The Suite 16: SXSW Day 1: Runnin' with the Devil

My SXSW '07 experience started with the best of omens. At 7am, I board my plane at La Guardia and spot Michael Anthony from Van Halen sitting in first class! At first glance I didn't recognize him without the Jack Daniels bass. He must've ditched it at curbside check-in.

From there, I hit a hurdle. My connecting flight was delayed, so I landed in Austin late. 3:45pm to be exact. And I was scheduled to be on a publicity panel at 4pm. My co-panelist, the immutable Andy Schwartz, was also late due to a delayed flight, so we hooked up in the airport and sped off to the Convention Center. We called ahead to tell the SXSW folks we were late. When we arrived, we were treated like actual important people, and whisked past the throngs of registrants in line for badges, directly to our panel, where our third co-panelist, former Houston Chronicle music critic Rick Mitchell, had been holding down the fort. Andy told some funny stories, I stayed late to answer extra questions, and everything worked out fine in the end.

Next up, the Shore Fire/eMusic "Drinks at the Driskill" do. We had, by a good measure, our best turnout to date. Highlights included meeting our good buddy Kevin O'Hare of the Springfield Republican, in town for his first-ever SXSW, and having my mind blown by Fred Mills when he told me he saw one of my favorite bands of all time, Eggs Over Easy, live in the 70s.

From there, Carla and I walked a couple blocks down Congress to catch Future Clouds and Radar blow the roof off The Light Bar. Actually, they played under a tarp, but you know what I mean.

I then popped into the Austin Music Awards to catch SXSW keynoter Pete Townshend sit in with Ian McLagan from the Faces, before walking over to Stubb's to see Lily Allen tell the audience she was quite drunk and insult the male anatomy of a staffer at the show's sponsor, the NME. Kids today!