It was a vicious decision to be sure. On one hand, you have yourself the downtown buzz glaring at you, bands everywhere, interesting people, all cruising around darting their eyes and swaying their skinny hips. And in this downtown area last night were some amazing shows.

On the other hand, you had the goddamn Playboy Rock the Rabbit Party. Ummmmmm.

Having almost always been a man who covets the rock over the flesh, I endeavored to resist the pull of silicon and glitter (although I’m pretty sure I wasn’t on the list anyway, but that’s neither here nor there…), so I hoofed it down the thoroughfares, saw Matt Pinfield’s shiny dome broadcasting for DirectTV on an elevated hydraulic crane stage and checked out the Weakerthans at the Cedar Street Courthouse. Seriously, this was the best decision I’ve ever made about anything. The place was sweaty and packed (Austin’s morning breezes and chilliness had long since been replaced by punishing humidity) but seeing John K. Samson’s expert songcraft, along with the rest of the band’s superb set was great.

This was all after catching DJ Tommy Sunshine at the Alternative Press party on top of some building…

and before I capped my evening off with fucking HIGH ON FIRE.

Dude, if you’re not here right now, I don’t like you.

If you’ve seen Heima, you already know how much Iceland rules. If you need more proof, look no further than Reykjavik!, who pummeled my nuts into a fine powder last night at Maggie Mae’s.

Guitarist Haukur Magnusson was a big sweaty mess as he melted face on guitar and babbled incoherently between songs. Meanwhile, lead singer Boas was all over the place, climbing speakers, diving into the crowd and generally causing a giant ruckus. At one point, he barreled off the stage straight toward me and I got myself clotheslined on the microphone cord. He made up for the minor assault though later in the set when he handed me the mic and asked me to introduce myself. He said I’m a nice guy and that people should talk to me.

He’s right. You should.

Two days to go, but one of my most memorable sets of the festival for sure.

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.

Uh oh… don’t touch the bats.

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.