The events on the evening in question...

Probably the most fortuitous thing to happen to me at SXSW, was to not be able to get into the AM Only showcase. Stuck with no other options, I reached out to friends, and thus began one of the crazier strings of events of the entire weekend.........

I've already given the basic synopsis here. I thought I'd give a few more snipits, followed by the much promised videos.

Apparently, every year truly DIY parties are thrown on a nondescript bridge, (or bridges; I have no idea) somewhere outside of downtown Austin. After several texts for directions, much use of the GPS on my phone, and far too much walking, I finally stumbled onto the scene of punkdom assembled. Weaving through the crowd towards the area of greatest congregation, I found a little area where several people were attempting to set up sound gear. (I say attempting, because the bridge was packed with the largest crowd I'd seen all weekend....) When the mock stage was finally set, on walked the members of the amazing, blazing punk rock (no, real punk rock, not that garbage your little brother listens to) band Annihilation Time. This is a group who I had formally not payed much attention to, but now I have seen the light. After a rain of shoes, (Sorry Converse, your product placement was absolutely wasted), the first note struck, and all hell broke loose. You would have thought you were at a house show in Richmond, with the amount of chaos taking place, on a pedestrian bridge, over water.....

Needless to say, you can't make out very much in this video, and I rather think that's a perfect representation of the set. If I had not stopped filming when I did, my flip vid would have been totally destroyed........


SXSW#16: Annhihlation Time on a bridge from Denman C Anderson on Vimeo.

Having thrown myself into the mix like a twelve year old, I was pretty done after this. As the Vivian Girls floated on waves of hype in the distance, I ran into my friend, super-photographer, Josh Sisk, who insisted I follow him to a rave. After several discussions of plan finality, we actually ended up going to the iheartcomix showcase first. This would have been somewhere between 2:00 and 4:00 in the morning, I really have no idea. Regardless of the time, the place was still going strong. The dance floor was both massive and packed, but not as much as the stage was. Through the throngs, and photogs, I was able to get some brief footage of Drop the Lime, was keeping the crowd at about 110%:


SXSW#17: Drop the lime at iheartcomix from Denman C Anderson on Vimeo.

You know you won't be at a place very long when the floor is covered with mud, even though all that surrounds it is concrete, and all that is left to drink is diet vitamin water and tequila. Well, such was the case for us. Not long after we arrived, the music was cut, the lights were thrown on, and the emphatic voices began to herd everyone outside. The parking lot became a sharkpool of cab seekers. All bets were off, even if you had called the cab in question. This was how I ended up, over an hour later, in a cab with two people who I did not really know. Where were we headed? I didn't really know that either, but I was told that it was a "rave." Now, we are all familiar with the common misuse of this term by the contemporary DJ crowd, but, oh no, once I made my way to the back of a series of storage units, it was a rave indeed. This was a full on 1995 era event, replete with glow sticks, pacifiers, lazers, and far far too many brightly colored bracelets. People were doing complicated skipping moves from some Rabit in the Moon video, and everyone was looking for their invisible globe. In the worst way possible, it blew my mind. At this point, 6:00 a.m., I was far too exhausted to take decent video, but none the less felt compelled to chronicle this. So, while it might not be cable quality, here is a rough idea of what that experience was like:


SXSW#18: Rave Time!! from Denman C Anderson on Vimeo.

Somewhere around 6:30 I decided to call a cab to the middle of nowhere, and, luckily, eventually I got one..........

No this is not the end, this is merely the midpoint!