Despite the fiasco known as Dr. Phil, Texas has given us some pretty good shit: Patrick Swayze, Townes van Zandt, Dr. Pepper, and South By Southwest. Once a year, South By Southwest (SXSW), a massive convention of music and film for industry and fans alike, takes foothold in the city of Austin, Texas: the live music capital of the world. It’s a time and a place where it’s not the slightest bit uncommon to start doing shots at breakfast, or wake up wondering how a taco ended up in your jacket pocket. Its huge, its chaos, its fun, and more importantly, it’s days and days of endless shows, bands, parties, booze, tacos, and BBQ.
I’m pretty sure that every single one of those things is my favorite thing, so when my boyfriend’s band got offered a few shows down there, that ticket was bought faster than a hipster can slip on his corduroy cutoffs. So, here’s our plan:
Me and my dude are flying into San Antonio at midnight Wednesday, driving straight to a record label party in Austin, and hopefully arriving by 1am. The rest of the band and a couple of friends will be driving to Austin straight from New Jersey in the band’s tour van, arriving to meet us sometime early Thursday morning. True to tour style, there are no hotel reservations, no arrangements made whatsoever… besides the shows that are booked. I love it.
We’re all so excited about this trip that many recent conversations (accompanied by tangy Hemingways and bubbly Sam Smith Ciders) have graduated into sessions of bittersweet reminiscence, revolving around old tour stories, grand excursions, fortunate mis-adventures… true tumbling-tumbleweed-type stuff.
Some memories are words of caution that help us to be better prepared this time around, but most just point out the good times to come. Whichever they are, I thought I would share some thoughts and tips about heading south for SXSW.
1. Go with the flow!
Y’know how when you plan a vacation somewhere new you have to find places to eat, things to do, what to see, blah blah blah. Because you’re not from there, silly, and unless you have cool friends there you’ll spend half the time trying to find a place to hang. You’ll end up lost for half a day in the gay village and porn-shop end of St. Catherine’s with no Canadian money, like us on our first trip to Montreal.
At South-By, there’s so much going on: shows day and night, thousands of bands to see, dozens of parties to go to, hundreds of drinks to drink, and even free food to be eaten! (Tacos and BBQ, um…hello!). So stop looking at tripadvisor.com like a nerd and just go, be free… in the words of Patrick Swayze, “like the wind.”
2. Protect your ears and your sanity.
Bring earplugs, dummy.
I know you love music and you can’t keep it out of your soul, you’re a dancing machine and all that, but for god sakes, the music starts at noon every day and the party don’t stop until 8am the following morning! Enduring days upon days of that can start to drive anyone nuts! So bring dem earplugs kids, so you can hear yourself think… about what delicious BBQ item you want to eat next, or which douchey cardigan vest you hate the most.
These will also prove handy when you finally want to pass out, yet some annoying girl crashing at the same house or hotel as you won’t die already. Just die!
3. Be Prepared to Get Wet!
At some point or another someone’s gotta invite us to their amazing swimming pool. I mean, Texas is a hot place, right? I imagine it as one of those places, much like Florida, where a massive percentage of homes have pools. And okay, even if that’s not true, I’ve heard many a band’s tour stories where they get put up in mansions or other crazy spots, so its damn well possible. I refuse to believe that we can’t find a swimming pool on this trip. So, if anything is squeezing into my bag for sure, it’s a swimsuit.
In the same notion of wetness, it seems also to be a consensus to carry Wet Wipes. I see the logic. You’re in bars all day, using bar restrooms, not knowing where you’re crashing, sitting out in the heat at times, perhaps you get some BBQ-saucey fingers. A little clean-up and refreshment will be in order. So travel wipes are the way to go. So reasonable.
4. Keep Things Close to the Vest
The day you go home, you wake up on a floor, under a kitchen table, with someone else’s T-shirt over your face, and pieces of cat food stuck to your arm. You have no idea whether you dropped, sold, or intentionally hid your phone, and a couple hours later they finally find your keys in the backyard. So what I’m saying here is that it’s a good idea to find an easy way to make your belongings remain as close to your body as possible.
I’m thinking, buy a cross-body style bag or satchel, a chain wallet, a clip or carabiner, or hell, even a fanny pack. Whatever helps you keep the random bits that make up your life from ending up in the random bits that once made up someone’s dinner.
5. Bring It Back With You!
You’ll be seeing bands non-stop for days, and you’ll be drunk, and therefore in love with everything. You’ll probably end up buying some shit. CDs, t-shirts, pins, bottles of BBQ sauce. Not to mention that Austin apparently has some great vintage clothing stores. So bring an extra empty tote, so you can bring back that pair of vintage Levi’s cutoffs for your uncle.
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Have fun Kelly!!