sxsw day 1
Staying up for 24 hours can be interesting…
SXSW: Day 1
The first day of South by South West (AKA SXSW) is always the longest day ever; it's a full 24 hours long. We woke up at 4am to leave for the airport and by the time we crashed out at the hotel it was just past 4am. So what happens in that day of madness, you may ask?
Well, there's an early flight to Dallas and then from Dallas to Austin, which lands you right in the middle of the mayhem. Bands and DJs and performers of all kinds are waiting in the longest line on the planet, but we lucked out because our Texan pals from
met us with an SUV. There are no better hosts than our Dallas-based buddies, who promptly delivered us to the hotel for a quick stop and then we headed downtown.
We hit a spot called
with fried chicken so legendary it was gone before we were able to catch photographic evidence. We did catch a quick pic of the fried green tomatoes and fried pickles which were matched incredibly with the SXSW traditional beverages Lone Star beer and sweet tea. We kicked it with the nice folks at Gus's and then headed to Brass House to catch a little jazz action. There's really nothing like a little live jazz to mellow you out…and by the way, we're only 10 hours into the day.
After the jazz we were given a private tour of the award winning sustainable
which was pretty insane and turned into a three hour tour of sorts. Right next door to this Austin institution of spirits is an East Asian fusion bistro called
where we ended up hanging for another couple hours (when you're meeting new folks and talking music, time flies.)
Somewhere between the lemon tart and the milk chocolate sorbet with chocolate chip cookies a limousine showed up and we got in because, well…how often do you get to ride in a limo? And where do you go in a stretch limo, in Austin, at South by South West? You go to the Def Jam party at Stubbs to see Pusha T, that's where--so that's what we did. The BBQ might have to wait for tomorrow, but we did get to see some super live performances from Vince Staples, Gunplay, and one of our all time favorite rappers, Pusha T.
The first day of SXSW 2014 was a delicious success with a turnt-up close--but of course, the fun never stops in Austin and we're already into Day 2. Stay tuned, and if you're Texas-bound, be ready for what looks like the craziest festival week yet! Shouts out to our
homies for taking the very best Texas care of us!
