To SXSW, Through Difficulties

I’m back home now, but my head’s still in Austin. One of the coolest moments of the whole trip was seeing Ad Astra Per Aspera play the back patio of a divey Latino bar east of I-35, which forms a clear and definite boundary between commercially rich downtown Austin and the poor part of east Austin. So that’s where the punks had their fun, naturally.

It was great to see a bunch of Lawrence people at the show, including KJHK music director Melissa Knudsen and asst director for the station, Derek Zarda, who at SX to attend panels on college radio and rep KJ. They were also handing out copies of a really good local compilation CD called Farm Fresh Sounds. You can download the whole damn thing on KJ’s Web site: scroll to the bottom. (Or click here to begin the download.) Also in attendance was Kelly Corcoran, one of the owners of Love Garden. Verrr cool guy.

It was the most laid-back show I’d been to. After two nights and a day of partying with the crowds on 6th St, my run in with the relaxed, cheerful Lawrence kids was good for my soul. I shot some video of the Ad Astra performance and talked to the drummer, Kurt Lane, afterwards.

Gettin’ multimedia on your ass after the jump.