I would ignore trolls like leRoy. Their entire motto is if he ain't one of us, he's just saying it to piss us off. Like radical Islamists who think people who draw their prophet or give them any criticize need to be killed. It's that kind of backwards thinking that halts progression.
This is true, SXSW isn't much on spectacle. Your assessment sounds like the guy in the video was just looking for something that wasn't there. He should do more research next time
haha aww cmon, you ARE an instigator. I don't even mean that in a bad way, but people thinking your motives are less than pure kinda comes with the territory, no?
I don't think slandering your own stereotypes of Austinites is really an apt description, especially considering that it wasn't locals that hurt things. If anything it was the support from locals that made the trip worthwhile for us. SXSW isn't a festival in the same sense as Cochella or Glastonbury. It's a convention for the music industry. Music just happens to be the product. Having played there, it was more of an opportunity for a lot of music industry types (especially the New York ones) to drink on someone else's dime. In a few cases, that was MY dime (lousy music PR scum). It was also a place for corporations to fly their flags, and have their names and product samples everywhere. In my case, local support was superb, and the industry attention we were hoping to get was nowhere to be found. They were off at a party talking about where the next party was...or going to shows only for badge holders for the few A-list shows that were there. I still managed to make connections, but none were industry ones in TEXAS, which was sort of the point for me. I met more music industry people from LA, New York and London than I did from Austin, and few of the conversations I had or heard had much to do with music. There was a lot of being told by the PR guy to go somewhere where we were on a list...and just sitting in an open bar, and maybe getting photographed in free sunglasses under the pretense that someone important wanted to meet us or interview us. "OMG, Zach, there's an amazing party here, you gotta come." "Really? Is there someone there you want us to meet?" "No...but just really great, the coke is amazing and my friend is gonna DJ!" I can't say playing in SXSW was any different than playing the shows we did in San Antonio or Houston, or for that matter, Dripping Springs or Port Aransas. But I think that says more about the way Texas audiences are good ones than anything else. Since we've been back, we've received a lot of emails from fans who bought the album, and offers to play in Texas again for considerably more money. If the plane ticket wasn't so expensive, I'd be headed to Houston right now. It was only when we actually played music that the industry scum were nowhere to be found and local people actually listened to us and stayed to talk afterwards. If anything I saw that Austin still has a soul despite the efforts to exploit it by guys from Brooklyn with coke habits as The Next Of Many Parties. As soon as it was over, they were all on planes to Miami for yet another industry event. I was still glad to go and it gave me an excuse to play other places in Texas, and for that I am grateful, but the trip cost my band over $10K and I have little to show for it so far. If I wanted to to drink wrecklessly, listen to electronic music and ogle drunk chicks I could have stayed in Tel Aviv. If that's your bag, Honey Bear, I suggest a summer trip to here or Ibiza.
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