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Born Ruffians Lose SXSW Virginity on Camera

The past week or so has been really busy, not just because of South by Southwest (which I’ll get to), but also because our tour has been joined by a crew filming us for the IFC. So now, instead of going to Waffle House and eating ’til it becomes medically urgent that we stop, we go to Waffle House and pretend like we haven’t been there twice in two days. They’ve been with us since New Orleans, and followed us into SXSW too, which explains my wacky headline.

SXSW was, for me, like when you don’t really think you’re hungry but you show up at someone’s house for dinner and it turns out they’re the best cooks and you’re convinced the food was laced with at least a little bit of cocaine because you can’t stop eating and eating and then you fall asleep on their couch face down with your hand still dunked in the bowl you ate dessert out of. Or it’s like the freshman 15; you put on 15 pounds in your first semester at college from all of the beer and food. I think I put my SXSW 15 on the first day. I blame pulled pork for being my mistress/goddamn temptress.

SXSW was also weird because it actually lived up to the hype. Usually when people keep telling you about how you’ll shit yourself over a seeing a certain movie or a band or something, when you finally check it out, it’s underwhelming. But SXSW was anything but underwhelming. It was totally whelming. Maybe overwhelming, even. Or just whelming. SXSWhelm.

Either way, on our first night, I’m pretty sure I blew a fun fuse. In addition to losing a drinking contest with myself (oops!), I spent a healthy slice of my time at the Spin tent where I managed to set the high score in the Guitar Hero III competition, which lasted for a grand total of like forty seconds. Some guy strolled in and emasculated me (and my puny high score) pretty quickly. But fuck him, he was totally just trying to show off for the way-too-short-skirted-we-can-totally-see-bum-cheek Guitar Hero model girls.

We, like everyone else, saw some pretty amazing acts this past weekend. Just to name a few favorites: Man Man, our buddies in the Coast, Flying Lotus, Akron/Family (who we jumped on stage and paraded out into the streets with), Eugene Mirman, Matt Walsh, Human Giant… I think you get the idea. Lots of stuff that is awesome.

We’re stopped in El Paso tonight on our way to Phoenix. We’ve never played Phoenix before, but we’re gonna Jean Grey the shit out of it.

— ruffian mitch

Now Watch This:Luke being filmed while doing an interview while having his picture taken by me

What we found in the Waffle House parking lot

Road Warrior Goose