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Diary of a SXSW Newbie: Austin Music Festival Day Four, Sunglasses Hide All Sins

first time sxswSarah Chazan

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

Day Four: It's my last morning in Austin. It's still dark outside. I'm eating a taco and a Diet Mountain Dew for breakfast. And if I don't write this last diary entry, I maybe never will. So here it goes.

My last 24 hours at the music festival were just as exciting as my first few, but there was something slightly different about the day -- I was ready to go home. There's something freeing about getting to that point at SXSW, it almost opens you up to have more fun. Gone was the feeling of FOMO -- that's "fear of missing out" -- replaced with this sort of zen state of mind where I figured, hey, I'll see what I see today.

So what did I see? A lot actually. I started the day with a healthy pulled pork sandwich and potato salad (yep, I was back on barbecue), which I ate while walking with Spinner Editor Dan Reilly and his wife Tessa to the Rolling Stone Rock House to check out Lord Huron again. For those who read my first diary entry, you may recall Lord Huron played Spinner's showcase at SXSW earlier in the week. I guess you could say they've got a new fan, LH was the only band I saw twice at SXSW.

During the Lord Huron show, a heavy curtain blocked off the back half of the venue from prying eyes. Behind it, a crew was busy building the stage for Prince's show later that night -- one of the hottest tickets of the day. Through slits in the fabric I could see screens projecting bright graphics against the dank darkness of the tiny venue. Outside, a friendly roadie shared with us that in the past few hours, Prince had requested seven changes to the show plans. Prince being high maintenance? Get. Out. Of. Here.

One person who was surprisingly low maintenance was the Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne. Spinner Editor Josh had interviewed him earlier in the week and couldn't stop talking about how nice and laid back he was. Wayne even personally got Josh into the Flaming Lips' tiny private show on Thursday night. We ran into Wayne on the street walking to Hype Hotel and chatted with him briefly about his day at SXSW. Despite the purple-tipped hair and ornate beaded necklace he was rocking, Wayne was actually quite unassuming. When we told him we were on our way to see FIDLAR, he replied he was hoping to check out the show and would look for us there. I could tell this personally made Dan's day.

The Hype Hotel is almost directly across the street from my hotel, so I'd walked past it every day since getting to SXSW. The venue is the entire bottom floor of what looks like a new apartment complex in downtown Austin. It's always a scene outside, so I'd never even bothered trying to deal with the crazy crowds, but we all really wanted to see FIDLAR, so into the fray we went.

Inside Hype Hotel was exactly what I thought it would be. A huge stripped down space with a stage on one end of the cavernous concrete room and a massive bar on the other. Drinks were free and since it was sponsored in part by Taco Bell, there were free tacos galore. That meant you had hundreds of people shoved into a dark space with bellies full of greasy fast food and cheap alcohol. Can you guess what happened next? Yeah, the foul gas that was being ripped around me was so bad, I was forced away from the stage and outside into the smokers' section where I breathed in the semi-fresh air.

The sun was setting, which meant a quick change at the hotel (FYI, it's hot during the day in Austin and gets pretty cold at night) and up to Sixth Street to see Dessa at the Blind Pig. As we approached, waves of people were streaming out the front doors of the bar. Apparently, Macklemore had just finished a set at the joint. Dan assured me I'd like Dessa even more than Macklemore -- "She was a slam poet who started rapping," he explained. Despite my aversion to slam poetry (sorry fellow English majors), Dan was right. Dessa was mesmerizing and OWNED that venue. Climbing atop an amp towards the end of her show, Dessa pumped her fist hard against the hot Texas air and spit lyrics over a crowd staring up at her in awe. She even won over some of the SXSW spring break "bros" who were simply at the bar to get wasted.

The last stop of the night for me was Stubb's -- my third time at the venue! Former Spinner writer Theo Spielberg's band Wardell was playing a show with Haim, Small Black and Vampire Weekend. We got there just in time to hear Vampire Weekend sound checking. They sounded like Vampire Weekend.

I've been a fan of Theo's band since they were called Brother/Sister, but this was the first time seeing them live. For such an important show, Theo seemed pretty relaxed when we spoke to him before the band hit the stage. He always was pretty cool, as is his band. Fronted by his sister, Sasha, Wardell's songs will have you swaying along to the dreamy rhythm one minute and singing along to their catchy lyrics the next. My favorite song of theirs is "Opossum," which, happily, Sasha sang towards the end of the set. Obviously I'm biased, but I thought Wardell was better than a lot of the bigger bands that have played Stubb's this week. Check them out. Do it.

After Wardell's set, the Spinner team began drifting off into the night -- some to see Justin Timberlake's set, others to check out FIDLAR again. But I was done. The very first band I saw at SXSW was fronted by a friend, and the very last one also had a friendly face up on that stage -- that's how I wanted to end it.

I'll remember my first SXSW for all the lessons I learned during the four days I was in Austin. Here are just a few:

-- I learned to be way more open to music that I wouldn't normally seek out. If you would've told me a week ago that one of my favorite acts at SXSW would be a band named Diarrhea Planet, I would have laughed in your face. But they were amazing, as were the Thermals, Iamsu! and a ton of other bands I'd never heard just a few short days ago.

-- I learned that SXSW is about ALL music, not just emerging bands. I wish people (mostly on Twitter) would shut up about how SXSW has changed soooooo much and how it used to be about new bands getting discovered and blah, blah, blah. SXSW is about music, who the hell cares if artists like Justin Timberlake, Dave Grohl and Vampire Weekend want to play shows there? Grohl's Sound City concert was pretty much life-changing and my friend Theo's band probably did get discovered by a lot of new fans by opening for Vampire Weekend ... so what's the harm in any of that?

-- And finally, I learned to ALWAYS pack your sunglasses, because they hide all sins and make you look cool at the same time. Right now, I'm carrying some heavy baggage under my eyes, but no one at this airport will ever know, thanks to my trusty Ray-Bans. I might look even slightly edgy by SXSW standards ... maybe?


AOL Music's Complete Coverage of SXSW

What did the Spinner team do at SXSW? Check out our Rebelmouse page for all the writeups, weets and photos.

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Creight Frazee

up to I saw the paycheck that said $6702, I didn't believe ...that...my best friend woz like actualey bringing in money part time at there labtop.. there neighbour has been doing this for only about eleven months and recently repayed the dept on their place and purchased a great new Mazda. read more at.............. BIT40.ℂom

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