I saw all the acts before Das Racist, some dude in front of me kept yelling for das racist. it got rowdy and the bouncers kicked out some drunks.
For anyone on the outside looking in at all the SXSW fun, a small part of it can be had at Fitzgerald's tonight. Starf***er and Casiokids are playing in about ohhh about in an hour. And it's free. Note: I don't work for/promote anybody, I'm just giving a heads-up in case anyone cares. I'm going myself after all...
anybody here catch the death from above riot? i was pepper sprayed and arrested, charged with an open container. the austin police department acted belligerently, although i sympathize with them. they were in a horrible position, and that was because of awful planning by sxsw-powers-that-be and beauty bar as well for allowing a show that was unannounced and still drew 500 alley-gawkers and then expecting the police cavalry to ride in and fix the day. it was way worth it.
i only went wed-fri and left all 3 days before the sun went down - i wanted to come out saturday, but i was physically exhausted - i am offically old! got to see mike watt at the gingerman w/ about 60 people. he played his new album from start to finish - sounds more like the minutemen than anything else he has done since then - really good set. amazing malawian singer named khaira arby w/ a kick-ass band featuring one of the best guitar players i have seen in awhile. liturgy - no-holds-barred black metal from brooklyn. these guys make slayer seem like p*****s. saw them twice. white denim - best band in austin right now. they are groin-grabbingly good. my friends went to the strokes show - they actually saw the stampede first hand - right as they crossed the 1st street bridge and tried to walk in they heard someone say "its full capacity, nobody else is getting in" and some people just kicked the fence down and everyone spilled in.
You see the Death From Above footage? Nuts. Usually, I do my research and compile a list of bands/acts I want to see. I changed it up a bit this year and decided to wing it. I had fun. There's just a few things I want to say regarding my week: Mister Heavenly is a joke. Donald Glover is the man. Best Wurst never fails.
<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/EUiuCjIllO4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> i'm the guy in the phillies hat. skip to 3:38... shows me getting a cup of water, and then my peppered eyes. i also received a personal phone call from sebastien grainger on the following day, really just to say thanks and to see if i was ok. what a fantastic thing for him to do, risking his phone number's security and taking time (away from eating rudy's i might add) to take care of their fans. jessie and sebastien are both total class acts. as far as my story, i was arrested for taking footage (which they deleted) of another kid's arrest on my iphone, although i was charged with an open container. mind you, i had no alcohol on me or in me. APD truly created this chaos, it was just dancing until an individual female officer from inside sprayed pepper spray through the fence. that's when the mob ripped down the fence and it went from a dance party to, quite frankly a really scary scene. watch all the videos, there are some really telling ones. i'm still trying to find someone who has footage of my arrest. i know someone has it. i saw, and taped, more people than i could count being tazed, beaten, maced, and trampled by the police horse. add this to the strokes disaster, the camera accident at OMD... what has my sxsw come to? leaving my city lethally congested and hipster hijacked, under martial law is what it seems.
I thought I recognized that alley. It was ridiculous how there was a line inside Beauty Bar to get into the backyard area, but people were freely coming and going through the entrance in the backyard. Sorry that happened to you. APD can be real pricks sometimes.
Thanks but it really wasn't APD's fault. Could sit here and play the "they started it game" but those officers were outnumbered 100 to 1 when it broke out. They were playing defense. I don't care about the pepper spray really, that experience was only an hour all together and like 4 minutes of real suffering. It was much sillier to be arrested for essentially being one of the few to speak my mind about their aggressive censorship. Really wish I could show you guys the video I took, but like I said, Officer Shaw deleted it immediately.
I have an APD story. Me and my Girl spent Wednesday through Friday in Austin to see The Strokes. Waited for 2 hours outside to get good position. It worked:grin: Well Thursday night We go to the camp site at this hippie farm (kinda cool) and decide we need some supplies. We leave the campsite and we see a cop at a stop sign. He followed us for about 5 miles and finally pulls us over when we're close to the freeway. He gets my Girl out and start asking here about shots fired in an area by our site. We didn't hear anything. Then He pulls me out and took forever running my license. Asking me what we're doing in Austin and If I had been drinking. He was being a dick. I have a spotless record and eventually he just let us go but still gave my girl a ticket for failure to use a turn signal going into a feeder. ***hole.
I've never seen such a pathetic bunch of hipster wannabes in my life -- please remain within the safe confines of the Rice Village next year. TIA
Damn ... I have no idea how I forgot this, but I saw LOW at the French Legation and it was damn awesome.
The arrest and violation of your rights was what I was referring to. I understand they have a job to do and under those circumstances things might get hairy. However arresting you for trumped up charge and then basically what amounts to destroying evidence.......typical APD. You should file a complaint if you haven't already.
i saw all the no-name local acts, where the free beer was. also saw sabrosa purr and the rural alberta advantage. we were too drunk, even for star****er saturday afternoon. IFC house FTW.
for anyone who cares... my case was dismissed today (thanks to a police report that looked like it was written in crayon) and a complaint was subsequently filed against officer shaw with APD. moral: protect and exercise your rights. especially that first amendment one.
