Hey friends. After one million years away, I’ve finally returned home from what felt like the longest trip in the history of trips. Normally this would not be a problem, but at SXSW, there is no rest, ever, and after many days, this wears you down to the point where you want to do nothing but return home. You see, I had already purchased a flight to go to the music portion when I learned I was chosen by my company to go to the interactive conference as well. Having never been to SXSW, I was a bit apprehensive that this might all be too much, and it turned out I was right. I arrived Thursday the 8th and by the following Thursday, I wanted nothing more than to return home.

Now don’t get me wrong, I had a blast the whole time, and I love long vacations, but I just need a LITTLE bit of downtime and a good night’s sleep here and there. Interactive was awesome and really interesting and way different than music, but I thought I’d just share a few highlights of the music portion since that’s what we do here. These highlights only count anything that happened up to Saturday morning because that was the point where I got sick and didnt do anything for 2 days until my Monday flight home.

Major highlights included:

- Finally seeing Matthew Dear live, twice, two nights in a row. I also could have seen him for the third night in a row (and second time at Club DeVille) as part of the Ghostly showcase, but I thought that might have been a little overkill. I also happened to be standing next to his mom and brother the first night and chatted with them a bit (really great, friendly people) since we did have the whole Michigan connection thing going on. Kinda want to be in Matthew Dear’s band

- Finally seeing Zola Jesus live. Along with Matthew Dear, she was that act that I loved that’s been to town several times but that I’ve just never been able to see for one reason or another. I knew she was a tiny gal but was even tinier in person. I guess I didn’t expect her to be such an energetic performer, so that was awesome. My favorite part was when she weaved her way through the entire crowd during “Seekir” for a good part of the song. Is it creepy that I waited outside of the weird greenroom at Club DeVille so that I could ask her for a hug? She graciously accepted my request and thanked me for coming to the show and I swooned. My light stalking was under the guise of standing next to a huge fan, though, because it was hot up in there.

- The Friday night backyard show put on by Stadiums and Shrines and all of the folks staying at the Moon House. It was a quintessentially non SXSW event but as I was 9 days in at that point, a relaxing show full of really unique artists in a quiet backyard with 20 or so fantastic people and a campfire and some gin, melons, and adult chocolate milk were pretty much the best Friday night I ever could have asked for. Also, that non-bro bro Jordan who performs as Mutual Benefit is the funniest son of a bitch I’ve met in a while. You should listen to his music and buy it.

- The one hour spent at the Friends of Friends party. For a brief moment in time at 5pm in the dark, smokey basement of Barcelona, we were transported to another place where the only thing you could do was dance the hardest. Big ups to NGUZUNGUZU and Salva for laying down those magical beats.

- A brief chat with Star Slinger in which he mentioned that he had gotten a lot of followers from my blog. He could have been lying, but either way it made me feel kind of cool.

- EVERY AWESOME PERSON I MET. Probably the main highlight. Besides getting to see and hang out with all my blog friends that I’ve met and hung out with in the past, I met a ton more in person, many of whom I’ve chatted with quite a bit on the internets and many with whom I had not yet been acquainted. This is pretty much the main reason I like to go to these things. Because there is a guaranteed contingent of cool people that I like but never see elsewhere. I also met a decent amount of non blog related Detroit people who I hope to see around town in the future.

My only regret really is not keeping track of how many whiskey shots were consumed and how many miles were walked over those way too many days in Austin. I may or may not go to SXSW again (ask me in a month or so when the sad memories of the last few days have worn away) but I’m glad I got to see what all the fuss was about. I’m kind of interested in starting some sort of blogger hangout where we can all just hang for a few days without the stress of running all over town to catch buzz bands, because I think that would be rad. Thoughts?

Here are some tunes from Mutual Benefit, because I like what he does and he tells funny stories and gives me cassettes sometimes. Photo above courtesy of Mr. Tim Thompson, one of the many awesomes I became acquainted with last week.