South by Southwest

(This post is filled with links.. if you're interested they will take you to different songs from the artists listed)

This year Madelyn and I attended the South by Southwest music conference here in town. The best part of the weekend is that everything was free! Our awesome friend Lorena is some sort of free SXSW party expert... she sent us invitations everyday to different parties... all we had to do was RSVP! Once we were in the parties everything was free...free drinks, free food, and FREE music. This weekend we saw the reunion of American Analog Set (a band I love), Peter, Bjorn and John, Kanye West, Common and Erykah Badu. Amazing...

Here are the pictures of our adventures at SXSW!

On Thursday I took a little time off work to go downtown and enjoy the festival. Unfortunately, Madelyn had to work and go to class. Luckily Lorena was nice enough to let me tag along with her. They were handing out free custom t-shirts at one venue, so Lorena and I stood in line for them, but here's the catch. You had to spend 2 minutes in a photo booth and Ray Ban can use these pictures at any time. Lorena and I wanted those t-Shirts so we went in the photo booth together to expedite the process.... pretty funny pictures.

Later Thursday I caught Juliette Lewis (yes, the actress) playing with her band. They were like a really hard rock band... let me tell you, that Juliette Lewis has a lot of energy! Besides Juliette Lewis this was the place of my only celebrity sighting... Randy from My Name is Earl was there to see the show.

This is Madelyn in line for her wristband to Fader Fort, which hosted the Peter, Bjorn and John Show as well as the Kanye show. The Kanye show was a big rumor at the festival... the venue didn't announce it until a few hours before the show, so we were glad we already heard the rumor, had our wristbands and were in line!

Waiting in line.... again. This time for American Analog Set, one of my favorites. They've been broken up for a while and this was their reunion show.

Inside the American Analog Set show.... we scored some actual seats!

Great view for American Analog Set!

Between shows on Friday we went so the American Apparel Flea Market... all their clothes were like 4 bucks. We're not really American Apparel fans, but we are fans of cheap clothes. We walked away with some really great stuff.

Later that night we saw Peter, Bjorn and John. This is Madelyn and Lorena waiting for the show... again, we scored a resting place!

That's Peter, Bjorn and John on stage.

Saturday rolled around and we took a break from the festival to go and buy a car, but we made it back downtown to see Kanye West! FOR FREE! This was definitely a memorable concert.

Madelyn, Jessica and Lorena waiting for Kanye.

Kanye West...

Then he brings out Common...

And if that wasn't enough... he brings out Erykah Badu...

Not bad for a free show!

We had a great time at the festival and I'm planning on taking full advantage of it next year! We're lucky to live in a place that has this type of thing... it's just so much fun! We even had time to take the dogs to the dog park... it really was a great weekend!