Misadventures at SXSW. There is FREE BBQ in this story!

Yesterday, we were supposed to move but didn't. Foti and I were pretty bummed because we were all packed and ready to go. It's looking like next week will be THE week. Instead of feeling sorry for ourselves, we decided to take a much needed break and have some fun. What better time then now? It's SXSW and there a gazillion things to do on every street corner downtown. Mostly 6th street, but you get the drift.


We started off by listening to this band, The Jimmys on the rooftop of the Blind Pig. They were from Wisconsin, but jammed like total pros! I even caught t-shirt they threw in the crowd, but my luck didn't end there. It was only the beginning. The next band that came on couldn't get their mics to work and when they did, I wished they went back to not working. We decided to skip out before the second song ended. Afterwards, we met up with Lauren and Justin. Lauren is a co-worker of Foti's and Justin is her fiance. So glad we did! They were a ton of fun.

We were walking around aimlessly and got pulled into the Chuggin Monkey by this abnormally tall woman with a British accent. She told us there was a new hot band called "BoomKat" and there was free BBQ at the bar. The first thing that got my attention was FREE BBQ!!! Duh. Then the next obvious question, "What the &%*&^(* is a bar doing serving BBQ?" All I can say is it's SXSW and anything pretty much goes. There's nothing normal about anything right now. It's kinda beautiful. I stood out like a sore thumb wearing my festive, summer, H&M outfit I got from LA a couple months ago. Meanwhile, if I had a tongue ring, some other choice piercings, vintage attire, neon colored hair and hadn't bathed in a week, I would have fit in just fine. You gotta love Austin for that reason alone!



Anyway, back to BoomKat! She was actually pretty damn good. Of course Lauren and I HAD to be in the front row after scarfing down a big plate of BBQ and fixings! We had our beers in hand and pretended to sing along to the bands song. I should clarify band too. It was a lead singer and 2 guys on keyboards with major amps. Still, TOTALLY a band! While she was singing, Lauren turns to me and swears this girl looks familiar. She was like, "Is that the girl from the movie Crazy Beautiful?"

I glanced at her and was like," Is that the same girl from Crossroads? The movie with Britney Spears?"

Lauren looks at me and asks," Are you going to ask her?"

I scream back at her(only because it's VERY loud and we're literally in the front row), "Should I ask her??"

Without missing a beat, song ends. She looks at me and says, "Ask me what? ASK ME!" So I did and she screams back, "Yes and I was in Crazy Beautiful. Do you want my bio?" She was being funny and really cool about it. We were dying! She was actually a great musician. Her sond, STOMP is very catchy and I love it. Of course Foti being business had to talk to her publicist to get an interview at Perez Hilton's party tonight. Wah-wah. I got a pic on his camera phone.(It's eh.)


Well our SXSW misadventure had only begun. Since recently joining TWITTER, it like I've been exposed to a new batch of internet junkies. I decided to "follow" SXSW's official twitter page and oh, so glad that I did. They posted they were having a taping for VH1 SAVE THE MUSIC event and it looked like a press only thing. I remembered the address and begged Foti to use his press badge to get us in. Since Lauren had hers too, that meant her and Justin could hang too. WRONG! They both forgot their badges. What were we going to do? Luckily, Justin and I are pretty sweet talkers. Even though Lauren and Foti were doing eye rolls in the background, we purged ahead. So glad we were shameless because we got in! While Lauren and Foti were talking shop to all the "important" people like publicists, people at VH1, etc...we were enjoying the free booze and bands.
There was this one guy, the main guy, Jason Reeves who did a phenomenal job. He was fantastic live. He almost had a Jason Mraz feel with a bit of Jack Johnson. He even went off mic and just played his guitar and sang for the audience. You could here a pin drop. It was definitely a lot more low-key then most SXSW music, but equally enjoyable nonetheless. In fact, more so in a lot of ways. All I know is that I will be downloading his stuff on itunes. Perfect cooking in my new kitchen music!!!


At the end, Foti and I came home to enjoy some burgers & onion rings from Player's Burger surrounded by boxes on our couch. We watched an episode of 30 Rock before dozing off. What a great night!!