Today being the official start of music means we would normally spend our day picking up wristbands and credentials and then sampling some bands later in the day. That did not hold true for SXSW this year as today was Convergence Day, a brand thing here where people from film, interactive, and music get to co-mingle, talk, and share ideas.

The day started at a podcast mixer full of the best kinds of nerds. We met someone who works for a company with a watch-like device where it records audio on a continual one minute loop and if you tap it, it will save the audio. I guess for parents who want to save precious moments it’s a cool thing but I can only imagine people saving some of the dumb things that come out of my mouth. That’s what Twitter is for, right? Anyway, after chatting with some interesting people at the mixer, we wandered over to pick up our Hype Hotel wristbands and the sky decided that it was going to not really rain or mist but it was going to just spit on us. Interesting. After picking up the wristband, we wandered over to Spotify House and picked up some snacks while we waited for the first act, Vérité, to start playing. Next up, we had BØRNS rocking the stage.

 

After catching a few songs from BØRNS, we ambled over to Cheer Up Charlies to catch a few songs of LMN favorite Dear Boy at their first set of SXSW. Despite having just arrived in Austin, they played an awesome set. Although we didn’t stay for the entirety of it, some dancing happened. And it was good.

 

From Cheer Up Charlies, it’s was a mad dash down to the Rainey Street area to the StubHub/Culture Collide event at Clive Bar. We made it inside 3 songs in to the Irontom set and danced the rest of the set away. We even got to hear a new song from them called, “My Body.” Pretty rad.

 

Hellos, hugs, and love ensued followed by schedule chats, events to see and the like. After that, it was time to check out a panel on music and the brain, “Music As Personalized Medicine.” It was a very intriguing discussion of how music is medicine for each of us in a unique and individual way and the steps being taken to study just how that works in the brain. Something that I personally loved that was said during the panel was that music can cross bridges and do different things for different people. So true.

Pre-dinner was grabbed from my personal favorite food truck, Chi’lantro, which consisted of pork bulgogi kimchi fries. Best. Thing. Ever. It was just as amazing and I remembered it. And yes, I had to share a photo of it.

Next up was Red Eyed Fly for a taste of Holy Esque before jumping down to Yahoo’s Brazos Hall for James Hersey. That was by far the best venue of the day. Large space, power outlets for charging, free ice cold canned water (weird, right?!), and ample space to sit on the floor. We also really enjoyed the set from Buffalo Sunn there as well. Can’t wait to catch another set from them this week!

The evening was rounded out with Catfish and The Bottlemen at Latitude 30 for an all around stellar day.

 

It only gets crazier from here and there are so many amazing bands to see tomorrow! Some of our top picks for the day are…

12:30pm and 1pm- Walking on Cars and Until the Ribbon Breaks @ Holy Mountain
2pm- James Bay @Radio Day Stage ACC
3:50pm and 4:40pm- Fatherson and Mallory Knox @ Latitude 30
7pm and 8pm- Jamestown Revival and Misterwives @ Republic SX Compound
9:45pm- Dead Sara @ The Des Moines Embassy
10pm- Highly Suspect @ The Trophy Club
12am- Jared & The Mill @ Esther Follies