My weekend in social media

Two interesting snippets from the weekend:
1. I came across my notebook from Junior year (two years ago, for those counting), which included notes from my radio show, "Middle School Dance." I noticed one point where I had asked my roommate Jared what the worst thing on the internet at that moment was. His answer? "Facebook's 'How I know this person' option." I agreed. At that point, that was the first sign we had that Facebook was becoming something bigger than a way to keep track of and interact with your closest of friends, mostly at your own school (not even all the schools had Facebook at that point; as I recall, High School Facebook caused the next uproar). Many of my friends are now very rare Facebook users for precisely these reasons: the original social graph made sense, and made sense in our context--the people we interacted with most online were the people we interacted with most in person. As connections became more and more distant, more and more people were turned off. As soon as coaches were found digging through athletes' personal photos online searching for incriminating evidence, nearly all the athletes significantly limited their Facebook use. Facebook has grown dramatically, but they've lost much of their core original audience. I'll leave it up to you to decide if that's a bad thing or a worthwhile sacrifice.
2. I went to a bar with some friends this Saturday. None of us had been to the bar before, but we were wary because it had potential for being a "hot spot" and thus far too crowded for our liking. Turns out it was incredibly crowded, and one of the people in the crowd is a star of Gossip Girl (Chace Crawford? is that his name?). Anyway, as I pushed my way through the crowds to catch up to my friends, I overheard nearly constant chatter about Facebook. But this story isn't about Facebook. When Chace walked past, the girls I was with swooned. One spent the rest of the night (and probably longer) kicking herself for not jumping his bones. The other was on cloud nine because he brushed her chest as he squeezed past her in the crowd.
What was their first move upon leaving the bar? Telling everyone they know, of course! First a series of TXTs, then a phone call or two, update the Facebook status, then send a few more TXTs. This is precisely why Twitter, if they get their problems solved, will hit it big in the mainstream. The objective of all those TXTs and the Facebook status could have been accomplished with a simple TXT to Twitter saying something like "OMG Chace Crawford just touched my boob!" On the surface, Twitter messages are little more than Facebook status messages. The difference is in the response they elicit. While 95% of both just get read and passed by, there's that 5% there on Twitter that make people want to respond to each other--and Twitter gives them the mechanism to do so (either @(screenname) or direct messaging). Plus, if Twitter catches on for purposes like it did at SXSW last year (note to developers: geotagging will be BIG with Twitter), lots more people would have tried to cram themselves into that bar. If I were a bar owner, I'd be studying up on ways to get people to tell their friends about the bar via Twitter--it might not be necessary now, but will become a huge boon to word of mouth very very soon.

South By Southwest

After a rough go of it at South By So What (where the most popular band involved a teenager in a pink wig and drag singing lude lyrics over electronic beats) in Plano on Friday, I made the trek to Austin Saturday for my first go at South By Southwest.

I decided to wear a shirt asking people to come talk to me about what they wish the internet would do for their musical experience. I couldn't find iron-on letters at Target, so I figured the next best thing would be to get some nametags and write my message on those. I wound up drawing a lot of attention, but unfortunately no one actually talked to me about my message--they were all just interested in the design of the labels themselves. I must've had at least 25 strangers wanting to take pictures of me. Weird.

My SxSw experience got off to a slow start. I arrived a little after 5, when most daytime shows were over and the nighttime bands were all loading in and soundchecking. I didn't have a badge or a wristband (I'm not sure how/when/where you get those), so I had to take my chances at the door on each show--a risky proposition considering all the shows I wanted to see were at different venues.

I got into the Habana backyard (where Kaddisfly was playing) a little after 7 and hung with the guys from Kaddisfly for a while before heading to Esther's Follies for Bryan Scary and the Shredding Tears. The venue appeared to be a cheap dinner-and-a-show joint frequented by local magicians and the like. Thirty to forty people watched (half seated, half standing) as Scary and his band rolled through a series of operatic rock voyages through space (replete with props) that scream of Meatloaf and Genesis influences. A mangy Scary alternated between beating on his keyboard and falling all over the stage, acting and reacting to his own lyrics. It was certainly more of a show than any magician I've ever seen.

From there I sprinted back to see Kaddisfly. Excited to play a 45 minute set after their 20 minute tease at South By So What, they ripped into a new jam to open the set. Unfortunately, Kile's bass went out before they even got through the first song, and the rest of the show was delayed for a few minutes. Chris tried to pass the time by improvising on the keyboards and singing, but he ran out of material after a couple minutes. Finally, everything was fixed and the show went on without a hitch. After rolling through "Empire," they played a new track that the audience (not knowing who this band was) really dug. The band played their usual energetic live show (at one point Chris took off his shoes and started beating on the cymbals), showcasing their talents beautifully, and closing with an extended rendition of "Snowflakes."

Knowing the band would need a few minutes to pack up and load out before I could chat with them, I snuck off to see Oh No! Oh My! Being Austin locals, I expected a slightly bigger turnout than they had, but they packed over a hundred folks into the top floor of Buffalo Billiards. In sharp contrast to the intensity of the first two shows, Oh No! Oh My! played largely feel-good, poppy indie rock with funky rhythms and beautiful harmonies. They closed with a new song that was so good it completely soothed the complaints of some vocal fans screaming for their favorite older song.

I tried to get back into Kaddisfly's venue, but it was popular enough by that point that they were only accepting badges and wristbands. I called Aaron from Kaddisfly, who was about to sleep in the van, and realized I probably wasn't going to get to hang with them as much as I had hoped, so I should go elsewhere. Right at that point, I got a txt from Atom from Feable Weiner telling me to come hang out. We met up at Shakespeare's for You, Me, and Everyone We Know, where he introduced me to the founders of Echospin (which has YMaEWK's label, Drive-Thru Records, as a client). When the band's microphones all went out before even the end of the first song, Atom ditched for PureVolume Ranch, and after talking to the Echospin guys, I followed suit.

It turned out PureVolume Ranch was a private artists' party. Luckily, Atom sweet-talked the security guy and got me in. It was really great to see Atom again (first time in 3 years I think...way too long). We nerded out for a few hours, talking about the internet and the state of the music industry, and the future for it all. He revealed struggles he's had trying to find the right record or distribution deal for the new FW record he's been sitting on for nearly two years (it's extra-complicated because they've topped out the charts in the UK, but haven't had a whole ton of commercial success on this side of the pond (yet)). We met a few other interesting folks at the party, but generally just talked, even all the way through Limbeck's raucous set. He and his girlfriend were even gracious enough to let me crash on her couch.

All in all, I could say that I was disappointed in not seeing more music, but the truth is it cost me $32 to see four truly outstanding shows in near-perfect settings, and I met some good people and got to catch up with old friends. Not too shabby. Maybe someday I'll get to go for more than one day...