AWOLNATION – Live @Stubs for SXSW

This year I was a photographer for SXSW, but it’s SXSW and there are a million parties going on and plenty of friends are in town and everyone wants to howl at the moon. There are certain shows I was assigned to photograph and then were other shows that I didn’t want to miss… so basically I spent 3 days walking 20+ miles downtown with a 30lb pack so I could shoot my assigned shows, shoot shows that I loved and party like I was in the band.

So Saturday night played out like this: show, shots, show, shots, show… you get the idea. It’s the last night of SXSW and the sun has reached it’s demise, so all the can’t-miss bands are playing all at once. Right at 10:30pm I take as many pictures of Typhoon that I can at the Central Presbyterian Church. Run to meet up with a buddy that desperately wants to see Panic! at Stubbs at 11:30. It’s about 5 till 11 and Stubbs is only 9 blocks away. Let’s roll, quickly.

There is one little problem with our simple plan. My buddy, Jared, has a second-hand badge. The guy in his picture looks about 5% of what Jared looks like. At least they are both white and human.

As we near Stubbs I hear a familiar sound… it that, no, yes. AWOL f-ing NATION is playing and I want to rush through this line.

Jared shows the Stubbs doordude his badge. Scan. Beep. Yes.

DD – “Is this you?”
J – “Uh?”
DD – “I need to see your ID”
J- “Man it’s been a long week, I’m super tired… aren’t you?”
DD – “Let me see your ID”
[AWOLNATION playing in the background]
[J hands DD his id with his thumb over his picture, as if the picture is what the doordude was going to look at]
DD – “This isn’t the name on your badge, I can’t let you in”
ME – “He is holding all my lenses and there was a mix up at his work and they gave him… blah blah drunken blah”
DD – “Hey, weren’t you taking pics at Swan Dive on Thursday… “
ME – “Yeah, man… that was a great show, crazy busy… I remember you (no clue)”
DD – “Don’t tell anyone I let him in”

BAM! Run to the front, flash the press thing on the camera and grab pictures just as they are playing their killer song ‘Sail.’

Would love to have gotten more pictures, but it’s SXSW and even if you spend days planning you still won’t have a clue of who is playing when and where. Check out the pictures, rate and comment below. Also, please hit up AWOL’s site: awolnationmusic.com
-D