Papermag's down at SXSW this week, living in the very weird, veryfun HP Mobile Park at Red River and Cesar Chavez St. We're chroniclingall the fun at hpsxsw.com and hpsxsw.tumblr.com, and re-publishing some of the coverage here.
"We've got Questlove!" said a voice through a PA last night at theScoot Inn. "But first a bit of neighborhood business: if you are thedriver of a Honda Civic please move your car or you will be towed." Thecrowd, maybe a tad overenthusiastic from the beginning of SXSW,cheered.
They stood in the outdoor pit of the Scoot Inn, atcapacity by just after 9pm, although that didn't stop people frompressing against the entrance.
God-Des and She, a hip-hop duorecently relocated to Austin, got on stage, reminded us where we were,then told us about their Twitter and how to spell there names.
"Myname is God hyphen d-e-s," God-Des said. "That's She. Doesn't she havea beautiful voice? Who wants to hear her sing a cappella?"
A fewscattered claps and She was singing a cappella. "How many people here,"God-Des asked fairly abruptly, "know how to eat some real pussy? Makesome noise!"
They did, but this was unexpected.
By thetime Theophilus London got on stage, wearing a black leather motorcyclejacket and tight black pants, looking like he belonged on the cover of Rockets to Russia,the line stretched around the block. The lonely security guard outfront was shining a blue light on them, trying to make them disperse tolet people through, shouting "Can we get a hole? Hey people, this isgetting ridiculous."
The chaos was buffered by the appearance ofQuestlove on stage, in a big black hoodie, his hair contained beneath apair of headphones. He emerged to play "Rock with You." The swell ofpeople threw up their hands and danced while the obligatory hype maniterated the song's message.
"We gonna rock the boogie," Michael Jackson sang.
"Who's gonna rock the boogie ya'll? Aus-TIN!"
SoQuestlove played the hits. People stood in the street, dangled fromfences, sat atop parked cars. The sound from the speakers echoed forblocks.
