Seeing red - Fiesta Red, that is!

Well, our SXSW event went swimmingly! (Why is swimming synonymous with "great"? I mean, swimming can be pretty great if it's hot outside and the water temperature is just right, but what if you can't swim? Or the water is ridiculously cold or something? In that case to say something went "swimmingly" would mean it went pretty badly. But I digress.

We had been a little concerned about the weather early in the day, but the clouds held for us - we got lucky with no rain and mild temperatures. That allowed everyone to focus on the real point of the event: the music.

We experienced the Fiesta Red Indie Fiesta from the other side of the stage - off-stage, behind the sound board instead of on stage - and it was awesome in every way, except my camera. My camera crapped out on me after just one band. We'll have to figure out if we can fix it, or if it's time to move on to a new camera, because we do use it for the band. But I did get a few pix of the festival before it died. Here is the view of the venue from the stage:

The band I managed to get pictures of is called Full Service. They're an Austin band, and they'll be releasing some new tunes via the Austin label Fiesta Red Records in the near future. Here are a few of the shots I got of them doing their thang:

Here's Johnny and our sound guy Papa K running the board and making things sound KILLER!

And here's the guy who runs The Local Yolk food trailer, ready to rock his whisk and pan:

It takes all kinds, people. Seriously, though, don't let the unusually large cooking utensil intimidate you. This guy makes a crazy good croissant breakfast sandwich, and two of the guys in our group tried the Scotch eggs from this trailer and gave them a thumbs up. If you're ever in East Austin, stop by the 12th Street Soular Food Garden and give it a shot.

Okay, back to the music. We had some good friends come and hang with us for a while, and we were all impressed with the quality of the bands. They were all much better than I expected. You never know what you're going to get at an event like this, so my expectations weren't very high, and I was very pleasantly surprised. There wasn't one band I didn't like! I missed the first three acts, but Johnny said they were all just as good as the ones I saw, so if you get a chance, check out these awesome bands:

Y La Bamba (Portland, OR)

Blank Slate (Austin, TX)

Bam Bam (Monterrey, Mexico)

Full Service (Austin, TX)

The Parson Red Heads (Portland, OR)

Ivan & Alyosha (Seattle, WA)

Colin Gilmore (Austin, TX)

Ponderosa (Atlanta, GA)

Also, all of the bands were very cool - good natured, professional, easy to work with, and quick to both set up and tear down. They knew what they were doing, and were a pleasure to listen to and work with. It's not always that way, so we were really pleased with how smoothly everything went.

We really enjoyed doing the sound, too. A lot of times, as a band, when you're at someone else's show, all you really want to do is get up there yourself and play! But we enjoyed making it a good experience for the bands that were there, and everyone was so good, we could just enjoy the music without wishing it were us. We look forward to more experiences from that side of the stage. Not tonight, though - we're back in action ourselves at Little Woodrow's in Bee Cave for a St. Patrick's Day show. May the luck of the Irish bring us lots of fans tonight, none of which will puke green beer on me or any of our gear!

So upsides: the music, the sound, the food at the trailers, the company, the weather.

Downside: my camera breaking.

Overall: stellar!