It’s come down to this.  The end of my spring trip.  Nearly 6 weeks after I got back from my trip and nearly two months to the day before I left New York for Austin I am finally finishing getting up these photos.  I took over 10,000 images over 25 days and edited them all twice.  Once for my clients and once for this web site.  And here we are, the last two galleries, and the last day. Thank god I can finally get back to my real life.

The second to last gallery consists of the bands that I didn’t take enough pictures of to warrant a gallery on their own. When I started organizing the pictures I figured there would be more than just three bands in this gallery, but it is what it is.  When I shot The Walkmen I wasn’t happy with the quality of light so I edited the gallery down to just a handful of pictures, none of which I was super happy with.  The pictures I took of Men I liked a bit more but I only caught their last song or two and I was at a weird angle because I was on the side of the stage waiting for Hollywood Holt to go on. And the last band were The Moonrats and I just had no idea who they were and I just grabbed a few shots while I was hanging out with people.

So yeah, it’s all very exciting.  Ill be back in a bit with my very last SXSW gallery, but for now click here to see a few pictures from The Walkmen, Men and the Moon Rats at SXSW 2010.

Speaking of the Levi’s Fader Fort, here are the handful of crowd shots I took while I was there.  For some reason it felt like I took a lot more, but I guess I didn’t.  Highlights of my Fader Fort experience this year included hanging out with this rad local girl I see every year, running into my ex’s friends at the same spot I met my ex at one year earlier, and of course getting free jeans.  I pretty much wear the same pants eveery day and they are Levi’s 511’s and they seem to last about a year, so I just keep getting Levi’s to hook me up every time I come back to SXSW so I am always wearing free pants.  Thanks Christian & Levi’s!

Anyway, if you aren’t a SXSW regular the Levi’s Fader Fort is a huge open place with free booze and cheap food and lots of bands.  You can just meet up with everyone there during the day and then head out to whatever adventures you are getting into. They have a place to charge your phone and computers to check your email and your schedule. They have a silly photobooth and free t-shirts and all sorts of madness. It’s a good time.

Click here to see a handful of crowd shots from the 2010 Levi’s Fader Fort at SXSW.

So I am getting real fucking sick of apologising for photos not being up when I say then will be because of my of my gallery fuck ups. I will be dealing with that problem soon.  Yesterday was partially my fault as I didn’t get started working until pretty late but the pictures should have been up by 11pm and they didn’t finish uploading until closer to 11am.

Anyway, here are pictures of The Local Natives at the Fader Fort.  I took their picture because someone I was hanging out with told me they were really good.  Honestly it was so long ago I don’t even remember who told me much less what the band sounded like.  So let’s just assume they were awesome and move on.  We only have 3 more SXSW updates after this one.  Sorry for not giving you your due Natives, but I did take some nice pictures of you guys.

Everyone can see the photos of the Local Natives at the Levis Fader Fort at SXSW by clicking right here.

The first band I saw at SXSW was Crystal Fighters.  I had been shooting SXSW Film stuff all day and I had just grabbed some food when I ran in to Anton Glamb and my friend Arden who I actually met at SXSW 2 years earlier.  I told them I was headed to check out the Lose Control party at a club called Vice.  I didn’t really know what was going on but I had a few hours to kill until my friends band Shells played so I figured it would be as good time as any to check the party.  It was pretty late when we got there and they only had “special guests” playing so we had no idea who we would see.  Anton took off but Arden and I found some empty stools by the stage and hung out.  This band came on and they were pretty fucking awesome but we had no idea who they were.  I took some photos and I thought they looked great.  In retrospect they weren’t that awesome but I still had a lot of fun.  Plus I had a seat for the first time in days so that was nice.  Arden would watch my bag while I would shoot for a few songs and then I would get to sit down.  The whole thing ruled. We found out the band was Crystal Fighters which Arden was excited to see anyway.  Prince Terrance and one of the dudes from the Bronx met us and they were psyched about the Fighters as well.  You should probably check them out if you get the chance.

You can click here to see the slightly dissapointing, but still kinda nice photos of Crystal Fighters at Loose Control 2 at Vice at SXSW in Austin, TX.

So guess what? After the two posts I am putting up today from the Lose Control 2 party at Vice I have only 3 more SXSW updates.  I realize this stuff happened almost two months ago, but damn, I was busy and I took a lot of fucking photos. Better late that never… Let’s just keep it moving.

I went to Lose Control with my friend Arden, we came to just check out the place and heard a bad we wanted to see was playing late there.  I don’t even remember who it was, but I never got to see them because I ended up leaving to see my friends band play across the street. I did get a chance to see Hey Champ.  I actually don’t remember much about them because it was so long ago and they were the second band I shot out of 50 that week.  I do remember that they were fun to shoot and that two girls were flirting with me while I was shooting them.  That was a lot of fun.

Anyway, I have three updates for today and it’s already 10 PM so we are gonna just have to keep it moving.  Click here to see the pictures of Hey Champ at Loose Control 2 at Vice at SXSW in Austin. Yeah.

So The Bronx are an LA punk band you have probably heard of. For some crazy awesome reason they released a traditional Mariachi album and now they play both punk sets and Mariachi sets under the name Mariachi El Bronx. I think this is all very brilliant but instead of telling you about their show at Mess With Texas I am going to instead tell you the story of how I came to know of the Bronx.

I had heard of the Bronx before, but only because friends of mine dig them.  I had never heard them or anything until last summer when I was in LA. I had been hired to shoot a Vice Mag party in NYC but I couldn’t do it because I went out to LA to shoot both a porn convention and a marijuana convention by the LA Weekly.  One night after the porn convention I was talking to Burning Angel star Jessie Lee.  She told me that Vice was having the same party in LA as they were in NYC and we should go to it.  Her friend Jorma was DJing.  So we head out there and Jorma thought he could get her in but not me and she didn’t want to stand around alone while he was DJing.  So we got in line but the line wasn’t moving.  In front of us I heard some hot girls talking about how they had gone to the porn convention and were talking about how ugly the girls would.  I took slight offense to this as porn girls are my peoples, and asked them if they thought Jessie was ugly.  They said she was hot and asked her about porn stuff.  Turns out they were Jorma’s friends too and couldn’t get in.  Right then someone came by with info on another party so we decided to fuck the Vice party and head there.  I had a 2 door compact rental car, but some how we fit 7 people in it with four in the back seat and one person in the trunk.  We went to this party that had tons of free booze but no one was there and it smelled like gasoline.  We left within five minutes and headed to some bar.  I hit it off with two of the girls and I started making out with both of them.  Jorma then showed up and it turns out he was the drummer for the Bronx and that he and I have a ton of mutual friends.  He was friends with the girls I was making out with so everyone was getting along.  We had a lot of fun at the bar, but the kids we had just met wanted to go hit up their friends bar to see if they could get free drinks before last call.  Jessie and Jorma wanted to go back to Jorma’s house.  I had the only car so I didn’t know what to do. Jorma offered to take a cab but somehow I felt that wouldn’t have been cool since he didn’t live that far away.  We fit all 8 people in my two door rental car, with Jessie and Jorma in the back.  I drove them two his place at Dodger stadium, but in the 5 minute drive all hell broke loose and Jessie got into this big argument with the girl I was most friendly with and they threatened to fight each other and this whole thing. It was probably the most fun night I have ever spent in LA.

Long story short, after that I became friends with Jorma on Twitter and have been meaning to see his band.  I finally got a chance to see them as Mariachi El Bronx, and you can click here too see all the pictures of them at SXSW.  The end.

People seem to love Yacht. And don’t get me wrong, I think their music is good, and they put on a pretty good show when I saw them at Mess With Texas, but I don’t really get the obsession with the band.  People really go crazy for them.  Evidently there is some Tumblr meme involving hipster triangels that somehow came from Yacht’s use of triangles.  If anyone can explain that shit to me, I would love to know.  Tumblr is pretty damn confusing and often maddening but I actually sort of love it too. Follow me, duh.

Anyway, back to Yacht.  I saw the first 5 minutes of their set at Austin Carniville before I went to shoot Mariachi El Bronx at MWTX.  Right after El Bronx finished Yacht was playing again at MWTX.  Like they played two shows with maybe an hour break in between to move all their shit.  So I gotta hand it to them for that.  But yeah, fun band, pretty good music, pretty good live show.  I would check them out again for sure… but I really don’t get the obsession.

Explain it to me in the comments right after you look at the pictures of Yacht that I took at Mess With Texas at SXSW.

So yeah it’s fucking Billy Bragg. Awesome. The guy is a legend. His set was solid, he bitched about the US government and health care and it was all pretty great.  Unfortunately he just mostly stands there so it doesn’t make for the most compelling photographs, especially in the middle of the day when I can’t even make it look interesting by dragging my shutter or something.  So instead, let me tell you a story.

Later that night after I had seen Billy Bragg I got a text from a friend asking me to meet her at some bar way the fuck across Austin.  The girl was a total babe and the Fools Gold party was pretty close so I decided to make my way over. It was called Ghost Room and when I arrived there was a line of about 10 people in front of me waiting to get in. I waited for a few minutes but they were only letting people in when people came out, and no one was coming out. I texted the girl and I didn’t hear back after a few minutes so I walked over to the Fools Gold party. I shot Vega, as I mentioned yesterday, and then I walked back over to Ghost Room. There was no line this time and I walked right in.  I looked for my friend but the place was completely packed so I took a seat by the door and relaxed for a little bit. I texted her and figured I would just wait until whatever band was playing was over.

After I had been sitting for about 10 seconds I realized that Billy Bragg was somehow now on stage. I got up and looked across the room and there he was. And um, there was Wayne Kramer from the MC5.  And then they brought up Tom Morello from Rage Against The Machine, and then someone from REM and someone from this band and that band and I suddenly realized I had walked into something amazing. As I was watching from the back of the room I got a text from my friend.  She had left about an hour earlier and her phone had died.  She just got home.  I was so exhausted at this point and I was too far away to take any good photos so I just sat back down and listened. I didn’t stay too much longer, but before I left, and I swear to God I am not making this up, they did a cover of Momma Said Knock You out by LL Cool J.  Seriously. I Tweeted about it and everyone thought I was full of shit. What a crazy thing to walk into. Stuff like that only happens at SXSW.

Anyway, you can read about what I walked in on at Austin 360 if you click here, and then of course you should click over here to check out the photos of Billy Bragg I shot earlier in the day at Mess With Texas.  See you guys tomorrow.

So today and tomorrow I am going to be updating you with pictures from the Mess With Texas party at SXSW.  I have been going to SXSW for 7 years now, and I have watched Mess With Texas go from being a small affair at Emo’s full of cool bands and comedians, to being a HUGE festival that would be a major event in Austin even if SXSW wasn’t there. It’s pretty impressive. Probably the best part is is that now you only have to wait in a 30 minute line instead of a 2 hour line to get in.  Although it’s pretty sad that they don’t have comedians doing it anymore.  David Cross where are you?

One of the many headlining bands of MWTX was Man Man.  Now, I had no idea who they were but evidently everyone else did.  I met my friends over there basically because I could go in through the press gate and not have to wait in line, but my friends were there to see Man Man.  I was really glad I got to see them though. They were fucking so weird and so awesome. I don’t even know how to explain it, so I guess you should just probably look at the pictures of them here.