SXSW Recovery and Recap
It's almost two weeks now since SXSW has ended, and I'm finally writing my last post. As expected, SXSW took a huge toll on my immune system. Monday through Wednesday of last week I suspected I had a fever, and I woke up Tuesday in the middle of the night with horrible chills. I didn't have any trouble working, but I did stay home sick on Wednesday just because I was feeling guilty about getting others sick. By Thursday I was feeling better. My illness was actually a blessing in disguise, because it did motivate me last Wednesday to find a new doctor. My old doctor retired three years ago and I hadn't seen one since. Yesterday I had my first physical in years.
SXSW was definitely worth it for me. Still, I felt that I was tricked into buying a wristband with the lottery deal. Everyone that entered the lottery won, so it's not like the wristbands were really in demand that much. But this is another blessing in disguise, because I doubt I would have bought a wristband otherwise. While it did work for me, I wouldn't recommend the wristband to your typical concert-goer. You have to be someone who wants to see lots of bands you'd never heard of before. I am fairly certain of all the bands I saw during SXSW, I had only heard of one or two of them previously. If you're wanting to see the well-known acts, you're better off seeing them at ACL or at a regular concert.
I previously thought I would be happy staying at one venue all night and enjoy seeing whatever bands were there, which I did a few years ago one night. If you are happy doing that every night, you will definitely save money over the wristband. But, the flexibility of the wristband does have value. I thought I would be annoyed by walking from venue to venue throughout the night, but there was enough different in the atmosphere and crowd at each place that it always renewed the excitement and made it more fun.
I was listening to the Sound Opinions podcast which I blogged about before, and it was their show on SXSW. It was great to hear their reviews of the live shows they saw, and compare them to my experience. We actually both commented on the same show, and I'll give you one guess which one it was!
Next year I plan on doing the same, or stepping it up by taking off of work to see the free day shows and parties in addition to the showcases, or maybe even getting a badge so I can get to the actual conference.
Still can't get enough live music--probably Mohawk tomorrow night.
SXSW was definitely worth it for me. Still, I felt that I was tricked into buying a wristband with the lottery deal. Everyone that entered the lottery won, so it's not like the wristbands were really in demand that much. But this is another blessing in disguise, because I doubt I would have bought a wristband otherwise. While it did work for me, I wouldn't recommend the wristband to your typical concert-goer. You have to be someone who wants to see lots of bands you'd never heard of before. I am fairly certain of all the bands I saw during SXSW, I had only heard of one or two of them previously. If you're wanting to see the well-known acts, you're better off seeing them at ACL or at a regular concert.
I previously thought I would be happy staying at one venue all night and enjoy seeing whatever bands were there, which I did a few years ago one night. If you are happy doing that every night, you will definitely save money over the wristband. But, the flexibility of the wristband does have value. I thought I would be annoyed by walking from venue to venue throughout the night, but there was enough different in the atmosphere and crowd at each place that it always renewed the excitement and made it more fun.
I was listening to the Sound Opinions podcast which I blogged about before, and it was their show on SXSW. It was great to hear their reviews of the live shows they saw, and compare them to my experience. We actually both commented on the same show, and I'll give you one guess which one it was!
Next year I plan on doing the same, or stepping it up by taking off of work to see the free day shows and parties in addition to the showcases, or maybe even getting a badge so I can get to the actual conference.
Still can't get enough live music--probably Mohawk tomorrow night.
Labels: music
posted by PlaysByEar at 11:21 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home