Diary of a SXSW Newbie: Austin Music Festival Day Two, Embracing Barbecue Hair

Posted on Mar 15th 2013 1:29PM by Sarah Chazan

Sarah Chazan

Follow along daily as Spinner Editor Sarah takes on SXSW for the very first time.

Day Two: Overheard in Austin: Hipster One, "Dude, we've been here for six days already." Hipster Two, "Nah, dude, we've been here for seven." Hipster One, "Man ... today's gonna be a bad day, yo."

This festival does seem to have a way of suspending people's realities and perhaps pushing them off the deep end a bit. But I was only on day two, so luckily, my spirits were a little higher than my pessimistic hipster friends. After a wild first 24 hours, during which I crashed a metal showcase, discovered a new favorite band and completely lost my voice, I was ready for round two.

The first stop of my day wasn't to any showcase, oh no, I had even better plans ... and that plan, my friends, was barbecue. You really can't come to Austin and not have barbecue. Even if you're a vegetarian, they've got to have some place that will smoke up some tofu and cover it in sauce for you. And honestly, it would probably be delicious, because there is nothing wrong with barbecue. Well, almost nothing.

Why do ribs always seem like a good idea before you order them? As I stood in line waiting at Iron Works Barbecue, watching platter after platter of ribs leave the kitchen, I made the last-minute decision to change my brisket order to beef ribs. Next thing I know I'm walking to the table with a side of meat that looks like something Fred Flintstone would bring home to Wilma. Eating them was no easy feat either. I went at those things Wolverine-style, going through about 100 napkins in the process. Emily Post is probably rolling around in her grave somewhere.

With a belly full of barbecue, I joined Spinner Editor Dan Reilly and Adam Horne from our Label Relations team on their trek over to the Fader Fort. How do I describe the Fader Fort? Well, it's kind of like this fenced-off area that houses everything from vendors selling stuff, to lounge areas to performance spaces. As soon as we walked in, there was a pop-up barbershop offering Mohawks to people. I tried convincing Adam to get one. No luck. In fact, I think his exact words were, "That would be the biggest mistake of my life."

So with all of Adam's hair still safely on his head, we made our way to the performance area in the back of the Fort to check out Bay Area rapper Iamsu!, who until yesterday, I had never heard of, but ended up really liking. That's the funny thing about SXSW -- you can discover the most random artist ever at 2PM on a Thursday. Say what you want about how corporate the festival is getting, but at the end of the day, it's still successfully accomplishing what it set up to do all those years ago: Connecting breaking artists with an entirely new fan base.

OK, I'm off my soap box. Back to day two. I left the guys at the Airborne Toxic Event showcase and headed back to my hotel room to try to get a little work done and rest before the evening's round of events. Here's a little tip for any people planning on coming to SXSW next year: If you stay downtown, kiss any nap time goodbye. It is loud here -- really, really loud. I'm staying on the eighth floor of my hotel and during the 30 minutes I attempted to take a nap, I was treated to the melodic sounds of some sort of drum circle, meshed with a band covering KC and the Sunshine Band followed by Justin Bieber (don't ask). A nap wasn't happening. So I got up, strapped on my dusty boots, and headed back out.

After a quick stop at Stubb's to pick up our tickets for the night's Sound City Players show, Spinner Canada Editor Josh Ostroff and I headed east in search of the mystical food truck village on the other side of the highway. "This is where the real Austin hangs out," Josh said as we walked toward to smells of tacos and fried goodness. "Sixth Street is for the college kids." Noted.

Food truck village seemed to be a popular spot, and it wasn't hard to see why. The horseshoe formation of trucks offered every drunk person's dream food: Tacos, hotdogs, fish and chips, fried dough. I wasn't drunk, but I was hungry, so I settled on tacos (Rachael Ray-approved, according to their sign), and sat behind a trailer in a field covered in broken glass for an impromptu SXSW picnic with Josh. Best tacos I've had here yet, and they filled me up quickly, which was a good thing, because the evening was just getting started.

"SOUND CITY LADIES AND GENTLEMEN. IT'S GOING TO BE A LONG FUCKING NIGHT!" Those were Dave Grohl's first words upon taking the stage at Stubb's for the Sound City Players show presented by Citi. And he wasn't kidding. The show started at 8:30 and went all the way to 11:30 -- with Dave never leaving the stage. Joining him throughout the night was a list of rock royalty. Stevie Nicks, Rage Against the Machine's Brad Wilk, Rick Springfield, Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic, Foo Fighters' Pat Smear, Corey Taylor of Slipknot and John Fogerty all rocked out with Grohl throughout the night. Amazing.

For me, the night belonged to Stevie Nicks and John Fogerty. Never did I think that I would be standing in a dusty yard in Texas, looking up at a blanket of stars and singing along with Stevie to "Landslide," one of my favorite songs of all times. After all of these years, her voice still sounds as witchy and haunting as ever. On the flip side of things, Grohl and Fogerty ended the show on an epic high note, covering a slew of Creedence Clearwater Revival tracks like "Bad Moon Rising," "Proud Marry" and "Fortunate Son. I danced my ass off through the whole thing, and made a new friend Gillian in the process!

After a long day two at SXSW, I finally crashed around 2AM. And as I lay in bed to go to sleep, the smell of barbecue enveloped me once again. It was my hair, perfumed by a day spent around countless smokers and sauces. Barbecue hair -- I think that's something I could get used to.

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