SXSW 2023 (Part 1)

Helloo. I know it’s been a little bit! I wish I was a well oiled machine that didn’t have a million things that take priority over what I’d like to actually prioritize, but here we are. Grace and acceptance one day at a time. Patience and fortitude! Or whatever?

Part of this long silence was because my band was preparing for and attending SXSW. For anyone who is unfamiliar: SXSW – short for South by Southwest – is a music, tech, and film festival in Austin, TX that occurs every March. It takes over the city of Austin and is very chaotic and fun. A lot of music and entertainment industry professionals attend as well as artists and musicians. It’s known for kick-starting a lot of careers and even the unofficial events not formally associated with SXSW can be viewed as more beneficial than the official showcases. This means that while SXSW happens, the entire city takes advantage. All the bars, restaurants, clubs, parks, etc. are used to book, and promote various events and music showcases throughout the week. These are called unofficial SXSW events and this isn’t limited to those already local to Austin. Management and booking companies, festival execs, and many others host unofficial parties and events in Austin during SXSW. There is music almost 24 hours a day during the second week of the festival. Hundreds of thousands of people come to Austin for the experience.

Initially, my band, Anne Eliza, was supposed to go down for SXSW 2020. I’m sure you guessed it was canceled due to Covid-19. The festival’s first year back in person was 2022, but we decided to skip that year and attend 2023. We did not perform for anything officially associated with SXSW.

The prep for this whole thing was more stressful for me than the actual attending and performing. My bandmate, Alex, felt more stress during the actual festival I think. This is why we function well together.. Between the two of us, we cover all the stress bases of any situation lol. In all seriousness, we do work well together. We make a good team in a lot of ways and I’m thankful for that! 

Back to prep.. it includes a million things (I’m dramatic): Countless emailing, finding showcases to apply to, applying for showcases, promo photos, booking hotels, budgeting, rehearsals, setlists, travel itinerary, food, social media, anxiety, what do we wear (mostly me), networking planning, reddit research, one-off band discussions and FaceTimes multiple times a day, on your own time practicing, should we be doing this, emails emails emails, financial spreadsheets, updating tracks, organizing and reorganizing the rack case, what car are we taking, should we hire a drummer, there is no day of contact, waiting for emails, anxiety, is a 15 minute change over for real, can we get to Austin in less than 2 days and play a show 4 hours later?

If you read my previous blog, you know that when I reach a certain level of overwhelm I tend to spiral. Trying to get all the ducks in a row for this trip had me at that level for a few months. It was challenging and being the incredibly insecure musician that I am, I was in a self-loathing thought cycle for what felt like a really long time. Alex and I also didn’t quite see eye to eye on this trip, which is okay. That’s not super fun generally speaking, but we don’t have to agree on everything. That’s something I learned out of this as a band leader and friend. You don’t have to be on the same page to make a decision as long as honest communication and respect remain intact.*

During the times I felt really overwhelmed and in the relapse red zone, I tried to tell people. My closest support team for the last 6 years has been my husband, Justin, and my best friend, Alex (same Alex as bandmate Alex). Those are the people I tell. At some point, though, I realized I had assumed I wouldn’t have to do that after so long, like I’d have mastered the art of not spiraling and wouldn’t feel vulnerable enough to have to tell people. This in turn made me feel kinda weak and I didn’t want to tell anyone I was struggling – not Justin, not Alex, not my therapist. Life’s hardships and trials don’t just end when you get sober, though. 

Emotions are strange and can be incredibly powerful if you fuel them. I definitely did. I was serving my emotions a lot. I felt like I was in this rotating glass silo and I couldn’t break the glass for fear of getting cut and not knowing if outside was better or worth the risk. Most of this came from fueling my own insecurity. At what point do you not feel insecure about something you really love? I’m always looking for a solution, I’m told. Sometimes there just isn’t one and you have to find a way forward anyway. Through most of this, I just prayed because it’s all bigger than me. And I didn’t relapse, which is a win even if it was difficult. And I have my people to remind me of that when I do tell them what’s going on. That’s something to be thankful for.

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A little over a week out, we decided we needed a drummer to come with us. I never said I was a timely person. And let me tell you, folks, we really did need a drummer. Performing our music as a duo even with tracks is not the best representation of it. To spend all this effort and go all this way to not feel 110% great about what we were putting out there was deflating. Could we have decided to pull the trigger on that earlier? Abso-freakin-lutely, but better late than never – HA. 

Four days of anxious texting, waiting, and calling and we snagged a great drummer: Josh! He learned all our material in 3 days because he’s freakin’ awesome. We had one rehearsal and if words could express the relief Alex and I felt about how much better the shows would be.. I’d put those words [HERE] !!!!

So those were the pre-hurdles. Not all bad, not all hard. All mostly necessary. Timing could have been better with that last one, LOL. 

On March 14th, I picked Alex up at 6am and off we went to Little Rock AR, our one overnight stop. I won’t waste your time with the boring drive details except that we had FIVE HOURS OF A WHITE OUT SNOW STORM. 

Here are some fun details about driving to Austin from Pittsburgh:

We stopped at Mission BBQ in Kentucky, of course. We have one in Pittsburgh. I’m there a lot. You should go if you haven’t been.

I purchased some things from a place called The Open Road Bar in Pittsburgh. It’s a non-alcoholic beverage shop! I wanted to try some things on our trip for a few reasons. 

1. I thought it would be fun. Shouldn’t that always be the top motivator? 
2. I wanted to post some reviews of them here for anyone who is interested. 
   • I only drink 0.0% ABV (alcohol by volume), and a lot of ‘non-alc’ beverages state they contain less than 0.5% ABV. Some people are okay with that, so Alex agreed to try those things for me. Most of those drinks are beer, which I can’t drink for another reason: gluten allergy. Just because I can’t or choose not to drink certain things, doesn’t mean the same for everyone else living the sober life. We thank Alex for helping us out with that!
3. I wanted to see how I felt about N/A drinks that were intended to be alternatives or substitutes.
   • When I first got sober, I wasn’t for any of that. Mentally, it didn’t feel okay. I kept wondering if I was trying to find a direct replacement for alcohol and I didn’t want to even go down that path. 

Here are some of the things we tried: 

HopLark HopTea, Limited Edition Lavender: 0.0% ABV, Gluten Free/Vegan

• This is like a fizzy lavender-hoppy water. The lavender flavor is good and not too intense. It’s hoppy but not enough to make me nervous or freaked out to remind me of beer. Basically, it’s not triggery for me. It IS Fizzy! It’s not sweet like I’d expect most lavender things to be because I think most of the time it’s paired with Lemonade.
• Alex also enjoyed it!
• Overall: 4/5!

Stella Artois Non-Alcoholic: 0.0% ABV

• Alex tasted this for us! He says this is his favorite of the batch I bought.
• Tastes just like Stella. You wouldn’t know if you weren’t told it was non-alc. That’s pretty cool!
• Overall: 5/5!

Two Roots Brewing Company Helles – Enough Said: Less than 0.5% ABV

• Alex tasted this for us! It’s fine, kinda boring and tasted like beer  – lol! Alex isn’t into lagers as much, but it tasted like beer, so if you are – maybe you’d like this one!
• Overall: 2/5

Sound Grapefruit Lavender Ginger Tea: Sparkling Water with Tea & Botanicals

• This was intense but refreshing. Enough so that I just wanted to sip it. Maybe it’s just me, but I tend to chug seltzers, lol.
• I really like that they use botanicals and focus on low sugar drinks.
• Overall: 4/5

I  will have a few more reviews to post within my SXSW Recap Part 2 and I’ve purchased more since this trip. I will post reviews on the blog in batches as I try them. Anything you want to see reviewed or recommend I try – send me a message or comment below! I’m not a foodie or bevvy critic by any means. I just thought it’d be fun. 

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We arrived in Little Rock, Arkansas about 15 hours later on March 14th. The saving grace here is that we went from Eastern time to Central time and gained an hour back. 

The next day we headed to Austin. We were to arrive around 8pm and play a 45 minute set at 12:45am for the Keystone Artist Connect / SHOWX Showcase. Yah, we’re crazy, but while we’re at this part in the story..I want to take a second to shout out Keystone Artist Connect. They are a lovely booking/management and then some company from Pittsburgh and our friends, Danielle and Maddy. We are not on their roster, but they care so much about artist success and have such big hearts that they helped us fill our schedule with showcases in Austin, and we can’t thank them enough. So booking this year wasn’t as hectic for me as it was in 2020. I had the most fabulous help. A big reason to be grateful. Keystone Artist Connect are great people.

We get to Austin around 8pm as planned, say hi to my gracious and kind friends we were staying with, eat, lay down for maybe 30 min, change, annndd leave for the show. 

Alex and I have had one other SXSW experience about 5 years ago and it was chaos.** Pure. Chaos. 400,000 people, parking 6 blocks away, carrying gear to venues. It was nuts. This year there were about 200,000 people. It was manageable chaos. I’ll take it.

At 11:45pm we snagged a spot right behind the venue, San Jac Saloon, on 6th. That’s 0% chaos, lol. The elevator was broken and we were upstairs, but Alex and Josh were very gentlemanly, helping me with my keyboard and managing the rack case! Once we got settled, we hung out until our set. It was great to see a handful of people we knew from Pittsburgh including Nick and Ed from The Living Street, Danielle from Keystone Artists Connect, and a few other PGH folk! The band that was playing before us, David Quinn, ripped. Rock/country/blues. That’s what I love about SXSW. No genre is excluded and we’re all mixed in together with a ton of talent. We’re an ambient piano pop band and we went on after a rock and country blues band and that’s what’s expected. They, along with everyone we met throughout the week, were so extremely kind and joyful.

At 12:30am, David Quinn and his band finished their set, and we had until 12:45am to get set up and start ours. We have a self contained microphone and in-ear system and our setup is quick. I didn’t think it was as quick as it was going to be, but Alex is extremely good at what he does, so I’m not sure why I was surprised. We did practice setting up with a timer at home, but we just hadn’t done the 15 minute turnover for real yet. Learn by doing!!

Anxiety was pretty high. Until this tour, we hadn’t had much opportunity to play back home. We’ve also never played the same set or setup twice. Every show has been different and new, and we haven’t been able to get into a groove. You’re sort of always on your toes and you can’t live in the music as much when you keep resetting for a different show every time you perform. I was nervous. We were all tired, and we just needed to get one under our belt and hope we didn’t have any technical kinks. We had one minor issue with my microphone channel that got fixed pretty fast. The rest of the set went great! Driving 21 hours in less than 2 days and playing a 45 minute set after midnight is hard on the body. Everyone played well and we were excited to sleep in the next day and do it again. 

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I think I slept ‘til 11am, which still felt like 8am. My friends have a pool and thankfully the one warm day we got was this day because we didn’t have to be anywhere until 11pm. It was basically 45 degrees and rainy the entire time we were there. A bit of a bummer, but it was nice to be out of Pittsburgh and playing shows. Things to be thankful for!

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Our second showcase was back at San Jac Saloon for the Pamnation Party! We miraculously found the same parking spot right behind the venue. I sound like George Costanza, but I can’t explain to you how insane that is when you’ve experienced SXSW at its fullest capacity. 

This set went smoothly and the bar had more people than the previous night! It helped that it wasn’t 1am. The only hiccup I created was that I set my keyboard stand one notch too low, so I was a small percentage uncomfortable. But you roll with it. We had fun! Fun is important!

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Things were too hectic for me to really think much about substances. Sure, I brought things specifically to remind me I’m sober: non-alcoholic drinks. But you can’t drink those and compare or you’ll never enjoy anything. So at this point in the trip, I’m doin okay. I’m just tired. And Alex is my best friend and does not drink around me. THAT is a sweet thing. I knew I’d never be in a bar alone. It’s a peace of mind I won’t ever take for granted. I was also on a tour playing 5 showcases in 3 days. That is EXCITING! It’s all I want to do. When you intentionally focus on joy and thankfulness.. things that could overwhelm you then just melt away.

I’m gonna cap it here for part 1. I have 3 showcases and some more boozeless reviews to share with you next week!

Thanks for reading. You’re all great. 

You can reach the surface <3

Anne, Swim Effect Founder

*Don’t worry to anyone who was worrying.. we are still best friends! In fact, I think difficult situations can make you even better friends when you come out the other side. I sound like a Sesame Street character, but there’s a reason that show is still on the air. 🙂

**I used to be a background vocalist for The Commonheart – a little 😉 band out of Pittsburgh. Alex was their Front of House Audio Engineer. That’s how we met! We went to SXSW in 2018.