Back in March of 2020, one of the first big things to cancel was Austin’s massive new music showcase, South-by-Southwest. 2021 rolled around, and still no in-person. But for 2022, the party was back, all across the Live Music Capitol of the World, Monday-Saturday, March 14th-19th.
Like the day before, Tuesday at SXSW ’22 started off more about sponsored events (and the free food & drinks that come with them) than actual music. But it was also where your South-by shifted, to heading to showcases to catch actual acts.
Shell House @ Antone’s
Okay, so it felt kind of oily to be going to an event sponsored by Big Oil major Shell, but each free drink drunk at Antone’s was a dollar away from their bottom line, so, really, you were on the side of (alcoholic) angels. And they were pitching “net zero,” so at least knew to mouth the right words at SXSW. Most annoying really were the special cocktails that they’d come up with for the event, as anyone who ordered them took many times longer than those of us efficient drinkers who knew to get beer (bonus points to bartenders who helped run up Shell’s tab by offering two beers when you only asked for one…).
And at least Shell brought some actual music, naturally tilting towards Gulf Coast country in Madeleine Edwards and Forest Blakk.
[note: your correspondent only discovered at Antone’s that he’d left his camera battery charging at the place he was staying, and his back-up point-and-shoot’s battery was dead, so only some iPhone photos of this – got battery before next showcase]
South-by-Southwest showcase @ Cheer Up Charlie’s
While many official SXSW showcases have a specific sponsor who picks the line-up, sometimes it’s just acts who are playing the festival on a random venue’s random bill. A lot of times that means no one you’re interested in, or only just one, but sometimes it’s something to go to.
Night Moves
Minneapolis’ Night Moves brought some easy seventies to Austin, including some easy psych. While hardly a revelation, they were quite nice as someone on the bill you were had to listen to before who you came for (which can be high praise at SXSW…).
Seratones
One unfortunate aspect of SXSW is that the acts, playing multiple times across town in strange locales, can take seemingly forever to set up. Yes, the music needs to be heard as it was meant to be heard, but also yes, this isn’t Madison Square Garden. And probably it just seems like a long time, rather than actually is. And when Seratones came on, none of that toned them down, funky and having fun (and didn’t forget their outfits).
Sunflower Bean
It might be an album cycle/worldwide pandemic since Sunflower Bean were first a surprise up-and-comer, but they’ve still got some definite heat behind them, and one could see why. It was good to see some old leather-clad rock n’ roll – and by young people, not old fogies. There was a touch of alt to the power trio, but no more. They played mostly from their upcoming new album, Headful of Sugar, but also some old-for-them pieces.
Unfortunately missed:
–Paris Jackson @ 3TEN Austin City Limits Live, 12:10am – 2:00am. Okay, you only wanted to see her because she’s Michael Jackson’s daughter, but that really enough to pique interest (even though there are way too many ‘royalty children’ these days, not just in music but Hollywood as well – now it’s ‘heart-warming’ when the privileged child who has all the contacts in the world succeeds, not nepotism…).
