High Heels and Hard Hats: SXSW & St. Patty's Day!

Holy cow!! So many people!!!! To say there were literally thousands of people just in the streets alone would be an understatement!! To be honest, I'm surprised we braved the crowds, but since my newest favorite band, Kris Gordon, was playing and it was St. Patty's Day we figured we'd take our chances and head downtown to the center of one of the largest music festivals in the US! And I'm so glad we did! So.Much.Fun.

This pic really doesn't do it justice!

So, real quick, for those of you who have never heard of South by Southwest (SXSW, or "South by" as the locals call it). It is a set of film, interactive and music festivals and conferences that take place every March in our good ol' town of Austin! It lasts for almost 3 weeks, is absolutely huge - it was even on E! this year (very exciting!) - and it grows every year. It is the highest revenue-producing event for Austin...estimated to bring in over $200 million this year alone! Now just imagine how many people that would be in one downtown area all at once!! Now combine St. Patty's Day with that crowd and...BOOM....you've got craziness!!! OK...history lesson over!

As I mentioned above, we jumped into the snake pit to see Kris Gordon and the band play at Rebels which, lucky for us, is just 3 bars down from Boon's work parking garage where we have a free parking pass. Wahoo - $30 parking avoided!!! Now getting to the garage was a bit of a challenge, but we managed to dodge all of the pedicabs which seriously seemed to take over the streets and frogger-styled our way through traffic finally finding an open spot on the 5th level of the garage. And with that we were on our way to have some fun!

Seriously, I had so much fun that night!! With all of the SXSW people (mostly dressed in green) and the St. Patty's Day spirit [read: drunken craziness!], the crowd was insane and the band totally blew it out of the water! My fellow groupies (Boon, Jud, and Joy) and I danced and sang the night away. Well, to be honest, I'm a way better groupie than my other fellow groupies because I knew the words to every song so really just I was singing the night away....[and for those of you who know me, it really didn't matter that I knew the words or not - I would have been singing my little heart out no matter what making up my own words where needed]...but I'll give them credit for dancing the night away!! Admittedly though, we did get out-groupied by one girl who actually had a legit Kris Gordon shirt on....ummm, where do we get ours?!?!

Ok...so now about Kris Gordon and the band! The band consists of our good friend, Donny, the very talented lead guitarist who graduated high school with Boon. He is one of the nicest people I know - would literally give you his shirt off his back! (Super good dresser too...btw, ladies!) Donny is really the only one we know so if I screw up the names of any of the other band members, I'm sorry! (I know that makes me a horrible groupie!) The fiddle player (fiddlist? fiddler?) is Cody - he is amazing and so talented! (And really has an awesome name!) The base guitarist, Johnny-B is Joy's and my favorite to watch - he is crazy and totally rocks it on stage! The drummer, Caleb, kicks butt - he totally surprises the heck out of ya, but seriously wails on the drums! And, finally, the main guy, Kris Gordon - his voice knocks your socks off! He is a great entertainer...always engaging the crowd and every single song he sings is awesome. I love all of their original songs, but like Boon said, even every single cover they play is right on! They are a really great band all-around and I know they are going to hit it big one day so I'm going to enjoy all the free shows I can get before then. (Click here to check out their website and some of their songs!) Now some pics from the night...