SXSW: Day Four

After surviving the dreaded "mint incident," I'm back to wrap up the final days of SXSW...

Friday and Saturday were pretty relaxed schedule-wise, even though the streets of Austin couldn't have been more insane.

Friday was spent mostly covering Cincinnati bands (the highlight: The Sundresses playing under a tin roof held up by gnarled posts, old rusted typewriters strewn about the stage and a little kid sitting on the stage's edge eating what appeared to be a lollipop. The whole thing seemed very Texas to me). We also saw our first legit random celebrity spotting as Jane's Addiction's Perry Farrell walked the streets in pink argyle, probably looking for something to eat. Security followed him most of the time we saw him.

We still managed to find time to watch Nellie McKay play to a crowded house, Keren Ann perform a set in a church, get hooked up at a random, free veggie dog truck thanks to Myspace.com and Kari even indulged me in a song or two by one of my favorite bands of the moment, the heavy metal Japanese trio Boris.

Friday night was the most intense scene of our trip. The crazies were out in full force. At an unassuming show of Cincinnati's Peter Adams and the Nocturnal Collective, held at Irish bar B.D. Riley's, the crowd kept getting louder and drunker. And that pretty much set the tone after we left the bar, in the parking garage, and then the on the roads and all the way back to our crazy hotel.

Back later to cover Saturday, which included an unexpected trip to see The Stooges, Thurston Moore and when SXSW and St. Patrick's Day collide. Off to my flight!