What a great time at SXSW this year. I had little idea about many of the bands before hand, and today I have a little more. My opinion of the best new (to me) music was the Avett Brothers, Gil Mantera’s Party Dream, and Phosphorescent. My favorite return band is Elliott Brood. Those guys are awesome and they show it every year. This year they handed out cookie sheets and wooden spoons to the crowd and everyone went nuts banging them. That was certainly a highlight for me. In contrast I would say the low point was being assaulted by some sort of amateur drag queen thing while I was photographing No Age at the Radio Room. It tried to karate chop my lens. Dont worry, the lens and I excaped from the crazy safely.