SXSW Recap (or how I learned to make a noodle sandwich)

Where do I start. Taking stock of the past week is quite difficult. I saw more bands than I can remember, was given more free booze than I could drink, and had the most erratic and unhealthy diet in recent memory. That said however, I managed to survive for 6 days at SXSW without paying for a single meal, with a couple exceptions. Evangelicals played seven shows over six days in Austin. We had a much needed day off on Tuesday to recover from the skunk attack that happened in the wee hours of Tuesday morning. Our busy schedule affected what and how I ate this week. With all that said, I give you SXWS 2009 as experienced by Toddy J.

After a sleepless Sunday night in Norman, fueled by an early morning Waffle House breakfast we set off to Mohawk in Austin to play what would be our biggest show of the week. Eating nothing on the 7 hour drive Josh and I began wondering the streets in search of free stuff.
We soon found some free Wild cherry Dr. Pepper on 6th street.

Then we met up with Our friends from Dead Oceans for a delicious meal at the Iron Cactus. I had a ton of chips and guacamole and a bowl of tortillia Soup. (picture lost in the madness) Thanks again Phil for the awesome meal. It would be my last dinner out for the remainder of SX. What follows is a photographic record of the weeks food. I would take the time to create a detailed time line outlining each day of the festival and each show, but im not trying to write a novel, and honestly I cant remember when or where I was when eating some of this stuff. The photos are however mostly in chronological order.

4 Packages of instant oatmeal (assorted flavors)Juice and coffee and coffee Tuesday Mar 17th after de-skunking. I suplimented this with snacks from the van. until Wednesday.
Below is a picture from outside the Super 8 hours after the Skunking

Dickies lounge snacks fresh fruit chips salsa, and pigs in the blanket.

I also made off with all the free Dickies clothing I could carry. We made two visits to the Dickies lounge last week where we enjoyed free beer and cocktails free food and clothes.

Thank you Matt Fowler and Ninelle for the Delicious late night drunk slice of pizza.

This was the scene at the After The Jump Pizza party when we showed up. Believe me I was sad too. After I saw there was no more pizza I went to the van to drown my sorrow in an over sized jar of pickles and a noodle sandwich.

Noodle Sandwich- Ingredients: slice of white bread, one can of condensed chicken noodle soup. Preparation: remove slice of bread from bag being careful to avoid the heel, unless you like eating the heel of the loaf in which case go for it! Remove lid from chicken noodle soup (this part is important) drink off about half the juice before dumping noodles on the bread. dump about 1/3 to 1/2 half of the noodles on to the bread at a time depending on the size of your mouth. Repeat this procedure until your hunger pains are satisfied. Tip- try adding some tabasco sauce if you have a spicy personality.

I ate this toaster pastry after our show with Women and Arizona. Two bands worth checking out.

Two family sized boxes of macaroni and cheese mixed with a can of tuna is more than enough to feed a four piece band. The Previous four pictures represent the corner stone of my diet while at SXSW this year. Thank you Josh for getting this stuff before we left. Without I would have no doubt spent a lot of cash needlessly on expensive food vendors.

Aside from the Dickies lounge and our semi skunked snack box in the E-van There was one other sanctuary from the madness of SXSW. It was Blakes Parents house. A place known and loved by many Oklahoma travelers over the years. Blakes Stepmother Beverly and his dad Joe are always welcoming us with food, blankets and pillows, showers and whatever else we may need. This year I found out that Beverly has her own Karioke Catalog with over 3000 songs.

Here are some of the things I ate there.

A delicious turkey sandwich with coffee and Frito's with bean dip and salsa.

Cinnamon rolls for breakfast.

I cant tell what this is, but I ate it and I'm sure it was delicious.

That's about it for eating SXSW. Overall food was at times scarce and rarely wholesome. There was enough though to propel me to 6am most nights. I snuck into some exclusive party's got a lot of free drinks and mooched off my friends enough to where I only spent 25 dollars. Josh and I made a 4am trip to Whataburger and I paid for us both to repay him for all the coffee he has bought me at The Earth and Cafe Plad the last couple months. If you'd like to see more pictures of the shows we played check out my Facebook or search Evangelicals on Flikr. This link has a lot of our pictures from SXSW on it mixed in with a few pictures of random churches.

Here are some Links to bands I saw this Year, all worth checking out in my opinion.

Hurray for the Riff Raff

Prince Rama of Ahodhya

Headlights

Parenthetical Girls

These Are Powers

Women

Arizona

What Listened to while creating this post.

Swan Lake, Mt. St Helen's Vietnam Band, These are Powers

Thank you Tom, Dawn, Phil, Chris, Jon, Matt, Beverly, Joe, Blake, Kyle, Josh, and Austin for an awesome week.

Until next time.

-Toddy J