Last Night at SXSWi ::: Ghostland Observatory

When most people think of SX, they think of the music portion of the festival. What people fail to remember is that the festival consists of the interactive and film portions as well. Our lovely friend and talented entrepreneur, Ms. Whitney Van Cleave, is down in Austin taking in the interactive portion of the festival and enjoying some music along the way. Here’s a report from her first night of music the cultural ambassadors of Austin, Ghostland Observatory.

“Nothing says SXSW Interactive like a room full of nerds not drunk enough to dance yet to dance to good music. Such was the case last night for the opening act Larry g(EE) at the Celebration of American Startups party at ACL’s Moody Theater. Although the set was the perfect blend of funk and soul with a backing big band sound, the crowd never quite loosened up enough to really get grooving. Had their set taken place an hour later, I’m sure we would have had a super funky dance party on our hands. The utter pandemonium of a thousand people sprinting up the the stairs to catch Ghostland Observatory’s set was equally entertaining. As the crowd of 200 swelled to an entirely packed house, Ghostland took the stage in their native city and a room full of geeks proudly raised their drunken freak flags and danced like crazy people. With Thomas Ross Turner’s hypnotic drum and synth beats pounding away and Aaron Behrens’ signature dancing and shrieking, there was panty-dropping aplenty and more iPhone documentation than you can shake a stick at. Here’s some of mine:”

Word and photos by Whitney Van Cleave.  Ms. Van Cleave is co-founder of health-centric social startup, Feel Good Now in Denver.

 

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