SXSW | Wait, is that Randy Jackson?

Let's start this off by saying that the city of Austin is LIVE this week - and in every sense of the word. The place is crawling with people from all walks of life. We've got the nerds, the uber nerds, the too-cool-for-school hipsters, the ultra talented musicians, the greasy businessmen, the aspiring actors and the wandering bloggers just to name a few. The sound of music fills the streets at all hours of the day, making us feel strangely at home in a city we've never visited. The street art has us snapping photos at every corner and wishing that we could draw (paint?) graffiti. Anyways, Austin is cool ya'll, come for a visit.

Cutting to the chase now: we walked into the free McDonald's tent to get a BigMac and there he was, our American Idol, Randy Jackson. Fresh faced and ready to shake hands, Randy readily told us that he was most stoked to see his band North of Nine hit the stage (TONIGHT AT 8PM YAHOO'S BRAZOS HALL) as well as Tove Lo (TOMORROW AND THURSDAY). Very solid, happy dude.

Highlight of the day was definitely seeing Spoon perform. We've been huge fans for years and it was a good full-circle moment. Their stage presence is electric. They played a good mix of the classics and their new stuff. To our dismay they didn't play our favourite track, "Rainy Taxi" but that wasn't a shock- it definitely wouldn't fit the vibe of a party entitled, "TUMBLR FUCK YEAH" hosted by the booze hounds from Entourage. At one point they had the audience absolutely zooming! There were coloured beach balls bouncing off the finger tips of moshers and devoted fans screaming along to every word.

We then zipped inside to resume our Austin Fire Eagle high and see some Kali Uchis (Amy Winehouse reincarnate?) and BADBADNOTGOOD, and as per they were incredible. The room was small and absolutely packed - the ideal place to sweat and groove; so sweat and groove we did. They tapped into some unreleased material that was pretty dope and brought the house down with their Flying Lotus cover and some UNRELEASED material...we may have some vid of that one...nudge nudge, wink WINK.

Can't lie, our feet were happy to see the house after the end of our first 14 hour day. Tomorrow we have Future Islands, Max Frost, Vic Mensa and lots to learn at the conference! Stayed tuned.