Thursday was more than just a little bit of a late start for me. Sheer tiredness and a completely nonsensical brain made me stop my recap last night and work on it this morning instead. If you happen to think it was a little long and rambling, I apologize but that is where my head was last night. Today I seem to have gone past that wall and entered a weird state of delirium. Everything just seems so funny to me and although I’m tired and sore, it doesn’t seem to matter as much to me today. Tomorrow might be different, but you never know.

I didn’t make it out of the hotel room until after 1:30pm but I thankfully missed the rain that came down earlier in the day. I started off at on the west side at the Cedar St. Courtyard for some breakfast tacos and Barns Courtney. There was a bit of a lull so the only logical thing to do is trek back to the east side and past the freeway to pick up the line skipper pass for the Rachel Ray party at Stubbs on Saturday. I told you, delirium. Anyways, from there it was back to the more central part of goings on for the Music is Universal party, which was conveniently located around the corner from our hotel. I caught the tail end of The Strumbellas, which included a song of theirs I know (always a perk) and enjoyed some free water, cold air, and space to sit and relax for a bit. The band I was really there for was DNCE and they were exactly the fun and high energy bit of silliness I was anticipating. It was nice to see a band and be able to dance just because it makes you want to move. It was a lovely late afternoon delight that made me feel less bad about not pounding the pavement first thing in the morning like Kristen.

I bopped over to the Westin to catch Flor because it was right next to the YouTube space where I was going to be later. Honestly, I think I was just thankful for a place with a couch to sit on that had air conditioning. Flor was good but I was anxious to get in to YouTube before any kind of crazy line formed and I couldn’t make it in for Lukas Graham. You never know with lines during SXSW. The fates seemed to be on my side because I walked right in and proceeded to get a spot right up front. Also unlike yesterday, no one seemed to be having any technical difficulties and everything was running relatively on time. Huzzah! Also scored some yummy snacks at Youtube which included a layer dip, corn salsa, and a chicken wing. Score for me. If I’m being honest, I had the corn salsa twice. It was that good. You know what else was awesome? The fact that I Lukas Graham played a 45 minute set and I was up front for it. I think he’s someone who is going to just blow up soon. The whole set was amazing and it’s something I’m still talking about hours after the show.

The one disappointment of the evening was hoofing it over to Rainey St. to see Wild Wild Horses at Javelina, and get there only to see the last song and a half because their set time was moved up without your knowledge. Bummer. But you know what? That’s just SXSW and some things can’t be helped. But there is almost always a shot at turning the tide. I walked over to Bar 96 to catch Audiodamn! again and this set was nothing like the other one I saw. They seemed to be loose, energetic, and chomping at the bit to put it all out there. I wish I wasn’t so tired and sore because I would have loved to stayed up front and stuck it out for the whole set but I couldn’t. I would like to think that their crazy awesome energy was enough to carry me back to the hotel room for a recharge. I mean, those guys were tearing up the place and everyone I saw seemed to be totally digging them. Kudos!

It was time for one last jaunt across the river to the Continental Club for Eli “Paperboy” Reed. He was enjoyable but not entirely what I had anticipated. As Kristen said, he had a Willie Moon vibe but I also picked up a bit more of a punk/ska thing too. But don’t quote me on it. I wanted to get back to downtown for The Young Wild and Mainland at Esther Follies but ended up at a party at the historic Arlyn Studio. At this point, it was pushing 1am and I just couldn’t hang anymore. But the studio had a wonderful vibe, lots of cool space, awesome vintage things, and plenty of comfortable seating. It was a lovely way to end my evening.