[FR] SXSW Day Game

Just wanted to throw out a field report from this past Saturday out at SXSW Film and Music Festival in Austin, TX. I'm a local and a musician, so for most people like me, this "festival" is just an obnoxious disruption to my daily life unless I make the best of it. The whole city gets taken over and it's ultimately a chaotic nightmare of a shit-storm of hipsters...but the women are many and the booze flows freely. What better way to make friends!

This report may not be terribly useful to the initiated, but I aim to reinforce some basic points...

• Assume attraction
• Confidence is #1
• Always be positive
• Always have fun
• Everyone has value
• Value by proxy

...as well as a couple of my own personal points that work well for my style...

• Move quickly
• Work solo
• Reverse order of attraction
• Pick your battles
• Utilize occasions

My day started by being rejected by the HB8 I'd met the week before. I asked her out for a day on the town and she had an excuse. This was the second and final chance I was giving her. Sucks for me, but sucks for her too. Essentially I just wanted to enjoy the great weather so I decided to meet up with a male friend of mine who was in town for some drinks. He's been a wing in the past, but he's engaged now, so I was expecting a laid-back day. We ended up at one of my least favorite bars in town (bad) but we were there to meet his fiancee and her friends (fantastic). It was early afternoon and I decided to make the best of it. At this point gaming wasn't in question.

The fiancee introduced me to everyone and I confidently shook everyone's hand even when they seemed ready to brush the situation off. I then proceeded to introduced myself to everyone in the general vicinity whether they were in the group or not, and it made for some good laughs and got the room talking to one another. It never hurts to have more friends in the room. Drinks started being offered and I just went with the flow. It was going to be a good day.

So I was initiated (value by proxy) and laid on the charm. I flirted with everyone and talked to men and women equally. If somebody wasn't talking I was talking to them to keep things lively. After about an hour I knew enough about everyone through one-on-one conversation and general observation to have sorted out who was taken, who was interested, etc. Once that was knocked out I did a little light flirting with the potentials, got a couple numbers, and didn't push it. Turns out we were in it for the long haul and it was only ~3:00pm. At one point my friend commented that women who never talk to anyone at all are talking to me. I think the snowball started growing at this point.

I'm 31. Ten years ago I would either gotten a number and followed that girl around like a desperate puppy, or I would have waited to try for the perfect girl and never had the balls to approach. Well this bar was crawling with beautiful women, men of industry, and I had every excuse in the book to talk to all of them...the whole point of the festival is fun and schmoozing after all (utilize occasions). I did a lot of yapping, but I'll focus on the women here.

Back to back I hit two separate groups of 3 women, neither of which had any men with them, and each of which had an easy 8 in the group (pick your battles). I opened with "Having a good SXSW? Y'all from Austin or out-of-town?" and then moved on to having them recommend music to see. The conversation couldn't have been easier. It was so situational that it was practically welcomed, so I may as well have been the one approaching.

I wanted the 9's in the group, but I approached the 6's first, going down the line (reverse order of attraction). From my experience, this keeps my nerves down a hair, it keeps the women from getting jealous of the girl that always gets hit on, and it gives me the opportunity to communicate exactly what I want. More often than not the hottest ones are sitting/standing in the middle anyway (at least with younger girls) so it just makes sense. Once you've opened, if you have a chance with the 9, she's going to jump to take lead in the conversation and she'll force the other girls out naturally (which is exactly what happened). If she's really a 9 then she's more interesting anyway. Your focus will be on her and then you move in for the number naturally (or in a party situation like I was in, you'd move in for some sort of close) It worked out exactly the same way with both groups and I got 2 more numbers. The only hang-up was the 9 in the second group felt that her friend was more interested in me so she felt bad for giving me her number. I simply told her that I wasn't interested in her friend at all and that I only wanted her number and guess what happened? So there it is: Be confident, move quickly, work solo, pick your battles, reverse order of attraction, utilize occasions.

I would like to point out that during these sets, one woman in particular from my friend's original group was coming by occasionally to "remind me she was still there" so to speak (slapping my ass, giving me pissed off eyes, etc.)...so women seeing you getting attention from other women draws other women (value by proxy) but it also makes them jealous (naturally) if they see you closing multiple women in the same setting. I've found that pulling them aside and calling them out tends to smooth things over a bit: "You're pissed 'cause I got that other girl's number, aren't you? Sorry. You're both hot. I just met you both. You could both still be crazy!"

Then there's "the brunette". After opening the previous sets I was on my way back to our group and it was getting dark. Physically she was a 9 (but I didn't really know it yet). She was standing with 3 guys. She was kind of drunk and jacking around so she had her leg stretched out across the walkway. I stopped, and, without even glancing at the guys, I lightly grasped her leg with both hands. When she turned to look at me I said the first dumbass thing that popped into my head...something like "Is this road closed? Am I going to have to stay here and drink with you?" Without smiling or anything she just took her leg down, turned all her attention toward me, and the the 3 guys walked off after about a minute into conversation. Turns out we knew people in the same group. She had the big pupils thing going and after successful kino (asking with my hands about her about her festival bracelets...a tight hold while taking a series of iPhone pics) I went for the kiss. Denied--but she demanded my phone, ripped it out of my hand, put her full name and number into it, and called herself. Move quickly.

So this stuff works guys. I hit nothing but groups the whole day...completely solo...and everyone welcomed a friendly face. I'm not saying this type of success happens to me all the time, but putting in the effort to be your best self (and all the other stuff we talk about here) leads to the opportunity to pull 5 numbers in a night... from hot women... and then going to your fuck buddy's place even though that's not a relevant part of the field report. Five numbers could last me all year! Or maybe the rest of my life!

If you think I wasn't nervous opening my first set then you're crazy, but by the end of the night I would have called up the Michelle Obama and asked her out for a drink. And if you think I look all cool and shit because I'm a musician then you're WAY wrong. I just follow /r/malefashionadvice very very loosely and try to keep a decent haircut. I look totally normal and frankly I am not terribly comfortable with my looks. I barely even mentioned being a musician to anyone because I was so busy asking them what they do.

Be confident. Have fun. Keep trying.

TL;DR I'm a badass musician fuck you read the post

Edit: clarity