way back to the bar. Awesome! We were on fire and played a great set. Good times all around.

But now South By Southwest really begins.

SXSW for me used to be about playing as many shows with as many different bands as I could, because I could. That would equate to 7-8 shows with 3-4 diff bands on average. But as time went on I'd see that half those shows could have been skipped altogether as it just wasn't worth the time and effort to get there, load in, play to nobody, and load out to the next one. So I started scaling it back and taking it easy, or maybe I'm just getting old ;)


Here is my schedule for SXSW 2013:

Mon March 11: ETB Monday residency at Friends (6th Street is blocked off, load in will suck)

Tues March 12: Attend the Red Eyed Fly SXSW kickoff show, been going to that one for years

Wed March 13: Attend BugByBug Fest, thrown by good friends Bug Girl, pool party/music fest

Thur March 14: 5:30pm ETB plays Metal&Lace, right before Small Stone Records showcase out back

Fri March 15: 1-5pm ETB plays an early matinee at Agave (6th Street)

Sat March 16: 1-5pm ETB plays an early matinee at Agave (6th Street)
                        10pm ETB plays Moontower Saloon

Yeah, this SXSW will be pretty chill, heh!

I will do my best to report in and keep y'all posted.