sxsw day 1
Better late than never…
The first day of SXSW (last Wednesday) was just Marc and me – the rest of our posse didn’t arrive until Wednesday night, giving us a chance to take a day off, together, without the babe – the first… ever? We headed to the Mohawk to see Telekinesis!, Kevin Devine, Here We Go Magic and Garotas Suecas (all extremely excellent with, I’m sorry to say, the exception of little Kevie-D – I liked his earlier pseudo-angst stuff better). While looking around at the ultra-hip-masses, trying to reconcile my age and relative un-coolness, I mentioned to Marc how proud I was at the fact that we “have had careers, lived in a few different cities, traveled, created our own business, bought a few houses and are still rockin’ it at a show like this”…”we may be old and have no idea how to dress, but, hey – we’re here right?”… the only response he could muster was “I can’t even look around – I’ll just feel WAY TOO OLD to be here.”
I was in a good mood due mainly to the beautiful sun and ice-cold Lonestar, so I looked around attempting to find something to cheer him up.
It took less than a minute to find it…”You could have stayed in Bakersfield and been those guys!” I said as I pointed to a couple of jock-looking-frat-boys wearing backwards ball caps and loose fitting jeans. This made Marc smile. As I took another look at the boys I had pointed to, I caught a glimpse of “SFIELD” on the back of one of their caps. “You don’t think…?” Marc got a better look and confirmed – yep – “BAKERSFIELD Fire Department”. Uh… yeah.
Turns out they are really nice guys and aware that they stick out like sore thumbs at the uber-hipster-mecca better known as SXSW – which they didn’t care about – which totally earned my respect. We ran into them a few times throughout the week and enjoyed hanging out with our newfound friends from Bako.
After Mohawk we were on to the Paste Magazine party for Port O’Brien, Heartless Bastards, Lonely Dear. EXCELLENT!
Then back to Mohawk for Gringo Star, Vetiver and Elvis Perkins before walking to Red 7 for The Pains of Being Pure At Heart.
We rode our bikes home a little buzzed on beer and the taste of freedom and arrived home to a gorgeous, smiling kid. It was a great day.
Listening: Harlem Shakes
