Our wonderous intern and SFAI student, Alex Uhrich, traveled off to the Lone Star state for beers and musical enhancements. Loaded with our trusty Olympus Stylus Epic he brought back these photos with an edition of word sounds.

After 36-hour ordeal trying to escape San Francisco for South by Southwest, I finally made it into Austin. I caught a bus downtown to meet up with some friends and started making my way east. It was pretty much instantly a shit storm of activity, drunk girls stumbling everywhere, music blaring from every bar, and people generally having a good time. I made it to my first show, which was a Burger Records showcase at a small record store called Trailerspace. We started in on the free beer and watched some awesome bands play, both overlying themes of my trip. My friends Pangea, who I spent most of my time down south with, killed it. ~READ ON

First photo I took when I got to Austin.

Outside Trailerspace.

Some friends hanging out on top of a van at Burgerstock

Vans everywhere!

Pangea playing at Burgerstock.

We partied without knowing really where we were gonna sleep (there were 9 of us dudes all sticking together), but we were lucky to run into our friend Dave, who put us up both that night and the rest of the week. We all took turns sleeping on the floor and the couch. They were great hosts!

Our home for the week.

On Thursday we started off going to my friend Cory’s show at Domy Books and drinking free Bacardi at the Spotify house. We head over to Spider House to catch the Austin Psych Fest showcase and catch SF based Mikal Cronin’s set. We wandered downtown at night to go to one of the only real festival showcases we ended up going to. It was the Purevolume party, and the state police were running security, but the bar was open til 4 and we got to see the Screaming Females.

Domy Books.

SF's own Ty Segall playing with Mikal Cronin.

Marissa from the Screaming Females shredding at the Purevolume party.

Shotgunning Lonestars after the show.

Friday was pretty much the same deal, we ran around playing shows and seeing music, exploring Austin. Got to catch Bleached and FIDLAR play a smaller show in a vacant lot out in East Austin which was great. We ended the night by seeing the Spits and the Gories at Emo’s East, which was awesome. I’ve been waiting a while to see both of them, and it was free which made it even better. We ended up staying in one of the grimiest motels I’ve ever seen after rescuing Cory from trying to sleep under an overpass.

Blaque Chris talking to Jennifer from Bleached after their set.

FIDLAR killin' it.

The fuckin' Spits!

Spent Saturday at the 75-band Burger Records showcase, Burgermania at Spider House. So many good bands, they kept the beer flowing all day long. Props to the girl who organized this and ran it, managing 7 stages and 7 bands smoothly is no small task. One of the highlights of this was having Bill Murray show up and introduce one of the last acts of the night. I didn’t get to see him myself, but he created quite the commotion.

My friend Matt hanging out at Burgermania.

Pangea playing one of the stages at Spider House.

MOM stole the show with her performance. It was fucking wild!

The infamous Daniel Johnston mural, not too far from where the show was happening.

I turned 22 hauling ass in a tour van to a downtown bar called Headhunters to see my friends the Audacity do a set. Downtown Austin was tour-van hell all week long, and the traffic made every trip down there a nightmare. We ended up at the Vice Party to see FIDLAR play, and when we got to the warehouse we were at, every entrance was mobbed. I talked to my friend Elvis about what was going on inside, and he told me that rapper A$AP Rocky and his crew had jumped into the crowd and started fighting people and the whole event was getting shut down. We hung back to see if maybe things would turn around, standing by a couple of SUVs, when all of a sudden the whole A$AP busted out of the venue, and they were headed straight towards us and, apparently, their cars. We made the wise decision to move out of their way. Quite a way to start my birthday.

the Audacity playing Headhunters.

The next day, we went down to a punk show our friend Dave was playing in southeast Austin. There were topless chicks serving free Four Loko, a van covered in porno, and a ton of tall bikes. It was one of the highlights of being there, getting to see something so removed from the festival but still rad.

Topless Four Loko bartendin' babes.

The porno van.

...?

We had to leave early to get downtown for a drag show Pangea was playing. We all put on make up and I drank Mad Dog in a van. It was a pretty crazy birthday.

Getting our faces done outside the Burger Van.

Noonan makes a beautiful girl.

I spent Monday wandering around Austin in the aftermath, exploring down by the river and downtown. I must’ve walked like 10 miles that day. We ended up seeing the Jay Reatard documentary and hanging out, enjoying a quieter night than the rest of the week.

All in all, this was one of the best weeks of my life. Austin is an awesome city with excellent people, bars, bands, and food all over the place. It was definitely worth the trip and I can’t wait for next year! If you wanna see some of the other stuff I shot while I was down there, check out my blog at http://alexanderuhrich.tumblr.com. -Alex