I lived in Austin for 5 years and managed to avoid SXSW the entire time, but a couple of weeks ago my old pals Christopher, Dena (former hosts of the House of La Beiga), and Adrian returned from NYC for a short visit during the icky music event. I'm still traumatized by the crap that happened before I finally found them, so I can only tell you that I met up with them at "the warehouse" (home of Bridgette and Jeff) around 3 am.

I was in time to catch A Roman Scandal, who were awesome as usual. The few hard-core kids who were still there were dancing all goofy to their 80's ish sequencer rock. Dwayne and Abigail saw me arrive and showered me with affection and gave me a fake SXSW badge, which could get me into shows ahead of folks with wristbands. After the warehouse show a bunch of us went to the Gay Boy House (jesse thought his housemates were all gay before he moved in). I wouldn't call it the Gay Boy House except A) I have to distinguish it from the Boy House where Jay and Toto live and B) the following chart is written on their kitchen wall:

                                               
	       | gay |not gay |	ultra mega super gay(crossed out) handsome|
harlee	       |  X  |	      |	
marc	       |  X  |	      |	
KrISS	       |  X  |	      |	
machoo (jesse) |     |        |                          X		

I somehow stole 2 hours of sleep that afternoon, then went with Spiderbite to the record convention but was too dazed and sleepy to really appreciate it. I drove him home and went to the Boy House so we could play our South By Soda Pop show. Lots of our friends showed up and we played until we were out of songs and we had degenerated pretty much into our alter ego band, The Fuck Off and Dies.

After that I saw The Kiss Offs reunite at what used to be the Bates Motel for the PeekABoo showcase. I was sad to think that it was the last time I would ever see them play as the Kiss Offs. But I had to run off as soon as they were done so I could catch Trail of Dead at the old Electric Lounge. I got in with my fake badge (thanks Dwayne!), and watched those boys tear it up as always. The bouncers kept trying to keep them away from the monitors, but it was no use, Jason and Conrad kept knocking themselves into equipment as though they were in some sort of trance. I tried to push them back onto the stage, but they ended up falling into the crowd and taking me down with them. Poor Gene got a busted lip; all I got was a few bruises.

After a train hit a truck outside the show, we headed to the Spin party, which was pretty stupid. Once everyone we were with got in, we started trying to figure out what we would do next. Before we filtered out Angie and Conrad had to be pulled off some stupid bubba who accused them of stealing his seat ("I don't see your name on it" was Conrad's 5th grader like response). After that we headed out to Gene's house. I think the high point of the weekend was when 8 am hit and 10 or so kids were still up and wasted and singing "Daydream Believer" in Gene's living room on the piano. I'll just leave you with that image.

chimpee jesus! How long have you been awake? And you don't even do stimulants?! You should Go Home and sleep or something. gosh, kid.