And so it begins. South By Southwest 2010 is underway, as our airport becomes the travel hub for just about the entire music industry. Your dangerous duo at the Dbird Austin HQ ventured downtown this afternoon to knock out a few early credential pickups, snagging wristbands for the few private parties that we’ll be hitting throughout the week. If you’re either in Austin or heading this way for SXSW, check out our Facebook page - facebook.com/dangerbirdrecords - to see the list of all our bands performing throughout the week.

Don’t forget that you can still register for the Pablove Ride For Life. There will be both a 30 & 60 mile ride, for all levels of cyclists, this Saturday starting at 10am @ Mellow Johnny’s. Then that evening starting at 8pm, we’re throwing a Dangerbird powered concert to benefit the Pablove Foundation, which will also be taking place at Mellow Johnny’s. The ride is $25 and the evening concert is totally free & open to the public. Hope to see you there! Registration is at dangerbirdrecords.com/sxsw

For those of you who attended the South By Southwest Music Festival last year, and happened to use AT&T as your cell carrier, you most likely experienced some truly horribly phone service. With the explosion of iPhone users during SXSW, AT&T’s network was completely overwhelmed, turning our phones into nothing more than fancy paperweights. Fortunately, AT&T has prepared for the massive increase in cell phone usage for this year’s festival. Check out this article over at GigaOM to read more.

After months and months of anticipation, South By Southwest 2009 has finally come and gone. As always, it is a true endurance test, cramming in more shows and meetings in one week than humanly possible. It is day after day of chaos, with an ever changing itinerary, endless amounts of walking and yet we always love every second of it. The Dangerbird crew was in full effect last week, with plenty of shows to keep us constantly on the move. As I mentioned in my previous post, last Wednesday was all about Bad Veins at Maggie Mae’s. Thursday contained a number of things to knock out, which for me included taking Eulogies to the famous Bismeaux Studios (owned by Asleep At The Wheel). The guys filmed a live performance for a brand new website, which I will share once we get the links. Below is picture of Peter Walker enjoying a few moments of Texas sun before heading into the studio.

Peter Walker on the Bismeaux porch

Eulogies inside Bismeaux Studios

After driving Peter to an interview at Buffalo Billiards, my next stop was to find a parking spot (a nearly impossible thing to accomplish during SXSW), and then down to a couple of meetings myself. After meeting up with Erin, we walked to The Ranch for the official showcases of Eulogies and Dappled Cities. Eulogies have never sounded better, and the new material from Dappled Cities is unbelievably awesome. Just wait!

Friday had two big events to knock out. We started at a day party located at one of Austin’s finest coffee houses, Dominican Joe. Our buddies Bad Veins played a killer set outside in the toasty Texas sun, marking the first time I’ve gotten a chance to hear them perform “The Lie” plugged in. I’d heard it acoustic, but on full blown rock mode that song sends chills down my spine. Here is a shot of Ben and Seb during that particular song:

Bad Veins at Dominican Joe

Later that evening our crew rolled down to Stubb’s for the mother of all SXSW shows: Silversun Pickups and Metallica! Now, Erin and I have known the Silversun Pickups for many years, so seeing them on the stage opening for METALLICA was surreal. SSPU’s set blew the doors off of Stubb’s (well, it is an outdoor theater, so if it had doors they would have been blown off), blazing through plenty of new tracks including “The Royal We,” “Panic Switch” and “Growing Old Is Getting Old.” That was a night that I will never forget.

Silversun Pickups at Stubb's

Saturday was yet another day of meeting after meeting, hanging with plenty of radio folks at various spots throughout 6th Street. We made our way over to the San Jose Hotel on South Congress, where they set up a very cool series of free concerts using a sound system that was solar and wind powered. Gotta love my GREEN city of Austin! We enjoyed a set from Australia’s Temper Trap before making the long walk to Antone’s for another night of Silversun Pickups. The evening ended very, very late as we limped back home just in time to grab a slice of pizza from Homeslice.

It was great to see so many awesome people over the past several days, and we’re already looking forward to SXSW 2010. Time to start resting up!

We’re at the Austin HQ gulping down some liquid fuel (coffee) as we recover from day one of South By Southwest. Highlights included catching our boys Bad Veins at an afternoon party located at Maggie Mae’s. I didn’t realize that Future Of The Left was playing on the rooftop stage before BV, so we caught a couple of their tunes before Ben and Seb got started. The guys killed it, kicking off their SXSW festivities with a great set. They rocked through “Gold And Warm,” “Found,” “Afraid” and other favorites. Here are a couple of photos (crappy iPhone pictures, but they’ll do) from Maggie Mae’s.