My goal for SXSW this year was just to go down there, wonder aimlessly, and just see what we happened upon (see yesterday's post here). The only thing we had in stone was making it to The Main Friday night to see The Artery Foundation Showcase featuring A Lot Like Birds, Chunk! No, Captain Chunk!, For The Fallen Dreams, Attila, Woe Is Me, Chelsea Grin and A Skylit Drive.

This was Skylit's final show of SXSW before they packed up and headed to Dallas for SXSWhat the following day. Shelby and Chris have known some of the guys for quite a while so we met up with them while they were loading in. They looked pretty road worn and lost, but all of that disappeared when they took the stage. Playing in front of a packed house, Skylit performed with the precision of a well oiled machine, whipping the crowd up, and tearing them in half with what might have been the largest pit of the night. It's amazing how the bands in the post-hardcore genre have a well calculated formula for getting the crowd to beat the crap out of each other one minute, then hug and sing arm in arm the next. Their set was exceptional, front to back, but it reached it's apex when they blasted through their cover of Eminem's "Love The Way You Lie". Fun times.

The Main (formerly Emo's Outside) is not photographer friendly, especially when there is six other guys on stage jumping off of every solid surface available. So the options were brave the pit or stand in a 2x2 square on the side of the stage; I did both. I also put Shelby to work holding my SB-910 for some off camera flash fun while she was smashed against the stage. It was an interesting experiment with some oddly pleasing results. Rules are made to broken right?

Anyway, Thanks to the guys in A Skylit Drive for wrapping up our whirlwind of a day in Austin with a really enjoyable set. It was fun running into you again at the truck stop in Jarrell.

Look at those eyes!