On the festival circuit, South by Southwest is the perfect storm of excitement and necessity. Not as singular as the stage-based Summer jams, not boring like the one-venue jump-offs, and occasionally helpful for making industry connections and/or eating tacos with entertainers: SXSW is great. This being the third year I’ve partaken, I’m extremely excited to take the lessons I’ve learned in past years and utilize them now. So, get your drink on, but please don’t let it turn the rest of March into a zombified lurch fest. Be the master of your domain with my simple tips for a successful South by.
1) Don’t sleep. Sleeping is common in the natural world but unimportant during SXSW. When most would typically regain energy by recharging through hibernation, my suggestion is to grab a stimulant drink (perhaps Sparks), put your head down, and party through it. The best stuff happens in the wee hours, typically unannounced and at times on a person-to-person basis. Whether you want to do mushrooms on Town Lake, discover a warehouse rave (with free Sparks), or go see the Pack rap on top of a dilapidated car (while drinking Sparks), it only happens during the early morning hours. Sleep before the Festival, not during.
2) Play as much as possible. As capable as the schedule squad for the Festival can be, there’s no guarantee that the ghost of James Brown isn’t going to float down and debut his post-rock side project at the same time as your only showcase. Play a million day parties, put your stunner shades on, and settle into the dried-out, Fear and Loathing vibe that’s commonly achieved midway through the second day of the Festival.
3) Get free shit. SXSW is a bounty for random occurrences of free shit. My theory is that so much cool stuff is going on, the only way to get people to stay anywhere for an extended period of time is to give them treats. Be it free drinks, shoes, jeans, Guitar Heroes, or drumsticks, you can easily find stocking stuffers for everyone you know in just a couple of days. Keep your ear to the ground, and stick with the people bearing all new clothes and positive dispositions.
4) Avoid the hype shows. In the time you spent waiting in line to (potentially) get into a show by a band most popular for selling the commercial rights for their song to Mountain Dew, you could’ve been bouncing around town, taking in some of the more obscure acts. The smaller bands care more, and the lower demand means you ultimately get to enjoy more music, which is the point of this thing, right?
5) Prepare a schedule. If you don’t plan a schedule, here’s what happens: You end up just floating around the obvious places (Emo’s, Fader Fort), and you see A-Trak DJ 15 times. Which is pretty great but not exactly the spice of life. Make a detailed travel plan that accounts for timing, lines, and steady booze-distribution.
6) Enjoy yourself. Even if you drove from Vancouver for this thing and your showcase was 20 minutes of people looking at their shoes, you still can redeem your trip with unlimited beer and a Don’t Mess With Texas T-shirt.
Thanks for reading, and please try and check out the bats. Swoop, swoop, rock, rock.
Cadence Weapon is a writer, rapper, DJ, and producer. He’s playing Friday’s Hot Freaks party outside at Mohawk, 2pm.
This article appears in March 14 • 2008.