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Mar 18, 2010 Web Exclusive By Mike Hilleary

The wristband that’s provided for anyone looking to attend the nighttime showcase portion of SXSW is made with a special kind of hologram plastic, so when you move it around in the light its image changes a bit in color. Even this little design aesthetic gives it’s a significantly higher level of cool points when you look at the result of purchasing a lanyard badge, which features the kind of driver’s license photo equivalent you typically try to avoid showing off where there’s lots of people. Still, anyone with a wristband envies the guys with the large plastic square shown so prominently on their chests for the simple fact that they are the golden tickets, the expensive piece of property (sold anywhere between $600-$750 depending on the registration deadline) that immediately gets you to the front of any line, no matter how many peons with decorative shackles were there waiting before you.

It’s this unspoken class system that the most jarring thing to get used to for any first time attendee of Austin’s premiere entertainment festival, celebrating new interactive media, film, and music. The chances of getting in to seeing say, a headlining performance by hometown favorites Spoon last night with the likes of Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings as well as Broken Bells became well impossible well before anyone took to stage. While it is certainly tough resigning yourself to the fact that a lot of the event’s higher profile gigs won’t always be in the cards, the lack of entry certainly forces you to find what else is out there—which in the greater scheme of things is the entire point of SXSW.

Throughout the day tons of bands made use of short set times—often limited to just an hour of play—giving audiences the necessary sampler performance that encourages further listening investigation. While standouts of the day included the likes of Chapel Hill collective Roman Candle, Denmark’s Choir of Young Believers, and Scotland’s favorite sons Frightened Rabbit, it was London’s Fanfarlo, whose sunny march of multi-instrumental chamber pop wound earning the perspective’s highest marks.     

Standing in line is certainly unavoidable at a whirlwind event such as SXSW, but every person here has their own means of not having to wait for something good.