This week was SXSW! It is all it is cracked up to be, and more. Here's what I saw:
Wednesday
J. Tillman (of Fleet Foxes)
misc. bands doing Leonard Cohen tributes incl.: Herman Dune, Laura Gibson
A tame first day. J. Tillman was grumpy and insisted on doing his set without amplification. Promo for the new Leonard Cohen live CD at Waterloo Records. Praises from NPR music guy, who lamented that there are no more places like this "anymore" in D.C. Hooray Austin!
Thursday
Women
Micachu and the Shapes
Pete and the Pirates
Camera Obscura
The Rosebuds
Now we're talking. Women, MaTS, PatP are new and worth a listen. First time seeing Camera Obscura live -- so good! They rock harder than their dapper European attire might suggest. Lisa turned me on to The Rosebuds, sweet Carolina-drawl pop.
Friday
Health
The Mae Shi
Harlem Shakes
Dag for Dag
Ringo Deathstarr
Health voided the warranty on my eardrums and The Mae Shi made me laugh when they through a rainbow colored parachute over the crowd (think elementary school!). Harlem Shakes are slick. Dag for Dag we saw at the Swedish stage. It was surrounded by blonde people excitedly speaking Swedish. The band was fun to watch because the singer was dressed like a flapper but the sound was a bit of an 80s throwback. Ringo Deathstarr is New Gaze along the lines of Film School, but they achieve an unusually deep drone. Highly recommended if you're into that sort of thing. Caught the last band at a ridculously divey bar far from the madness of 6th Street, complete with a cement urinal and stern warnings posted about starting fights, "APD will be called." No venue is beyond the reach of SXSW, as was confirmed the following day ...
Saturday
Peggy Sue
Mumford and Sons
Desolation Wilderness
Mirah
Polka Dot Dot Dot
... which we started at some guy's house. Actually, some guy's sister's house, the story wasn't quite clear. At any rate, said house was the site of an all day party with lots of wonderful and strange bands. And somehow, they booked Mirah. We saw her play in some dude's garage 5 blocks down the street! For me this really was the coup de grace of my first SXSW. Saturday also saw us athletically popping around East Side venues (on bikes of course, and those hills hurt) to see Peggy Sue and Mumford and Sons, which together gave the morning a very folky feel. We met the guys from a cool Elephant-6-ish band called Amo Joy! at the house party, but just missed their set. They still gave us a CD and we gave them eggs from our chickies.
At the end of it all I'm pretty breathless. The festival is simply an overwhelming blast of awesome. Its also almost entirely free, including much of the beer and food. Surreal, really. The music is the best out there. Almost every band playing one of the coveted nighttime showcases also plays at least one daytime (free) party, so everyone has a chance to hear the same music that has been vetted by the festival. I had fallen into quite a listening rut and this has been a much-needed reminder that there is a lot of great new stuff being played out there. That, and a reminder that Austin is the envy of a good part of the music-loving world. Its good to be here.
PS Did you know that Twitter was debuted at SXSW 2007? It is still the proverbial grease on the gears two years later. Check out the #swsx tag on Twitter, it is astonishing. Anyway I finally got on board.
