If you’re heading down to good ol’ Austin, TX for SXSW this week and you haven’t arrived yet, get reading to hit the ground running. I’m an Austinite myself (yes, that is our title), so I know the city back-to-front, but it’s always difficult to prepare for the throngs of people clogging the downtown streets.

Air travel was a nightmare (Dallas- Fort Worth’s airport was an anxiety-ridden scene of stranded South by Southwesters), and traffic on the freeway slowed me down even further, but once I finally joined the mob on Red River Street for Day 1 (March 18th), the feeling of joy was immeasurable…

After grabbing my wristband from the Austin Convention Center, I followed the sweet sounds of power-pop to one of Austin’s trendiest clubs, Beauty Bar. Since it was only a tad before 10 p.m., the line moved quickly, and soon I was soaking up the New Wave-infused glory of Fol Chen (above), who delivered their brand of (usually) production-heavy pop-rock with an erratic punk-rock twist.

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