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!
Continue reading →

Gigs, Photography, sxsw

SXSW Wednesday wrap up

Posted on March 15, 2013 by Rachael Barbash

What a busy day! Again and as always I started the morning with a clear plan through the day which was immediately destroyed. Thankfully my first planned event was not something I had to wake up at 8am for (I’m looking at you Nick Cave!).

This post will include photos of Amanda Palmer, Jared Leto, Jim James, NERDIST, Nick Cave, Heartless Bastards, Black Angels, Young Galexy and Hurray For the Riff Raff!

Began my morning with Amanda Palmer, who I was not stalking today, and her awesome panel made up of people from Girlie Action (I love you Girlie Action! You’re the nicest PR people I’ve ever dealt with!), Kickstarter and others who were involved with her madly successful campaign on producing and releasing her last album.

Continue reading →

Gigs, Photography

SXSW Tuesday wrap up

Posted on March 15, 2013 by Rachael Barbash

My plan, mentioned yesterday, of following Amanda Palmer worked a little too well. We both attended A Conversation with Nick Cave in the Convention Center. Then, 20 minutes later, I nearly tripped her in the Starbucks down the street. (I don’t even like Starbucks! If there are any other coffee shop options in Austin, please let me know.) Finally, I saw Palmer at the interview she was doing with Paste, my only planned interaction of the day.

Continue reading →

Gigs, Photography, sxsw

SXSW 2013 & Monday wrapup

Posted on March 12, 2013 by Rachael Barbash

x-posted to the Agit Reader
Welcome to South by Southwest 2013! As we know SXSW is one of the most significant festivals taking place these days.

In no particular order, here are my most anticipated events for this year.

1. A Conversation with Nick Cave: 3/12 Austin Convention Center Room 18ABCD 11:30. Apparently Nick Cave has been seen wandering around 7th. His album Push the Sky Away was released last month.

2. Nick Cave, Alt-J, Yeah Yeah Yeahs: 3/13 Stubbs 7:45pm-1:30am.
Just look at that lineup. Apparently interest has been so high that SXSW is running a ticket contest. As they’ve also been doing with the Green Day show this year… but I suspect this show at Stubbs will trump Green Day.

3. Daft Punk. 3/13, The Capitol Building.
This is a rumor. Just a rumor. But I’ll be showing up Wednesday night to see what’s up.

4. Tegan and Sara: 3/12, Waterloo Records 2pm.
Awesome.

5. Nerdist & Cirque du Soleil: 3/12 ACL Moody Theater, 8pm.
Chris Hardwick (even though he said he wasn’t going to attend SX this year?) picks the brains of the Cirque organizers!

6. Nova Rockafeller: 3/14 The JR, 10pm.
This is the new project from Justin Warfield from She Wants Revenge. I’m excited to see what he’ll do next.

7. Shane Sweeney and Micah Schnabel from Two Cow Garage: 3/16 Midcoast Takeover at 101 E 6th, 6:30pm.
The guys from Two Cow Garage each have an acoustic set. The whole band will be doing a set Saturday night at Karma Lounge at 1am.

8. The Anatomy of Amanda Fucking Palmer: An Inside Look: 3/13 Austin Convention Center Room 16AB 12:30.
Amanda Palmer of the Dresden Dolls! I love her. Enough said.
Also, word on the street is that she’ll play the Paste show at Stages on 6th on Friday!

9. Depeche Mode: 3/15 Brazos Hall 10pm.
Though I’m not sure how easy it’ll be to get into this one.

10. Anywhere Hurray for the Riff Raff will be this week.

There you go.

Even though the music section hasn’t officially started yet, I attended a great show by Surfer Blood and Chelsea Light Moving, Thurston Moore’s (Sonic Youth) new band at Sonos Studios. Though apparently I missed Kat Von D introducing her beau’s band, Deadmau5, before Surfer Blood. Ah well. Also, hello to my new Norwegian friend!
Have some pictures.