Going to South By Southwest (SXSW) is an adventure. The best way to do it is to let the U.S. premier music conference happen spontaneously, and just go with the flow. There are too many bands, too many parties, to do otherwise; it’s dizzying, the amount of awesomeness on offer, the sheer numbers of hipsters filling the Austin, Texas streets holding guitars and DJ equipment as they move from gig to gig (sometimes numerous in a day – the new hype “chillwave” band Toro Y Moi is scheduled for something like three shows right in a row!).

Touching down in Austin starts the process of re-entry: one has to psychologically gear up for the amount of beers about to be drunk in the next few days, as well as the copious quantities of loud bands and music-biz networking needed to be endured. Austin is deceptive: while the airport was filled with hipsters cramming into taxis, the ride into the city is bucolic, the rolling hills and forest trees moving against the huge Texas sky, belying the craziness about to unfold.

The first stop in town for many visitors involves not music, however, but a ritual pause at one of the city’s many shrines for amazing barbeque: we chose Iron Works BBQ for some amazing huge plates of brisket, ribs, and sausage, the sauce all mopped up with Wonder Bread. Next, a pass through the convention center to pick up badges and goodie bags is inevitable: there, attendees attend industry seminars and watch exclusive interviews with the artists at the fest (Wednesday’s special guest was Motorhead mastermind Lemmy, in town to promote a spectacular documentary about him which had screened to much fanfare in SXSW’s film portion earlier in the week).

After a quick disco nap, it was time, finally, to check out some sounds. There’s always a big show from some huge artist that everybody buzzes about, often at Austin’s great venue Stubb’s. While Stubb’s holds around 2,000 people, the acts that come to SXSW who play there often could fill arenas: Metallica played last year, while this year Muse and Hole are set for the venue.

On Wednesday, the big Stubb’s show was local heroes Spoon, but Kspace opted for more underground sounds. It was pretty incredible to see Cali groove mastermind Dam-Funk spin a set entirely made up of vintage seven-inch vinyl 45s at the Speakeasy, but it was Flying Lotus, headlining the Warp event at the Phoenix, that was the show of the night. FlyLo came on a little after 1:00 a.m. and proceeded to not only fry the attendees’ brains, but get bodies moving, too: despite the experimental nature of his beats – mixing the fractured rhythms of IDM, the death-blasts of dubsteps bass, and the downright jazzy wonder of FlyLo’s own psychedelic imagination – he managed to turn the Phoenix into a sweaty, ecstatic dance party. P-Funk genius George Clinton’s dictum “Free the ass and the mind will follow” seemed to come into play here: after FlyLo played, there seemed to be a lot of tired asses and freed minds wandering the streets of Austin…

Over the next few days, you can expect more blog posts giving you the heads up on what’s happening in Austin, as well as video showing just what an awesome day at South By Southwest can be…