Day Two: I think I've found out what heaven is like

Day two of the trip and the first full day at SXSW was in a word, amazing. Never have I been in a place where it was so easy to network and talk to people. See someone you want to meet? Walk right up to 'em. Bands/promoters/everything. I started my day with the panel Texas Barbecue. While I would have gone to Quickies 1 if I could have (couldn't get in), the barbecue panel solidified a new found love for Texas. I checked out electropop up and comer Golden Filters on the day stage. Browsed the trade show and made a lot of important contacts for the radio station with foreign language promoters, Sonic Bids, and AFTRA. After that it was a quick stop at the British Music Embassy then on to the Canadian Blast to see Shout Out Out Out Out. S.O.O.O.O. has two of everything: drumers, synths, you name it they got two. After that up was up to the Central Presbyterian Church to wait and wait to see Anni Rossi and M Ward. Think of Anni Rossi as a female Andrew Bird. M Ward? His intimate performace was something very special, best show of the night. Headed to the Mohawk next to check out Dosh and The Chaps. Dosh on his own is okay, but I have to say I like him better when he plays backup for Andrew Bird. The Chaps were a band I'd never heard of but they were halarious, really good performers. From there I headed on over to see cananadian pop rockers Mother, Mother an old favorite of mine. While there were copious sound issues, the show was still fanatstic.
So I went to alot of shows and they were all great but the best part of South By (as everyone calls it down here) was meeting people in the lee time between events. I talked to several bands including Coryesan, Adolf Hipster, Postal, and Triple Cobra. Met up with college radio people from Atlanta, Kansas City, and Toronto. And talked to more bloggers than I could possibly mention. You can pretty much go up to anyone and talk music in some context which for me is a change. Elsewhere no one has heard of my favorite bands/artists. Here, I have a slightly behind the curve knowledge of new music and playing catch up is a blast. The most interesting converstions for me though where those with radio people. As it turns out for many people in college radio the expirence is way different. All people I talked to who were on the board of directors at their station get paid to do it. However, the open format found at WRCU is the golden standard for most of the people I talked to. The major exeption being this bloke's station from Atlanta (sorry I did not catch call letters/school name) where the entire programming was student news and commentary. Interesting deal but I wonder what all they report on 24/7.
That pretty much sums up my day two. Now its time to head on out and hit up the Bloggers are In Control panel.