The massive music industry festival that is South-by-Southwest fell into some bad timing this year, coming right after the Japanese earthquake/tsunami/nuclear crisis, and right before the United States and her allies joined the fight in Libya by bombing Muammar Gaddafi (Day Two of the festival was also St. Patrick’s Day, but SXSW knew that going in…). It all threatened to make the festival, and music in general, seem irrelevant, what with the world going to hell in a handbasket. But ensconced in the cocoon that was downtown Austin, on your smart phones and Twitter, with wristbands and free drinks galore, SXSW proved to once again be an engrossing, all-encompassing musical clusterfuck of an experience.
I felt prepared for SXSW this year, but prepared in an intentionally unprepared way. Lets face it; there is no avoiding the feeling that you’ve missed something by the conclusion of the festival. So, instead of trying to fight against the inevitable, I decided to devote this year’s SXSW to one simple method of music discovery – stumbling. There were no planned schedules, no obligations and no rush. We generally had an idea of where our days were going to start but left the rest to chance…
Day 1 was short. In my case, arriving into Texas didn’t actually mean landing in Austin, surrounded by thousands of musicians. It meant landing in San Antonio – about 80 miles from all the action. The much cheaper airfare seemed to be worth it, but then again, I wasn’t the one who had to drive through the (sometimes very heavy) traffic back to Austin. Without even making it back to the house to put our stuff down or to change into something a little less… traveled in, we decided to stop downtown for a short SXSW introductory evening.
[Note: QRO had a number of correspondents at SXSW this year; this is just the Day One recap from Tammi J Myers; click here for Ted Chase’s Day One recap, click here for Amanda Krieg’s, and click here for Robin Sinhababu’s]
SXSW Party @ Blue Moon Rock & Blues
The Richards
Not wanting to stray too far from the 6th Street action (and super entertaining people-watching), we first stumbled into Blue Moon Rock & Blues – a small relaxed bar with an entire mirrored wall opposite the stage and floor to ceiling open windows in the front, letting in what was left of the sun.
On stage was The Richards – a local electro pop duo from Austin. From what I gathered, they were a husband/wife duo and the family dynamic that filled the bar was probably the best thing about the set. Their younger son walked around with a tip bucket and was kind of hard to resist. Pretty smart move, if you ask me. At the end of the set, the guitarist/father split the cash in half between two very excited sons.
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Paste Party @ The Stage on Sixth
True Mad North, 7:30pm
Click image for full gallery
Approaching the awkward down time between the day shows and the evening showcases, we moved on to The Stage on Sixth to catch the end of the Paste Party. I’m guessing that The Stage would not be my kind of place any other time but SXSW – made apparent by the giant country music star mural and the overall honky-tonk vibe. But for this purpose, it was perfect – spacey, cheap beer and decent lights and sound. It just worked for that moment, which is the same way I felt about the next band.
True Mad North, from California, took the stage at about 7:30. Their upbeat, country/rock sound fit the atmosphere pretty well. It wasn’t a super memorable set but the music was decent and just seemed to work in the moment. They explained that it was a very last minute gig and you could tell that they were all very excited to be there. Their excitement set the tone of the evening, since we were all very excited to be there as well. After a long day of traveling (and a night of no sleep), we had finally arrived. However, that same long day of traveling (and night of no sleep) meant that an early night was necessary before really enjoying SXSW on Day Two.
Leaving a show venue never meant leaving the music behind right away. Even our walks back to the car each night had their own soundtrack. One of my favorite parts about this festival is the amount of musicians playing on every street corner and curb. It’s amazing to see on such a large scale. Here is Wednesday night’s best street play:
Other notes:
-First observation of downtown Austin… It smells like meat. Welcome to Austin.
-If you want to really be confused, walk into the women’s bathroom at The Stage on Sixth. In addition to the normal stalls, there was a random toilet right by the sinks – no stall, no privacy. Luckily, no one felt the need to use it while I was washing my hands.
Unfortunately missed:
-Wild Flag (QRO photos) @ Waterloo Records.
-Cults @ The Windish Agency House
-Baths (QRO photos) @ Mohawk
-Friendly Fires (QRO album review) @ FADER Fort.
…and really just the entire day in general
