Sara Montour SXSW Day 1 slideshow and report

(Photos and text by Sara Montour)

After 24 hours in an RV along with eight comrades, I made it to Austin for my first SXSW experience. Thursday was our first full day at the festival, and we started off by going over to the Fader Fort to get our wristbands. On the way Gabe got attacked by a cactus (after I bad-mouthed it), and we ran into the guys from White Light Riot and Eric Lovold from the Alarmists.

We grabbed our wristbands and then made our way back to 6th Street to get some free Red Stripe and breakfast tacos at Peckerhead's. We scored some free Red Stripe, but Gabe and Paul stole all of the breakfast tacos, leaving Josh and me starving all day.

First up at Peckerhead's was Roadside Graves from New Jersey. They brought tons of energy and were a fun start to SXSW. Port O'Brien was up next and rocked my socks off. Twitter was buzzing the night before because of their show and I understood why after seeing them. Just listen to "I Woke Up Today" and try not to dance and/or sing along.

After Port O'Brien we found out that fellow Minneapolitans Roster McCabe were playing at the Belmont so we left our free drinks and hustled over to see them play. We danced it out to a few of their songs before making our way back over to Peckerhead's to see Megafaun. I'd only seen them once, but that one show (with the Rosebuds and Justin Vernon at the Turf Club) was one of my favorites of the past year, so I was super excited to hear them again. They played a bunch of new songs, had bad ass beards and didn't disappoint.

Ignoring that there are 7 million venues on 6th Street we left Peckerhead's and walked back over to the Belmont to see Roster McCabe play a second show. Before them was Mandy Lauderdale, who isn't really my style, but she's a definite performer and had the crowd amused the entire time. Fellow RV-rider, Krista, was less amused, though, when Mandy threw a glass on the ground to break it as part of her act. Right after Mandy told the audience "don't worry, it won't bite", Krista looked down to find blood streaming down her leg. As it turns out shattered glass DOES bite. Who knew?