Music

SXSW 2011: AUX's first day in Austin

by Nicole Villeneuve

Our first day in Austin for SXSW 2011 was full of live music and interviews and we’re pleased to disclose that it was all done in weather that was mostly overcast but Canadian-summer warm. We all managed to get small sunburns on our faces and none of us are complaining.

The day started with a drive into the city from Houston where we’d landed and stayed the night before and where we also invaded the Night Owls Print Shop for a lesson in screen printing. You’ll see some evidence of that in some of our photos (above, for instance).

Once we arrived and registered it was straight to our first of four interviews for the day, duo MellowHype of the Odd Future hip-hop collective. It was an outdoor show and it was maybe the most excited we’ll see a small-ish group of people for an act this whole week. And the Odd Future guys don’t seem to go anywhere without their skateboards, making it easy to spot them bouncing all over the place. They were more than happy to pose for some pictures, too.

Next up we trekked around the main 6th street strip but it was only early afternoon and foot traffic was nowhere near what it’d be later that night. Heard some of the Vaccines’ set at the Brooklyn Vegan showcase as we waited outside the venue for Georgian psych-metal band Kylesa. Also we were given free bean burritos, a welcomed and quickly devoured snack to satiate our hungry working bellies.

From there we made our way to the Canadian Blast stage, aka our own personal Cheers in Austin, as we ran into lots of our Canadian media pals. Safe space!

Caught the very end of Diamond Rings’ set there and had to quickly head out to catch up with the Sounds, who are getting set to release their new album on Side One Dummy. The sun peeked out for one of the first times that day, making the already warm late afternoon pretty much perfect. Lots of excited fans stopped and watched a bit of our filming. We told them we couldn’t sign autographs now because we were interviewing the Sounds. (If that were true, we like to think we’d be as gracious as the Sounds were to the fans who stopped to say hi and ask for a picture. But probably we’d be divas.)

The last chat of the day was with dance punks the Death Set, who hadn’t even had a chance to check into their hotel when we nabbed them, exhausted after a day of travel (and for falling off the stage and suffering a concussion the night prior. Yikes.). Some timing and traffic hiccups aside, once we found our way to each other, it was a great chat and then we all agreed it was time to go and find something to eat.

We were led by our own Sam Sutherland to a magical land of free barbecue and drinks at the Horseshoe Tavern’s traditional meet up at Green Mesquite BBQ where we ate like kings and were treated like gold. Also, more Canadians! The comforts of home.

After getting lost on the way to the hotel, once found, we took a few minutes to recharge and headed back to the core for sets by Arson Anthem and Talib Kweli. We also got pizza and cupcakes from trucks on the street. We then learned the hell what is trying to get a cab out of downtown Austin at 2 a.m. with everyone else. We thought we would be sleeping there. Disheartened and tired, we’d almost given up, but your heroes made it back and got a few hours of sound sleep. Till tomorrow!