SXSW 2012 March 15 Day Parties

I am not quite sure when this happened, but somewhere along the line SXSW became known for free day parties. This makes recovery from the night before a difficult

thing to accomplish. Coffee, coconut water and vodka quickly become the breakfast of champions (go away Wheaties...you would not be helpful at this juncture). Doors open early, the weather is nice, everyone smells the same, music is far too loud, everyone looks as if they have just escaped from "The Walking Dead" make-up trailer and most of your day is free. I actually prefer day parties. Being in advertising, I am not quite sure what the premise is behind giving people a lot of free booze and food, but now I remember how much I like Taco Bell Burritos. Wait, now I get it.

We started our day at The Parish where NPR was throwing a party. "Ain't no party like an

NPR party..." Sorry. Anyway, it wasn't as bad as it sounds on paper. In fact, we w

ere able to see Polica, who Time Magazine named one of the top five bands to see at SXSW. And it there's one thing Time Magazine knows it’s their, uh, music? We first had to sit through La Vida Boheme, who had thrown paint all over themselves for some inexplicable reason and the rapper Sugar Tongue Slim. He got me thinking: "How good is your street cred as a rapper if you're playing the NPR party?" He did sample Gotye's "Somebody That I Used to Know" so

his street cred in the East Village might actually be pretty good.

Polica actually lived up to the hype. The Parish, which is the absolute best live music venue in Austin, was the perfect setting for them. This will be the last time you'll be able to see Polica in a venue of this size. I imagine that they'll be at La Zona Rosa on their next go round. Led by Channy Moon Casselle, who is definitely not comfortable in her own skin on stage yet, Polica is one to watch.

For some reason we moved on to the Hype Hotel (could it be the call of the

Bean Burrito?) where we were greeted with free drinks and food. We came for Youth Lagoon, but stayed for Alabama Shakes. Their album is expected to drop (drop...I'm so cool) on April 3 and it sounded as if it is going to end up in my

year end top 10 for 2012. Many vodkas later we decided that it was time to cross under I-35 to go pick up our Rachael Ray passes *(Note to Rachael: You are one of only two people that I would cross I-35 for). Before we made it there we heard what sounded like Fun. (the band, not actual fun). It was Fun. They were playing the Woody Awards stage. My inner

12 year old self wants to make a joke right now, but I will restrain him. We had to stay and listen to them so we get our 4 free drink tickets and headed in. Unfortunately the only thing that they were serving was sake. Now don't get me wrong, I love sake. It's how I get all of my grains, but it just wasn't cold enough to drink under the hot Austin sun. And seriously....sake? Really? We couldn't even pay for a real drink. Speaking of

free and drinks, I imagine that with all of the free food and booze dished out over the course of SXSW leads to an influx of homeless. *It's like Hanukkah for Homeless. I'd be here. Anyway, we continue on our trek and once we get to the Rachael Ray pickup my current girlfriend and see

My Ex-Friend (not a band). We exchange awkwardness and move on to Lustre Pearl for the Dickie's Party. Every year this event gets bigger and better. It is almost known for booking artists that will soon blow up. The daytime lineup is as strong as the nighttime lineup and it's all free. Get there early enough and you'll see

better acts than we had 2 ACL's ago. We went for

Miike Snow, but it was Yacht that takes the award for best show I saw at SXSW 2012. The energy that this band has is infectiously electric. See them by any means necessary. That sounded like an order, but it was more of a suggestion.

So to sum up:

Day parties= FREE

Day parties= LONG DAYS

We saw:

La Vida Boheme

Sugar Tongue Slim

Polica

Youth lagoon

Alabama Shakes

Fun.

Ex-Girlfriend (not a band)

Miike Snow

Yacht

All in all, not a bad day. Just two more to go.

*Yes Lauren, the other one is you.

*I can say these things because I can.