Unlike the rest of my SXSW traveling brethren, I’ve actually been eating sometimes. Usually while running from one place to the next. Austin’s on-the-go dinner options are pretty varied, but there’s a certain comfort in partaking in the familiar while staying in an unfamiliar place. Hot dogs and pizza are street side standbys in cities all over the country, and Austin is no exception, the most prominent stops on the 6th Street corridor being the Best Wurst and Roppolo’s Pizzeria

I don’t know if their boastful title is true or not, but the Best Wurst beats Roppolo’s Pizzeria hands down. Both are readily available and in easy stumbling distance from whatever bar you just fell out of. Roppolo’s is kind enough to stay open ’til 3 AM and serve you a gigantic, alcohol sopping slice of pizza, but sponging up all those free vodka drinks seems to be the only thing it’s good for. Well, that and it’s a cheap alternative for a high colonic.

The Best Wurst is pretty much the same deal. It’s good, hot and cheap, but, as far as I can tell, sans the intestinal distress. For now at least. Wish me luck.

We arrived at the undisclosed location of the Red Bull Moontower around 2am for our tattooing and entry into what’s probably the most exclusive invite only event at SXSW 2008. Red Bull does things right which is one of the reasons why we love them - no company throws a party like Red Bull throws a party and the Moontower is yet another example of how to do things the right way. Wide open space, big stage, huge visuals, lotsa drinks and great music.
The first act we caught was Austin’s own Black Joe Lewis - they killed it - between the level of energy they brought and the talent of the entire band I was blown away and I’m going to try and catch them again this week - if you’re in Austin I’d suggest you’d do the same. They’re playing again at 2:00pm at Club Deville for the Insound SXSW Party on the 14th and again at the Hotel San Jose on the 15th at 4pm. There’s a great piece on them in the Austin Cronicle here.

Next up I watched an EPIC set by Lions (another Austin band) who completely blew me away. They fucking crushed the moontower and I think they’re now my favorite band I’ve seen in Austin for this years SXSW 2008 (so far at least - they are fucking incredible). It was everything that you’d hope to see with some crushing 70’s style rock/metal - domination.

After having my skull crushed by metal we hit the bar and ended up meeting Darlen from The Bad Girls Club and had a shot of vodka and then decided to find a cab and get back to my hotel.

After spending some time at the lounge getting organized we set out on our way to get our badges and wristbands dialed in.

We waited in an excruciating long line to get our passes and our camera’s tagged. The process is annoying but I really don’t see any other way around it. It’s pretty damn ridiculous that they actually get away with charging press $500 for a badge when just about every event on the planet just gives them to press for FREE. I guess it just goes to show you that if you have the lock on the market you can pretty much do whatever you want and people will pay for it not matter what. Granted I understand that if we choose to not write about it in the long run it would make a difference but if 100 or 500 or 1,000 media outlets / websites said “fuck it” you have to wonder how long it would take to taper off into nothingness. Now that will more than likely never happen so we’ll continue (just like everyone else) to pay through the nose to cover and continue to build the event which we all actually love no matter how much we have to fork over to cover the goddamn thing.

After that we ended up at the Austinist.com party at Mohawk which was not only a great venue but a great way for us to kick off SXSW 2008. We caught the second half of the We Barbarians from Long Beach, California. Between the free Miller High Life and an amazing set by We Barbarians it was a great kickoff to our SXSW 2008 experience. Plus we love the Austinist.

After that we popped into the Creekside Lounge to see a few song from Joseph Arthur - more on that is coming from James Barone.

From there is was off to see our friends at the Fader for this years Fader Fort party.

We saw this guy in a completely rad Elvis shit - he takes the prize for shirt of the day.

Here’s a video montage of the Synthesis.net crew’s first day in Austin, TX for SXSW 2008. In it, you’ll see how shitty the outskirts out town are on the way from the airport to downtown, how badass Ironworks BBQ is, and how even on the night before the official start of the music fest, there are more parties and bad ass bands to watch while getting completely black out than you can shake a fucking stick at. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and you’ll be sure to be hearing, and seeing, a lot more of our SXSW 2008 coverage, including interviews, live show footage, drunken rambling and maybe lewd conduct. Don’t say you weren’t warned.

In the coming days you’ll most likely want us to STFU about SXSW, so I’ll keep this introductory South By Southwest blog brief. For those unfamiliar, SXSW is a music festival in Austin, TX where music industry professionals and semi-professionals from around the globe come to schmooze, ink deals and drink as much free alcohol as possible while seeing some of the largest (and smallest) bands play in some of the smallest venues. For instance, one of 2006’s highlights was seeing the Flaming Lips with about 250 people.

It’s spring break for the music industry, and Synthesis is here in Austin on assignment to bring you some sweet video coverage (which you can see via our youtube page).

Things that Rule about Austin, TX: BBQ. It’s enough to turn a vegetarian insane with meat rage, and for all those who are trying to keep away from the savory deliciousness of places like Ironworks or Stubbs, we wish you the best of luck. I put my veg status on away for the week. Our other vegetarian crumbled upon entering Ironworks, and soon tears were streaming from his eyes as he gorged on beef ribs. Tears of pure rib joy. Now we all know why Adam got all nuts and got himself and Eve kicked out of the Garden of Eden: was missing out on ribs.
Things that you don’t want to have happen on your first day of SXSW: your camera decides that it is done with life. On the first day. Drat. Double drat. My screen is broken, and without a viewfinde my camera is pretty much useless. Hence, a blog without original pictures. Le sigh.

Some Day 1 stats:
Sweet beards witnessed: 3 (I judge a beard as beings “sweet” if it’s four fingers long. Mine is not yet sweet.)
Close encounters with famous rock stars: 2 (Velvet Underground kingpin Lou Reed and ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons are staying at our hotel. Apparently Billy Bob Thornton is also here, but that was reported to me by video matt.)
Lone Star Beers consumed: 3
Sweet photos taken: 0
People staying in our 2-person luxury suite: 5
People I’ve caught eying me, trying to figure out if I was “somebody”: 17 or so

Hey, it was a travel day and we haven’t been here more than a few hours. Besides I said I wouldn’t write about the Dub Trio show we all caught because someone else is gonna blog about that shit.

SXSW is without question both the busiest and best week of the year. We arrived late afternoon today (Tuesday) ready to start drinking Lone Stars, eating BBQ and working our collective asses off getting tons of content and meeting virtually everyone there is to meet.

SXSW 2008 looks to be better than 2007 (not that SXSW 2007 sucked or anything) since Red Bull is back this year with the Red Bull Moontower (at SXSW 2006 the Red Bull House stole the entire show). Now we really don’t know what’s going to be going down over there (we’ll let you know after we find out) but we are certain of one thing - the Red Bull Moontower will be the place to be for SXSW 2008. What we do know is this:

Anchored by the Red Bull Energy Station, the Alamo Draft House Rolling Road Show and a solar stage, the Red Bull Moon Tower will be a mix of a musician compound and a high-end party where anything can happen.

More on all that throughout the next few days especially since I know we’ll be there until the 4am mark nightly for the next four nights. The first thing we had to do after a drink at the hotel bar was hit up Ironworks BBQ for a completely amazing dinner. I think I want to move into that place and just spend my day eating, at the least I think I need to eat there at least once a day for the next week.