I’ve been making a cheat sheet for years to guide my sxsw adventures and now you have access to my notes. Go to the menu link above and check out the SXSW Shows to Watch page. Have fun!
SX (south by) is kicking in gear and I’ve heard some sentiment that there aren’t a lot of bands playing that are well know, which might seem like a bad thing. It isn’t. When too many bands you’ve heard of are playing it gets too crazy. Though counter-intuitive, it’s actually better when there are a few bands you like that direct you toward other bands you never expected to hear. That’s how you end up at the Imagine Dragons show with 25 other people who dragged themselves out on day 4 of SXSW, on a Saturday morning, pumping your fist and nodding after saying, “that band was pretty good”. (Jenn, I need you to look back and tell me what year that was.) It was a few weeks before we heard them on the radio and they blew up. That’s what make sx so special, the unknowns.
Live Music Info for Austin and San Francisco 
Couldn’t agree more on the unknowns being what makes the festival, though I can remember scrambling to get to a TDM3 show cause how can you miss them and I’m definitely wanting to make OCMS and Parker Milsap a reality this year.
Imagine Dragons — I still talk about that show (March 17, 2012 at Cedar Street). I think we went to see Fuck your Mother (they also go by Built to Spill in more conservative circles) or maybe we just went because we like Cedar Street. I really don’t know, but OMFG!!! I got back to SF and they BLEW up! They were still small enough when they were booking that they ended up at the Great American in October of 2012. The show sold out (quickly) and it was fun, but it wasn’t nearly as fun as before they were discovered when they put every last ounce of what they had into that final 2012 SX show.
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