Blades of Glory: Throwing Knives With Three Sharp Bands at SXSW
This SXSW, Rolling Stone organized the first annual SXSW Musicians Knife Throw Down: a competition between three bands to determine which of them had the best knife-throwing skills.
Before the So So Glos arrive at the International Knife Throwers Hall of Fame (on the outskirts of Austin, Texas), members of Future Islands and Nothing gather in the parking lot and discuss whether they needed to move their vans further away from the action.
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Future Islands
Like a surgeon cutting for the very first time, Gerrit Welmers of Future Islands selects his blade.
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Nothing
Kyle Kimball of Nothing gets ready to take some practice throws. The primary lesson from the instructor: "Use your whole body."
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Nothing
Brandon Setta of Nothing, standing in the strike zone.
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Future Islands
Samuel Herring of Future Islands proves to be a natural talent in the warmup rounds. "I hit three bullseyes, and then I missed three," he says. "The moral is don't overthink."
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The So So Glos
The So So Glos arrive late, provoking concern when they call to say that they're at a police station. (They were just getting directions.) Zach Staggers takes aim. "I'm not going to be good at this," he laments. "I need a gun!"
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The So So Glos
Alex Levine of the So So Glos, showing good form in the followthrough.
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Future Islands
The final round of warm-ups. Meanwhile, Samuel Herring of Future Islands asks the members of the So So Glos, "You use knives like this in Brooklyn?"
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The Competition Begins
Band representatives (Alex Levine of the So So Glos, Nick Bassett of Nothing, William Cashion of Future Islands) engage in a complicated three-way match of rock-paper-scissors to determine which band will throw first. Levine insists that the correct rhythm is "rock, paper, scissors, says, shoot" — and ends up winning.
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So So Weird
Everyone watches the action. The So So Glos are having a particularly odd day: after the knife throwing, they're scheduled to drive down to San Antonio to play the afterparty for the Spurs/Lakers game.
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The So So Glos
The So So Glos with friends. Ryan Levine (tongue out) laments his lack of success: "I'm supposed to be good at shit like this." (He was an athlete growing up: basketball, football, lacrosse.) "I'm going to set this up when I get home," he resolves. "Can we do this onstage at [New York club] Shea Stadium?"
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Knife Party
Once you get good at knives, you can move on to tomahawks.
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We Are the Champions
The midmatch scoring sheet. The final score: So So Glos 7, Nothing 16, and the winner: Future Islands 39. The MVP, by a wide margin: Samuel Herring of Future Islands.
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The Prize
The prize bounty: Inaugural SXSW Musicians Knife Throw Down certificates and patches from the International Knife Throwers Hall of Fame.
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The So So Glos
"Can we do it over?" Alex Levine asks while throwing knives after the match. "I'm killing it now."
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Future Islands
Your champion Future Islands, with their coach Gillian Sitler, the female world champion knife thrower (and just 13 years old!).
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Nothing
Domenic Palermo (second from left): "I know how to throw a knife now, so I'm going to start carrying them around. Don't mess with Nothing."
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Band of Thrones
All three bands, in a display of knife-oriented unity. Samuel Herring tells the other bands, "We're trying to do a web series, Band of Thrones. We'd have different bands, but they wouldn't play music — they'd just travel the country and fight."
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Nothing
Domenic Palermo of Nothing, asked what he learned: "Don't play with knives."
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Nothing
Kyle Kimball serves as the bullseye in some target practice. Overheard from another member of Nothing: "Unfortunately, Kyle is no longer with us."