Seriously, it's true. Since I didn't go to SXSW last year, this year was my first experience attending the Levis/Fader Fort in its new suped-up location. The entire affair has turned into quite an operation in the past few years, with long queues to pick up coveted wristbands and much (annoying) line-up teasing via Twitter. This year I made it to the Fort three times and found it to be basically like Disney's Main Street USA for the hipster set. Everyone looked cool, Soco flowed freely (although no Soco punch this year was a huge bummer), there was a video photo booth, a blogga lounge, a "general" store where I saw Colin Hanks buy some sweet ray-bans, some sort of scarf screen printing station, ping pong table, benches made out of tires... all kinds of shenannigans.
And of course, there were the bands. While perhaps not as strong of a line up as in past years, it was still a good time - I especially enjoyed seeing Local Natives still sounding as sweet as ever. Check out the Fader Fort social media landing page for everything you missed, and (bonus!) some photos and tunes are below for you.
local natives
neon indian
This soco and tea is so taaaasty (standing in some music experiment shack that I couldn't figure out)
ping pong-ing it up
Neon Indian & the crowd
2 free beers. 2 dolla bills. baller
Washing Out w/ Small Black (that guy = the cutest)
My friend Damon hanging out in the blogger lounge, where serious journalists came to get awaaaay from it all.
The Pains of Being Pure At Heart
This is the first of several SXSW posts that I will try to have up on this blog before December 2010. Haaaa. Thanks for reading!
Washed Out - Feel It All Around
Small Black - King Of Animals
Small Black - Despicable Dogs (Washed Out Remix)
Local Natives - Sticky Thread
Neon Indian - Psychic Chasms
Everything Everything - My Keys, Your Boyfriend
Best Coast - When I'm With You
The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - Stay Alive