Boise indie-rock trio Finn Riggins performed in an official capacity at South By Southwest in Austin, Texas, last weekend, becoming one of the few Idaho acts ever invited to do so. (They had a blast playing several unofficial gigs, too.) Multi-instrumentalist Eric Gilbert checked in Sunday night with a report on multiple days and nights of chaotic awesomeness:

"So our SXSW experience was amazing on multiple fronts. started out on Tuesday playing a party on a big double decker river boat cruising on Lake Austin, which is the Colorado River dammed up as it runs through Austin. big waterwheel out the back of the boat and everything. incredible introduction to the festival and to Austin in general. on Wednesday, Lisa and I played a couple of acoustic songs inside a see through bus as it rolled around sunny downtown Austin amidst the festival for a live video stream and interview. Otherwise, we just took advantage of having an artist wristband running around to shows and getting our bearings on the festival, and the free drinks in the artist lounge -- already amazed at how many friends were at the festival as well. Including some new Irish friends we made at the Neon Reverb Festival in Las Vegas the week before in a band called Autumn Owl. We spent a good chunk of the evening -- St. Patty's Day -- getting schooled by them on how to properly celebrate the holiday.

On Thursday, we played an outside day party at the Side Bar on 7th St pretty close to the action, but not surprisingly quiet as it was just barely after noon. Had some friends there helping make it rowdy though and it was super nice out. We had committed to a SXSW Overflow Fest in Houston for that evening and somewhat reluctantly left Austin, although the break from the sea of humanity and bands was a nice reprieve. We got back to Austin on Friday around 2pm and were supposed to play a BBQ across the river in Zilker Park at 5pm, but decided to opt out of it so that we could spend the rest of the day soaking in the festival and were happy we did. Caught some sweet sets by friends Tempo No Tempo (San Francisco), Candy Claws (Fort Collins), French Miami (San Francisco) and friends of friends Twin Tigers (Athens, GA). Cam and Lisa ran around doing other things. Lisa went to several panels in the convention center and Cam bounced from show to show all night before we rendezvoused around 2am and headed for the friends floor a couple miles out of downtown where we were staying.

Saturday was definitely our biggest day of playing, with a day party hosted by our label Tender Loving Empire and publicist Riot Act at The Liberty out East 6th St, where it became really apparent how far the festival -- because of all the unofficial events -- stretched. The three days prior had been perfect 75 degree weather and sunshine in Austin, but sometime before the sun came up on Saturday the weather had turned to cloudy and very cold -- comparably at least -- getting as low as 38 degrees. Rain stopped after the early morning, but still put a damper on the outdoor shows for the day. The festival went on though and didn't seem to hold too much of the massive crowds from bouncing around town all day. Our day party had a lot of camaraderie built around the common battle against the elements. Cam, in proving his tough Idaho blood, played in just boxers, a scarf and a stocking cap. Here’s what the Oregonian had to say about it.

Our SXSW experience rightfully culminated with our official showcase at Habana Calle 6 right in festival central on 6th St. Other bands on the show included fellow Northwest bands Visqueen (Seattle), Parlour Steps (Vancouver, BC) and All Smiles (Portland). We were slated for the last slot at 1am and we had been joking all week how were playing the "SXSW afterparty", it ironically turned out to be essentially that as many friends and other show goers made us their final stop of the festival. Despite dealing with a pretty disrespectful band from Brooklyn right before us as they played long and dragged their feet getting off stage -- cutting well into our set time, we cranked up at 1:30am sharp and ripped a power set to close the night out ending right at 2am with several friends on stage dancing and clapping and singing along to an extended version of our steel drum and chant tune "A President, A Pacifist, An Auto Restorer". It was awesome. Perfect end to our festival experience. Great crowd. Despite very little sleep, we're headed to Tulsa in high spirits and excited for the rest of tour as we're headed East for the first time since 2008 and will be playing a bunch of shows throughout the Eastern half of the US over the next 7 weeks. SXSW was certainly one of the most amazing events we've been a part of. Made tons of new friends and deepened several friendships already in place. Saw tons of great music, ate tons of tasty breakfast tacos, and learned a ton about ourselves and the music industry at large. We will most definitely be coming back next year and hope to help increase the Idaho presence at the festival. Idaho showcase next year? Official or unofficial, would love to see it happen.

all in all, amazing time. we did CMJ in NYC in 2008. and this was certainly similar, but Austin is just way more our pace and SXSW is a more centralized and inviting festival, especially because of all the unofficial stuff. great time. certainly helped that we already have created all these relationships in other scenes around the country well represented at the festival -- helped it feel like home and fun and like a big fun party all week. loved it.

eric"