South by Southwest 2007 in Review: Parties and Austin (Part 4)

Completing my 4-part SXSW review, I'll talk about the parties and Austin, TX that I and AgencyNet's Larissa Meek, Marcelo Pereira, Richard Lent and Mark Bernstein visited Saturday-Tuesday at the Interactive Festival.

So here's where I talk about the awesomely beautiful city of Austin and the parties we went to at night.

Austin's home to about 1.5 million, namely college students, and is called the "live music capital of the world". That latter part was especially prominent during our visit as there was literally music everywhere.

The college students, well, lets just say they went to Fort Lauderdale for Spring Break... trashing our city, as it were. (Seriously, the day after we got back there was trash all over the streets.) Either way, I can see how this was definitely a college town with tons of bars and live venues for music.

Dispersed in the mostly-modern city are a few eclectic looking buildings, Austin is fluent in food, culture and life. I couldn't believe how many different bars and restaurants we saw and went to during our visit.

One place, in particular, was Antones in the heart of downtown Austin. We had gotten there after the awards show, in the middle of the pouring rain, to see an amazing Mexican rock band. Seriously, I can still remember their rock version of 'La Cockarocha', and the three guitar players playing their acoustic guitars over the back of their head.

There were tons of SXSW parties ranging from celebrity parties (like Robert Rodriguez) or those sponsored by companies like Frog. Unfortunately, because everyone else went there, we didn't. Well, a correction, we went to one, but there was at least a 30 minute wait for the bar, so we ducked out and went somewhere else.

I made a bold theory that night and said that Austin was very much like downtown Fort Lauderdale, which immediately brought jeering from one of my coworkers. See, I might be a little biased, being born and raised in Fort Lauderdale and all, but our downtowns are very much alike. Granted, Austin's downtown is much, much bigger than Fort Lauderdale's, but the nightlife, the bars and clubs and live venues are very much similar.

Austin is a city I could very well see myself moving to (if AgencyNet decides to open an office there, that is), but for now, Fort Lauderdale continues to be my home, and I'm in no rush to leave it.

I'll see Austin again next year for SXSW 2008. Till then, it's definitely good to be back home!