So, my first SXSW was… interesting. I spent the first three days essentially walking aimlessly around Austin, being intimidated by lines and the general madcap vibe of the entire place, and trying—sometimes successfully, even!—to see music. On the final two days of the festival, I finally figured out how the whole deal works. You show up to a venue a million hours early, wait in line, then wait around the venue until the act you want to see plays hopefully dodging people who want to give you their business cards, then repeat.Overall, my takeaway from the festival was vastly different from our EIC, SXSW veteran Fred Pessaro. While Fred made it his mission to see as many young bands as he could, I was simply trying to survive. I am writing this on roughly three hours of sleep, my eyes bloodshot and my veins pumped full of gross Monster Energy drink that everyone else in the VICE office refuses to touch. Despite my constant complaining and sense of complete helplessness, I had a lot of fun and saw a bunch of acts, some of whom are well-established, others on the come-up. Here are the best of the best.SOPHIE
If we're being honest, nobody really knows jack-shit about the British producer, whose press photos obscure his face and who fields interviews bemusedly, over email. His music is essentially a bag of Fun Dip uploaded to a SoundCloud page, taking the brighter elements of maximalist future bass and imbuing them with a palpable sense of joy that bleeds into his live set. Watching him at one in the afternoon at a garage on 6th Street, I couldn't help but smile as he bounced around and pumped the underfilled but at-capacity-according-to-the-fire-marshalls venue with enough energy to power a small island nation in the Pacific.YOUNG JEEZY
The last time I caught the Snowman live, it was in college, opening for Lil Wayne on his tour supporting his world-beating Carter III. He was, if I'm being honest, somewhat antiseptic, standing on an arena stage and letting his muscular songs do the work. When I caught him at the SXSW late night institution Illmore, it was no different, but the vibe surrounding him—packed house, even-more-packed stage, suited his performance style perfectly.DENIRO FARRAR
Deniro is the rare rapper who's pretty much guaranteed to win people over with his live show, which I saw him do twice over, once at the club Haven and once at our Brisk Bodega showcase. At Haven, his sound was off, but he worked it to his full advantage, abandoning the beat and working the crowd a cappella.GIRAFFAGE
One of the predominant trends in dance music that I noticed while at SXSW is the abundance of producers who seem to have synthesized late-'90s Timbaland when he evolved from simply another beatmaker into Timbaland, wizard of all things pop, with the Neo-Garage shit that's been popping off in the UK for the past few years. The recent output of Giraffage finds him on the bleeding edge of this sound, throwing in a healthy dollop of Captain-Save-A-Cheesy-Song, dropping remixes of The Cranberries and Justin Bieber's "Baby" along with his original productions and well-documented The-Dream fetish. Dude has very Tumblr-wave visuals accompanying his sets, which depending on how you feel about that sort of thing is either endearing or annoying.E.S.G.
The legendary Houston rapper blessed Austin with a short set at a Texas rap party, freestyling about random stuff in the room before bringing out his awesomely awesome 13-year-old son, who rapped winningly about being the world's coolest 13-year-old.LIL WAYNE/YOUNG THUG
Weezy F. Baby's much-hyped closing set at Illmore turned out to be less of a Lil Wayne show and more of a coronation of Young Thug as rap's Next Big Thing, ceding the stage to Thugger as he exuberantly bounced around to his neo-classics like "Stoner" and "Danny Glover." I felt extremely prayer-hands-emoji blessed to witness Thug, as he'd been canceling SXSW shows left and right. He might not have the most on-point live show or even stage presence right now, but what can you expect, really? As Young Thug's star rises, so will his performance quality. Right now, we should just be happy daring, avant-garde rappers like Thug are making waves in the mainstream and pushing hip-hop to places never before conceptualized.MIGOS
If I had a magic wand that could make strangers do things, I would make Migos rebrand as a garage-rock band, with Takeoff on guitar, Offset with his intricate sense of rhythm on drums, and Quavo on guitar and vocals. They would release one album under this format, do a tour to support it, and then revert to the Migos we all know and love and never talk about their garage-rock period again. Until then, I guess we can just be happy that their on-record exuberance translates to their live show.BRENMAR
Brenmar might be the world's smallest man, but his sets pack a hulk-sized punch. If for some reason you haven't lost your mind to him, you should rectify that immediately.PROTEX
The legendary British punks boast that theirs is a sound "best consumed live," and after witnessing them firsthand I can't really argue otherwise. Too many performers simply stand onstage and do their thing, content with standing listlessly while they fart out songs that people already know and love. Protex is actively searching to win over converts.BIG SEAN
What is the purpose of Big Sean? Pop-rap savant? Testing ground for producers for Kanye to subsume in his all-encompassing vision of MUSIC FOR THE FUTURE? Human TI$A hat rack? Donda branding initiative? I can't really say, but after catching his unannounced set at Illmore, I'd just like to say that Big Sean actually has made a gazillion songs that you really love, even if you sometimes forget that Big Sean is responsible for them. He's like The Eagles, in that way.PITBULL
Why would you go see Pitbull at SXSW? Dear reader, the real question is why would you not see Pitbull at SXSW?BONUS: THE BIGGEST LIES I HEARD/TOLD AT SXSW
I'm on the list.
You're on the list.
Be there in 20 minutes.
Lil Boosie is definitely playing an unannounced set.
The venue is at capacity.
This wristband will get you in.
Your SXSW badge will be useful.
I'll email you later.
I want to build with you.
My hotel is super close to 6th Street!
It's been great networking with you.
I'm not drunk.
I'm not tired.
I'm big in tech.
I am having fun.Drew Millard is worried he will never recover from SXSW. He's on Twitter - @drewmillard
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If we're being honest, nobody really knows jack-shit about the British producer, whose press photos obscure his face and who fields interviews bemusedly, over email. His music is essentially a bag of Fun Dip uploaded to a SoundCloud page, taking the brighter elements of maximalist future bass and imbuing them with a palpable sense of joy that bleeds into his live set. Watching him at one in the afternoon at a garage on 6th Street, I couldn't help but smile as he bounced around and pumped the underfilled but at-capacity-according-to-the-fire-marshalls venue with enough energy to power a small island nation in the Pacific.YOUNG JEEZY
The last time I caught the Snowman live, it was in college, opening for Lil Wayne on his tour supporting his world-beating Carter III. He was, if I'm being honest, somewhat antiseptic, standing on an arena stage and letting his muscular songs do the work. When I caught him at the SXSW late night institution Illmore, it was no different, but the vibe surrounding him—packed house, even-more-packed stage, suited his performance style perfectly.
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Deniro is the rare rapper who's pretty much guaranteed to win people over with his live show, which I saw him do twice over, once at the club Haven and once at our Brisk Bodega showcase. At Haven, his sound was off, but he worked it to his full advantage, abandoning the beat and working the crowd a cappella.GIRAFFAGE
One of the predominant trends in dance music that I noticed while at SXSW is the abundance of producers who seem to have synthesized late-'90s Timbaland when he evolved from simply another beatmaker into Timbaland, wizard of all things pop, with the Neo-Garage shit that's been popping off in the UK for the past few years. The recent output of Giraffage finds him on the bleeding edge of this sound, throwing in a healthy dollop of Captain-Save-A-Cheesy-Song, dropping remixes of The Cranberries and Justin Bieber's "Baby" along with his original productions and well-documented The-Dream fetish. Dude has very Tumblr-wave visuals accompanying his sets, which depending on how you feel about that sort of thing is either endearing or annoying.E.S.G.
The legendary Houston rapper blessed Austin with a short set at a Texas rap party, freestyling about random stuff in the room before bringing out his awesomely awesome 13-year-old son, who rapped winningly about being the world's coolest 13-year-old.LIL WAYNE/YOUNG THUG
Weezy F. Baby's much-hyped closing set at Illmore turned out to be less of a Lil Wayne show and more of a coronation of Young Thug as rap's Next Big Thing, ceding the stage to Thugger as he exuberantly bounced around to his neo-classics like "Stoner" and "Danny Glover." I felt extremely prayer-hands-emoji blessed to witness Thug, as he'd been canceling SXSW shows left and right. He might not have the most on-point live show or even stage presence right now, but what can you expect, really? As Young Thug's star rises, so will his performance quality. Right now, we should just be happy daring, avant-garde rappers like Thug are making waves in the mainstream and pushing hip-hop to places never before conceptualized.
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If I had a magic wand that could make strangers do things, I would make Migos rebrand as a garage-rock band, with Takeoff on guitar, Offset with his intricate sense of rhythm on drums, and Quavo on guitar and vocals. They would release one album under this format, do a tour to support it, and then revert to the Migos we all know and love and never talk about their garage-rock period again. Until then, I guess we can just be happy that their on-record exuberance translates to their live show.BRENMAR
Brenmar might be the world's smallest man, but his sets pack a hulk-sized punch. If for some reason you haven't lost your mind to him, you should rectify that immediately.PROTEX
The legendary British punks boast that theirs is a sound "best consumed live," and after witnessing them firsthand I can't really argue otherwise. Too many performers simply stand onstage and do their thing, content with standing listlessly while they fart out songs that people already know and love. Protex is actively searching to win over converts.BIG SEAN
What is the purpose of Big Sean? Pop-rap savant? Testing ground for producers for Kanye to subsume in his all-encompassing vision of MUSIC FOR THE FUTURE? Human TI$A hat rack? Donda branding initiative? I can't really say, but after catching his unannounced set at Illmore, I'd just like to say that Big Sean actually has made a gazillion songs that you really love, even if you sometimes forget that Big Sean is responsible for them. He's like The Eagles, in that way.PITBULL
Why would you go see Pitbull at SXSW? Dear reader, the real question is why would you not see Pitbull at SXSW?BONUS: THE BIGGEST LIES I HEARD/TOLD AT SXSW
I'm on the list.
You're on the list.
Be there in 20 minutes.
Lil Boosie is definitely playing an unannounced set.
The venue is at capacity.
This wristband will get you in.
Your SXSW badge will be useful.
I'll email you later.
I want to build with you.
My hotel is super close to 6th Street!
It's been great networking with you.
I'm not drunk.
I'm not tired.
I'm big in tech.
I am having fun.Drew Millard is worried he will never recover from SXSW. He's on Twitter - @drewmillard