South by Southwest is a chaotic orgy of sensory overload that leaves your body and mind pummeled for days. Over 90 venues and 2000 artists turn downtown Austin into the largest music festival for 5 days every year. It's a music nerd's nirvana.

It's been years since I've made the trip down for SXSW, and until a couple of weeks ago, it looked like I was going to be missing out on another year. But my schedule cleared up and the madness of last minute planning began. Under normal circumstances, booking a place to stay during the festival is usually done 6-9 months out. But being optimistic, Shelby and I began hunting for places to stay, and it led to complete failure. So she came up with Plan B: Drive down for a full day on Friday, soak up as much as we could, catch up with a few friends and see them play, and return home in the wee hours of the morning that is normally reserved for the paper boys and donut bakers of the world. The plan was a go. Shelby, Chris and I began the journey down.

Of course I had my camera with me, since it's pretty much an added apendage at this point, and just shot the randomness of the Austin streets. Below are a few pictures taken from the day, they aren't the most amazing or the greatest shots ever, but it was our whirlwind trip through SXSW. One thing I am somewhat proud of is that I only shot with one lens all day long, my Nikkor 35mm f/1.8. I had two other lenses with me, but I showed discipline like a young grasshopper and stuck to one lens. Yay for personal victories.

19 hours of chaos and sensory overload.

We arrive:

Trudging up 6th the first thing that caught my attention was The Main. Formerly Emo's Outside and home to Punk and Metal bands alike, and a bunch of drunken debauchery. I've spent a lot of time at the downtown Emo's location seeing bands that helped mold my internal music database. Little did I know that I would be returning here later that evening reliving some of those moments.

The mantra of Gen-next?

The calm before the storm, Friday was just getting started.

Austin's Old School Grill was transformed into the The Canada House. Friday they had Dinosaur Bones, Bonjay, The Golden Dogs, DVAS, Adam Cohen, Buck 65 and Ron Sexsmith perform. Yeah I went, "Huh? Who?" also.

Chris, intent and focused.

Lucky Thirteen hosted the Equal Vision Records day party where we caught We Came As Romans' set.

We Came As Romans.

This is SXSW Shelby.

Some tasty beverage.

I have no clue.

Random street comedy seemed to be a huge thing this year.

We picked up a stray after Lucky Thirteen. Matt joined us on our adventures.

Vans set up a "pop-up shop" on 6th for the conference selling both shoes and vinyl, and it seemed to be a pretty popular little stop. Everyday during the music conference they released special editions of Vans that included the likes of Slayer, Bad Religion, Descendents, Iron Maiden, and Social Distortion. When we stopped by Friday we just missed seeing Johnny Knoxville swinging by the shop to film some "stuff".

The double fake un-tattooed Henery Rollins taking a picture of me taking a picture of him.

Barcelona, Austin's premier underground (literally) electronic/dance club. We made a stop here to check out some of Denver's Sub.Mission artists including Plastician, DJG, Dj Shiftee, Distal, Chrissy Murderbot, Kush Arora, Juakali and Ishe. Trying to take pictures in the darken dungeon that is the club while sub frequencies are rattling every cell in your body is next to impossible. I think I got 2 or 3 keepers.

One of the keepers. When your taking in a good Dubstep showcase ALWAYS bring your Fushigi Ball, only $19.99 plus shipping and handling.

"But you forget that in your fairytales, bitch, I'm the wolf...."

Hot chicks handing out your promotional material in the middle of 6th, sure why not, we all know sex sells.

I believe the guy on the right is still wanted for war crimes in an Eastern European country, but don't quote me on that.

So much gear on the streets.

The line has something to do with something, but I haven't put my finger on it just yet.

Shelby had a stalker who conveniently waited till Chris went to the bathroom.

I think the sign meant gear, not one night girlfriends.

No need to beat around the bush here.

When you kick members out of your band you should go get some new promos made......or just tape over the guys that are gone. Be sure to use the non distracting Hi-Glo Green Duct Tape too.

I went with Tupac.

Does everyone do this when they enter a port-o-potty?

And after.

The rest of our evening was spent for the most part at The Main for The Artery Foundation Showcase. We caught A Lot Like Birds, Chunk! No, Captain Chunk!, A Skylit Drive, For the Fallen Dreams, and Attila, a nice evening of post hardcore madness. I'll be making a separate blog post for A Skylit Drive tomorrow. For now, here's A Lot Like Birds and Chunk! No, Captain Chunk!

A Lot Like Birds.

Chunk! No, Captain Chunk! from Paris, France.

Chunk! No, Captain Chunk!

Chunk! No, Captain Chunk! or maybe a younger fake Dirk Nowitzki?

Chunk! No, Captain Chunk!

Back on the street for a Brat.

Occupy Austin set up shop on 6th after dark. It seemed that everyone enjoyed taking the oppertunity for photo ops in front of this banner.

Rumor had it somewhere amongst this massive throng of people was Tom Morello being ringleader over the march.

Dj BabyChino holding up shop at Status on 6th. His Facebook says that he's the world's youngest DJ, and I gotta say, the little kid was pretty badass!

Dj BabyChino

The worlds largest vending machine, and a complete waste of time. GZA/The Genius was on stage, and I couldn't get away fast enough.

More Occupy.

Goodbye Austin. Thanks for the few intimate hours we had together. You'll always be my little mistress that I secretly desire. Hopefully next year we will have a little bit more time together.

Tomorrow's post will be dedicated to A Skylit Drive's set.