This March, I got the opportunity to travel with some of my KAMP colleagues to Austin, Texas for the SXSW Music festival. The whole experience was an absolute blast, and while my age (i.e., under 21) prevented me from seeing a lot of what the festival had to offer, I still saw plenty of great live acts. Below are some of my highlights from the first two days of SXSW Music, and keep an eye out for Alternative Music Director Jakub Safar's writeup on the rest of the week.

Kiev, the opening band is from Southern California lived up to their name because they all looked liked middle aged Ukrainian dudes. The drummer, bassist, and saxophone/keyboardist all had crazy thick and long beards and had balding tops with long hair. The lead singer and guitarist opened up by saying that he appreciates the crowd even though not many people would know who they were and I had to laugh at their honesty. But honestly, I really enjoyed their set. They sounded a lot like U2 circa 2000.

KFMA Day every year is an interesting event. It is your typical music festival with overpriced food and water, long lines for dirty bathrooms, and an awful security system that will stop you if you have a purse but somehow misses all the pot people sneak in. Aside from the C+ stadium, the music and people were good. A new addition that started I believe last year is a local band opening up the show.  This year’s Battle of the Bands winner was The Endless Pursuit. They were a good band, but rather calm and didn’t really get the band going.