Where do I even start? I was debating attending the ninja gig at the Scottish Rite but decided to hike over last second.

Amanda “Fucking” Palmer is well known for putting on “ninja” pop up gigs around a town where she is playing. This ninja gig was put together in five hours complete with multiple bands, a panel (This is Southby, after all) all interspersed with AFP solo pieces. All work was volunteer and tickets were free.

The panel included volunteers from the audience, filmmakers, members of the bands and Amanda herself. Topics discussed included the music industry, getting scheduled at SXSW (or being cancelled behind your back by a crook booker), crowdfunding and Amanda’s TED talk, and something that struck a cord with me, being a woman in the modern day… the frustrations about being taken seriously as a female and how to use that fact as an advantage.

Every day I am quickly covering my SXSW experience but I thought this needed a separate piece.

Because I am better at taking pictures than writing words, here was the Ninja Gig. A picture blog.

This dog was crowned Bongo.

many more!

Amanda interviews Von Grey before their short set.

Von Grey. These are four sisters classically trained and AWESOME. All between the ages of 12 and 17.

oh Neil

Amanda plays solo. (Crap, what song did she play here? Anybody?)
edit: ive been informed the song was Astronaut. thanks guys!

Neil said something funny here probably.

Marina City from Chicago. Drove all the way down to Austin to find that they had no shows booked. Read their story here: http://amandapalmer.tumblr.com/post/45378746872/a-tragic-story-from-marinacityband-they-paid-to

Filmmakers of The Square, a documentary about the ongoing Egyptian revolution. They met Amanda at her TED talk and were inspired to continue raising money for their film. It then was the audience response winner at Sundance.

Read more about the film here: http://articles.latimes.com/2013/jan/24/entertainment/la-et-mn-sundance-egypt-the-square-movie-tahrir-jehane-noujaim-reviews-20130124

Brooklyn band Suzuki and the Method (ha!) and a borrowed local violin.

One of the participants of the audience participation panel

Another (Every photo I am blown away at the beauty of this theater…)

Amanda plays The Bed Song

And closes out with Ukulele Anthem.