With so many bands around, it’s now possible to catch gigs from the first day as some of the corporate parties have bands play and this was the case this time, with the White Denim playing on the first evening. But even before SXSW started it was possible to catch some of the great local Austin music by simply walking into any of the dive bars on 6th street.

2016 was a bit of an odd year. Yes, there were hundreds of great bands around but despite the fact that it was SXSW’s 30th anniversary, there wasn’t the buzz of previous years. There weren’t any massive bands playing secret shows and during the day and there seemed to be less parties. I think part of this is due to Austin trying to reduce the crowds turning up for the free parties. But I’m not sure this really is working, the crowds were still massive and they seemed to be mainly walking around on the streets. It didn’t help that Austin police had decided to introduce some crowd control measures that made it very difficult to move between venues.

One of the reasons why I loved SXSW was that it was so easy to move between dozens of venues and catch bands. If you didn’t like the band, you could then move across the road and see another one. So it’s been a great place to hear lots of different types of music and discover new bands.

This year, the venue density was lower. Last time I was here, quite a few showcases had shifted to Rainey street but there was still a good core set of venues on 6th and Red River. This time, some venues had shifted out east of I35. These tended to be sponsored venues with the bigger bands and I think part of the reason is to encourage people to stick to the venue. If you’ve queued to get into a venue that’s out of the way, you’re going to stay. Unfortunately, the venues that were left on 6th had changed. At my last visits, The Parish and Maggie Mae’s offered five stages that you could loop around in 10 minutes and catch a lot of music. The Parish was now a single venue and Maggie Mae’s split their stages into separate venues so you had to leave one venue to go back in. Maggie Mae’s also seemed to have switched to programming electronic and rap music and this unfortunately was also the case for several other venues.

In all honesty, rap is the biggest problem facing SXSW. The increase in rap programming seemed to encourage massive crowds who were seeking free gigs hoping that big name rappers were going to turn up. This also encouraged ‘rappers’ turning up often with massive crews trying to push their rap albums on the crowds on 6th street. I’m not sure if rap had led to issues at previous SXSW’s but it seemed like they’d concentrated rap programming into single venues often with heavy security. But this mean that whole venues disappeared off my ‘bounce circuit’. At times 6th street was literally at a standstill.

Unfortunately, the thing I really loved about SXSW was the ability to bounce around venues. I go to SXSW to discover new music. I tend to plan lightly with just a few bands I’d like to see and then just bounce up and down 6th and Red. With the increased crowds I just wasn’t getting to see the same level of bands I’d expect to see each day. Don’t get me wrong, during the music part of SXSW, I was still seeing 20-30 bands a day but it took a lot of effort to catch this number and it took a few days to optimise my route to maximise the amount of bands I caught.

It sounds like I didn’t enjoy myself this time. This is far from the truth. I had a brilliant time watching some great bands in venues ranging from churches to dive bars.

There were the usual programming surprises, where you stumble upon a band you hadn’t realised were playing SXSW. For example going to a venue to watch the excellent Ezra Furman and realising that Mercury Rev were on afterwards. So getting the opportunity to see a great band in a relatively tiny venue.

Them there was the opportunity to see music that I’d never otherwise catch, such as the South Korean band Jambinai who mix traditional Korean instruments to create some really good ambient rock music.

It was also an opportunity to catch many British bands that I hadn’t managed to catch at home. Often they were playing the frankly excellently organised and managed British Music Embassy. YAK, a band I’d been unable to catch in London, I caught playing an excellent set at the British Music Embassy.

In total I managed to catch over 130 bands. This isn’t the complete list as I didn’t catch the name of every band but as you can see it’s a pretty diverse range of bands

I’ve highlighted bands who stood out. I thought Yak and Yonatan Gat stood put in the best performances of SXSW. But bands such as Sunflower Bean, Ezra Furman and Mercury Rev put in really strong performances. Then there were some great unusual situations that enhanced performances, such as thunderstorms forcing the Barracuda to move their outside stage inside their venue with the bands being playing in a circle in the centre of the room surrounded by the audience. GYMNSHORTS’s performance really was enhanced by this and I’m not sure I would have been as impressed if they’d played outside on a stage.

My only disappointment was missing the Kills. They were playing two venues that according to Twitter, always seemed to have queues so I couldn’t be bothered spending time queuing to see a band I’ve seen numerous times and that I’ll catch again in the UK.

From a photography point of view. Getting a good shot wasn’t a priority. So although I had my Sony A7s with me, as soon as music officially started, I left it in my hotel and just carried a pocket camera and if there wasn’t an opportunity to get to the front, just grabbed a shot simply to document out who I’d seen. I also decided towards the end of SXSW to try and capture some of the atmosphere of SXSW and captured lots of short 20 second clips of video.

Day 0

Arriving a day early and with my hotel room unavailable, I headed down to the main festival site. It was a 30 minute bus ride from my base for the week near the Arc de Triomf. I was expecting to see big hordes queing to get tickets. But I was straight in and out, with my new mini backpack, wristband and access card (think it’s used to get back into the festival). My VIP wristband had a NFC id chip which would be used to gain access to the festival and VIP areas.

Although there was some music on during the evening, I opted to do some sightseeing.

Day 1

The main programme of music doesn’t start until about 5pm. This was great for me as it allowed me to spend most of the day sightseeing, drop my stuff off at the hotel and then head up to catch the music programming.

The previous day, I’d spent some time gathering my bearings and I found that it was more convienent to catch the quicker tram to the festival. It was only a few blocks away from the Arc de Triomf and there’s a platform right outside the festival site.

With VIP wristbands, access to the festival was really quick. But I never saw long queues for normal access. If you’re visting for the first time, there are bag searches and on the first day they were pretty thorougher.

Just inside the main gate was a big Rough Trade store with some familiar faces. Quiet a nice perk for the (always excellent) Rough Trade staff. There was also a poster area with some amazing illustrations from talented artists and graphic designers. Luckily the logistics of getting an undamaged poster back to the UK stopped me from spending a lot of money. But there was a lot of good work.

Home away from home

Setting up shop

Next to this area was the main food hall and bars. I’d read that Primavera was expensive. Maybe it’s the fact that I’m used to London prices but I thought the prices were very good. Half a pint of Heineken cost €3, a pint €5. A bottle of water was €2. Food prices were also decent value when compared to a London venue or UK festival. I discovered later that the prices in the VIP area were even better, with a bottle of water costing €1 and half a pint €2, making a VIP ticket very cost effective. The VIP areas also had their own toilets, which let’s face it, doesn’t really mean much to blokes, as one urinal is very much the same as another. But female toliets appeared to be cleaned regularly.

I didn’t really have any plans for the festival. Although there were a few bands I wanted to see, I thought I’d take the whole thing as it comes. Regularly move around stages and take breaks in the VIP areas if there wasn’t anything that interested me.

Despite some reservations before the festival that the site wouldn’t be laid out well. (Google maps giving me a false idea of scale), the site works really well. At one end of the site are two big stages facing each other that never have music on at the same time. These are the main ‘headline’ stages. At the other end of the site, a number of smaller stages that you can walk between very quickly. The sound at most stages was ‘okay’. But I found that the Pitchfork stage had the worst sound and you really needed to be near the sounddesk for decent sound. Unfortunately, this was also one of the smaller stages without screens. So I found this stage was always a comprimise between listening to a performance and watching a performance.

As I usually do at festivals, I spent most of my time bouncing around between stages.

Occellot – Okay. Nothing earth shattering. But a decent start to the festival

Childhood – Saw these guys at ROTW2014. Like there, it was a reasonable set that kept me interested (for a few songs at least)

Hiss Golden Messenger – Not really my type of music. A bit too country rock. But they were actually pretty good. Again kept me entertained for a song or two

The Twerps

The Pitchfork stage throughout the festival had the most interesting lineup. So I’d often swing around to see who was playing. The Twerps were the first band that I want to catch. They were quiet a good band for a sunny day with a line in jangly indie pop. Although it was pleasant, there were other bands to see…

After Twerps I headed to the ATP stage where Yasmine Hamdan was playing. She sounded interesting in the guide. Mixing arabic music with indie music. It was pleasant and I wanted to enjoy it more. But it was all too delicate for one of the bigger stages.

Sketching bands – there were a number of artists producing works over the weekend. Different from seeing the multitude of photographers usually at the front of gigs.

Although the site is commercialised, with beer from only one source and stages sponsored by companies such as Ray Ban. There were a few commercial tie-ins. But not in a way that distracted from the music

Heading back to the Pitchfork stage, I caught some of the Viet Cong set. I’d heard they were really good live. They were good. But I think they’re probably a band that play off a crowd in smaller venues and the crowd at this stage were quiet flat. But I think they’re worth catching again in a smaller venue.

As with all festivals, managing clashes is difficult. You either stick with a performance, or you try to move between stages to catch bits of both performances. Up against Viet Cong was Benjamin Booker and his set then ran into Thurston Moore’s. So I decided to ‘slice’ the sets. To try and see all three. So I decided to head off to catch the middle of Benjamin’s set before Viet Cong had finished. I’ve been trying to catch him for ages. I always seem to have another gig when he plays London. But I was really impressed by him. Good old fashioned energetic blues rock and a great voice.

Instead of heading to the front of the ATP stage to see Thurston, one of the VIP areas faced onto the ATP stage and the sound quality wasn’t too bad in there. So I decided to avail myself of the beer tent and sit and watch Thurston’s set. With the sun setting behind the stage, Thurston’s set was fantastic.

Thurston Moore Band

The sun setting on the festival

The evening for me was now winding down. Little on the bill interested me. So I headed to see Antony and the Johnstons. He really didn’t work for me. Maybe in a venue like the Barbican he might work. But a big stage at a festival. He seemed like an odd choice. Too quiet for a big venue and too arty to a big stage. His theatrics looking rather pathetic when all you’re watching is a tiny person on a stage.

I swung past a number of stages but nothing seemed to interest me so I settled with back into the VIP area and watched Spirtualized for 20 minutes or so. It was pleasant enough.

There was only really one more band on the bill who I thought worth catching, the Black Keys. But I’d seen them before at the O2 and although enjoyed them, they aren’t a band I was in a hurry to see again. So after about half an of their set, I decided it was time to head back into Barcelona.

One thing that concerned me before Primavera was the travel and Barcelona’s well-earned poor reputation for muggings (I saw one on my last night). So I was a bit wary about the late evening travel, especially as I was at this festival on my own. After midnight on the Thursday, the only options to get back into town are night buses, taxis or to walk back. However, I shouldn’t have been too concerned about catching a night bus. There was a queue of them outside the venue ready to take us back into town. I think both buses drop you off at Plaça de Catalunya. One follows the beach into town (N6) and then up past La Rambla and the other (N7) takes a more direct route. Opting for N7 to avoid walking through the La Ramblas area, it dropped me about a 15 minute walk away from my hotel. The streets in this part of the town were quieter than I would have liked, but I’d walked them the previous night heading back from La Sagrada Familia. It seemed safe enough.

Day 2

Day 2 was much the same as Day 1. In the morning I headed off into town doing some sightseeing. Heading back to my hotel for a rest before heading down to around 5pm. Like the previous day, there weren’t any real queues to get in.

I have to admit that I wasn’t overly impressed by this year’s lineup. Previous years seemed to have had more decent up and coming bands on the bill. This year seemed to be lots of old bands that I wasn’t fussed about. But I chose the festival as much for the location as anything else. Yesterday was probably the strongest bill. Today, little interested me. But that’s not necessarily a negative. It gives you more opportunity to be surprised. So like the previous day, I decided to bounce around stages to catch whoever was playing.

One of the first bands on, was the KVB. I’ve seen them play a small club in London and quiet liked their gothy sound. But I’m not sure their sound suits a warm sunny day at 6pm.

As I sung past the Ray Ban unplugged stage, Opatov sounded fun. But the stage is so small, that it’s impossible to see the band. So after a song or two, I headed down to the Primavera stage to catch Ex Hex, a band I’ve seen before and one that play simple rock and roll.

Like the previous time I saw them, their set was uncomplicated but good. So I stuck around for all their set.

Patti Smith, somebody I’ve not really listened to, was playing the main stage. Unsure of what to expect from her, I thought I’d head over and was really glad I did.

I’m ashamed to say I don’t own any Patti Smith material. In fact I’m not sure I’ve ever listened to Horses, the album she was singing in full. But although this lady may now have a few extra years behind her, she’s clearly lost none of her attitude. I think everyone of us unbelievers was converted to her church today. I think it’s time I investigated her back catalogue.

Next up was White Hill on the Adidas stage but on the way I called in a few other stages. Playing on the Ray Ban stage was The Julie Ruin. They sounded really good so I listened to a few songs before heading off to see White Hills.

There wasn’t anything particularly wrong with the White Hills and I would have been happy to listened to them, if I hadn’t just seen the Julie Ruin. But decided I preferred The Julie Ruin, so headed back.

The Julie Ruin as the sun goes down

Taking a time out, I headed back to the ATP VIP area and watched some of the Belle and Sebastian set. I’ve never really bought into them. They’ve written some catchy tunes but they always seem twee. Nothing tonight changed my opinion of them. It was ‘nice’. So after I felt sufficiently watered, it was off again to see Sleater-Kinney.

One the way to Sleater-Kinney, I dropped by Japan and I. I really wasn’t impressed.

Sleater-Kinney can’t do anything wrong at the moment. I’m not sure I can see why. They rock. But it all seems a bit old fashioned and one dimensional. They didn’t win me over.

Another old reformed band I don’t get is Ride. The first time round, they had zero impact on me. I really don’t understand why they’re meant to be a big draw. But I gave them a chance. But it was all so bland. Really? Are there no new up and coming bands better than these guys (answer is, yes loads). Were they ever ‘headline’ material? Although the crowd seemed to be enjoying their performance, I decided to head off but failed to find anything interesting, only Ariel Pink and Death from Above 1979 were remotely interesting. So I decided to head back into town to grab some beers before the tram stopped at 2am.

Ariel Pink

Death From Above 1979

Day 3

And so the final day. Like the previous days, there wasn’t really anyone I definitely wanted to see. So I continued bouncing around stages. For the first hours or so, nobody really stood out.

Kevin Morby

Holy Paul

DIIV – really disappointed by DIIV. Really couldn’t see why they have a good rep.

We Used To Pray

Bohicas raised the game slightly. With a set that concentrated on their more accessible and high energy material, perfect for the festival crowds

American Football – yet another reformed band. This year’s Primavera’s programme featured far too many reformed bands

Things picked up with Tori Amos. I have to admit, like most, I’d not kept up to date with Tori’s career after her amazing debut. So I was looking forward to seeing what she was like live. Guess what, she’s exactly like you would expect her to be. Good and ever so slightly mad. Playing two pianos (because one just isn’t enough). She kept me entertained for a few songs. It was good. But to be honest, as with a large portion of the programme, should she be featured on a 2015 festival programme? I’m also not sure she’s suited to this type of festival. People round me were talking (I know, it is a festival). But it detracted from the listening experience. So in the end I moved on.

The musical highlight of the festival was undoubtably Torres. I adored her first album and her latest is also an extremely strong album. Here, without her band and only a guitar, she played an fantastic set of mainly new material. I really looks like she feels every emotion she’s singing about. She says she’s not a guitarist, but she manages to wring sounds out of the guitar that are unique that more experienced guitarists would probably never ever think about. I really loved this performance.

Interpol were up next. I’ve never seen them. They’ve never really appealed to me. They were exactly what I thought they’d be. Okay. Nothing to dislike. Some interesting music and enough to keep me interested for a time. But I didn’t see a bright light and convert to the church of Interpol.

Heading over to see Mourn, I stumbled upon Flying Colours, a band who I thought were pretty good at the Great Escape. Again, they impressed. They’re definitely a band I need to see more of.

A few months ago I was persuaded to see Mourn. A group of Spanish teenagers who put in one of the surprising performances of this year. They play like a much older band. They’re surprisingly ‘well rounded’ for such a new and young band. So I was interested to see how well they performed on the big stage. Unfortunately they were up against the Strokes and Babes in Toyland so the crowd thinned out. I thought they made a reasonable stab at playing a festival set. But I’m not sure they’re quiet ready to be so high up the bill. But they’re still young and it’s all experience. They have so much potential and a few years of ‘stage craft’ should make them a fantastic band.

Another surprising band – and again, yet another reformed band, were Babes In Toyland. They put in a great set. It had so much more ‘punch’ than Sleater-Kinney. This is where I made a mistake. I should have stuck to this stage. But instead decided to head off to see one of the big headliners, The Strokes.

I’ve never been a big fan of the Strokes. But I’ve got a ticket to see them in Hyde Park in June. Mainly because there was a special offer and also the rest of the line-up’s pretty good, but I was also curious as to what they’re like live. Why are they so big? I’m not sure I learnt anything tonight that helps me answer that question.

Their music isn’t particularly interesting. But more concerning for the Hyde Park gigs was that I felt they phoned-in tonight’s performance. Looking at Facebook and twitter after the festival, I wasn’t the only person thinking who felt short changed by their performance. They just appeared to be playing by numbers. There was no real interaction between band members. So I’m still at a loss to why there were so many Strokes t-shirts at this festival. Their fans must be seeing something that I can’t. In the end, even the draw of the cheap beer in the nearby VIP area couldn’t keep me at this stage, so I headed off to see if there was anything else.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything that interested me other than the Hookworms at 2am. Alt-J are fine over a few songs, but not a 1 hour set so I din’t fancy sticking around until 2am to watch a band I could catch back in the UK in a decent venue. I watched the tUnE-yArDs for a brief period, but in the end I decided to catch the metro back into town before it closed and to see if there were any celebrations after Barcelona had won the cup earlier in the evening (there didn’t appear to be – only lots of pissed off Athletic Bilbao fans).

So that was my Primavera over with. I did enjoy the festival as a break. Musically I was disappointed by this year’s lineup. Sadly, there were too many old bands, many of whom I didn’t like the first time round and arguably weren’t ‘as big’ as the promoters seemed to believe they were (Ride). I’d expected there to be lots of 4am hikes back into town. But the headline acts really didn’t appeal to me and the late night programming just kind of faded into electronica. Next year they need to get more new bands on to the bill. It all sounds negative, but it wasn’t. I’d chose this festival because I wanted to visit Barcelona. The festival was simply something to keep me occupied in the evening and I enjoyed the whole experience. The weather was great, there was music playing in the background. Food and drink was pretty cheap and the VIP areas were nice areas to flop into. So would I go again? As a holiday, no. Barcelona’s done. But if the lineup’s right, I’d definitely consider it. But I’m not rushing out to get another ticket. In many ways, this just confirms what in all honest I already know. I know the which festival best suits me, SXSW. Time to start saving.

In the flesh, they do have a great intensity. They’ve got a very heavy dark psych sound. I enjoyed their performance and would have preferred to have seem them in an even smaller venue with a big crowd.

Next up were the Asylums with a hyperactive lead singer. I’m not sure I actually liked their music. But I really enjoyed their performance. There’s no way these guys would short change an audience.

Last up were CuT who seemed to have quiet a devoted following. Didn’t quiet work for me.

Joy Formidable

My plan for the rest of SXSW Music was to get in as many days parties as possible (hopefully with free beer) and to bounce around venues to catch as many bands as possible. I have a one song rule. I give a band one song to convince me to stay for more. Each day I had a short list of bands to see. These were usually bands I’ve been trying to see or bands I’ve already seen and are good. But I don’t let the list dictate my night. So if there was a queue outside a venue, it was on to the next.

Overall, the plan worked well. With the close proximity of so many venues around 6th Street, it was easy to bounce between venues and I managed to catch some really good bands. But the week didn’t start well, On Tuesday I decided to try and catch the Japandroids at Viceland. This was a temporary venue setup in a parking lot on Caesar Chavez street, over the road from the conference centre. The entrance was through a warehouse. The queue looked short. But we soon found that this was only the queue to get into the warehouse. An hour later, I was still waiting. The venue was at capacity and everyone was staying for Japandroids. It’s not fun listening to the band from inside a warehouse. Eventually I was luck to get into the venue just as they decided to close the queue and kick everyone out. But I’m not sure it was worth it. Japandroids are an excellent band who I’ve seen before. But the venue was far too crowded with most attendees without a SXSW badge. Made worse by a poor sound system. For the rest of the week, I went back to plan A. Sticking in the main to the venues around 6th street.

Last time I was at SXSW, the Foo Fighters played the Interactive closing party and I missed it. So although I’m not the biggest Foo fan, it was still a major disappointment to miss the Foo’s play a small venue like Stubbs. This year Dave Grohl was giving SXSW’s keynote and his documentary, Sound City was playing in the film festival. So there was an expectation that that Sound City Players would be playing and true to form it was announced that there would be a lottery for tickets to see the Sound City Players playing at Stubbs.

Dave Grohl giving a highly enjoyable keynote

Luckily I managed to get a ticket for the gig. I did debate whether it was worth wasting an entire evening watching one band. But there were rumours flying around that Paul McCartney was going to attend. 99% of me didn’t believe this. But the 1% that did, didn’t want a ‘Foo Fighters’ moment where I missed something I would regret.

The Sound City Players lineup is pretty amazing. With the Foo Fighters as the backing band, the lineup changes between each venue. Tonight the ‘Players’ consisted of Alain Johannes (QOSTA & Them Crooked Vultures), Stevie Nicks, Rick Springfield, Chris Goss (Masters of Reality), Brad Wilk (Rage Against the Machine), Lee Ving (Feer), Nirvana band mates Krist Novoselic and Pat Smear, Corey Taylor (Slipknot), Rick Nielsen (Cheap Trick) and finally John Fogerty (Creedance).

With such a varied line-up, the evening was up and down. Rick Springfield was a bit too ‘cheesy rock’ for me and Stevie Nicks’ voice isn’t what it used to be. But that’s not to detract from the evening. There were some real highlights and it was a chance to see some really influential musicians enjoy themselves playing loose with Dave and his band and it was clear that every one of them was thrilled to be part of the project. But the biggest highlight for me was John Fogerty’s Creedance set as they played ‘Born on a Bayoo’, and the fantastic ‘Bad Moon Rising’. So after nearly 3 hours, I wasn’t left disappointed.

For the rest of the week it was back to venue bouncing catching as many bands as possible. It was interesting seeing bands I know well playing their first US gigs and seeing the reaction of the crowds. Some were really well received such as the Savages, others bemusing the audience (and me) such as Paloma Faith. Then there were bands I probably wouldn’t pay to see in the UK such as Reverend and Makers, playing excellent ‘festival’ sessions that buoyed up the small US crowd. There was also the interesting experience of seeing Billy Bragg playing to a US audience in Texas (and getting out alive). Even when a band wasn’t very good, it wasn’t a disappointment, just an opportunity to try a different venue. I really love this music festival. There’s just so much to listen to, that there’s really no excuse for seeing a bad band.

The list below are the bands I have a record of seeing. Overall I recorded  that I saw nearly 100 bands, but in reality the list is probably much longer. These are only the bands that I wrote down. A number of these bands I’ll be trying to catch up with over the next few months.

The Majority Says, Skinny Lister, Joy Formidable, St Lucia, Divine Fits, Kiven, Elijah Ford & The Bloom, Y Niwl, Lucy Rose, Tall Ships, Jess Williamson, The Carper Family, You Me & Us, Girl Names, California X, Audacity, The Coathangers, Kassidy, Kodaline, Kid Karate, Squarehead, Mirror Travel, Let’s Buy Happiness, Story Books, Icky Blossoms, North Mississippi Allstars, Japandroids, Deniro Farrar, Anuhea, Josephine, John McCauley & Friends, Buddy Miller & Jim Lauderdale, Black Violin, Islet, Catlin Rose, The Savages, Charan Po Rantan, Paper Lions, The Revivalists, Wildlife Control, Boy + Kite, Max Gomez, Walk Off The Earth, Cinnamon Chasers, Toy, Peace, The Bears, Okapi Sun, Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds, Holy Balm, Hiatus Kaiyote, The Life Electric, Heavy Rock In Gibson, Iron Tom, Phlos, Wet Nuns, The Trews, Atomic Tom, The Blue Van, Royal Teeth, Tango in the Attic, Great Hip Hop Hoax, Young Fathers, Black Lips, Billy Bragg, Amanda Palmer, Andy Clockwise, The Falls, Summer Flake, Metz, Christopher Smith, The Staves, Paloma Faith, Suburban Living, Fort Lean, Against Grace, Wampire,. White Lung, Teen, Ex Cops, Thermals, Thurston Moore, Reverend and the Maker, Against Grace, Sound City Players, Eagles of Death Metal, Civil Twilight, San Cisco, Rah Rah, Hey Marseilles, Tyler & The Shakedown, Imaginary Cities, Nicki Bluhm and the Gramblers, Funeral Suits, Emma Louise, Blitz Kids, D.A.Calf, Rites Wild, Mary Epworth, Jonathan Boulet, El Vez

Flickr Photos

Black Spiders

Both headliners, Chantel McGregor (blues) and Mordecai (metal) were thoroughly enjoyable.

Support for Mordecai

The Folk – support for Chantel McGregor

Sealed in Scarlet – support for Mordecai

Chantel McGregor

Mordecai

Mordecai

Tom White

Bo Ningen

Jock Scott

Skip Macdonald

C W Stoneking

Oi Va Voi

Oi Va Voi

Moishe’s Bagel

Jim Moray

Kanda Bongo Man

Kanda Bongo Man

The first thing to say about SXSW Music is that it’s a cool festival. For many, SXSWi  is considered to be the ‘cooler’ but for me SXSW Music was far better. It’s just so chilled and everyone I met was there for the music.

SXSW takes place in venues across Austin. If there’s space for a stage, then it will be turned into a venue. Everything from courtyards and churches to the Austin Conference Center become temporary venues to a wide range of music.

I’d never been to SXSW before. With 1900 bands I wasn’t sure how to approach the festival. Do you concentrate on bands you know or go to random venues? My initial approach had been to listen to SXSW radio before leaving for Austin to identify bands to listen to. This approach didn’t last long.

The great thing about SXSW is that many of the venues are in clusters around the town. About half of the venues are clustered around 6th street so it’s easy to jump between venues. I’d expected it to be difficult to move between venues, and it’s true the bigger venues with the big big names bands can be difficult to get in. But I never experienced any problems moving between the smaller venues. I think the longest I waited was 10 minutes. This meant that I could catch many more bands each day.

The great thing is that during the day there’s numerous official and unofficial showcases. Many are country related or organised by companies such as Sonicbids. There were also a number of stages around the main Conference Centre and I found that I alternated between spending the afternoon around the Conference Centre and flitting between unofficial parties.

The full Music badge or the Platinum badge gives access to the SXSW conference. This featured talks about many aspects of the music business with several big named speakers. The only session I attended was the keynote given by Bob Geldof.

Many who lived through the 80s view Bob Geldof with an almost saintlike status. We know he’s a gruff, miserable bastard, but he’s also the person who along with Midge Ure managed to bring the world together to act over the distressing events in Ethiopia. He’s achieved things that no one believed could happen. The standing ovation at the end of this Keynote highlights that no matter what he says, you can’t separate this action from the man.

Bob Geldof’s keynote was a rambling but enjoyable monologue that touched on the terrible inequalities in the world, how America’s becoming tired and how rock and roll can change the world but that now it’s a bit crap. His belief is that that rock and roll is at it’s most powerful and dangerous when it’s used as a voice for the disaffected. Whether it’s Bob Dylan or the Sex Pistols, rock works best when it stands up and tries to change things. He wondered why, when the world is in financial turmoil and bankers who’ve caused it walk off with massive bonuses, today’s rock music isn’t challenging this. He has a point.

He also managed to annoy a large percentage of the audience by dismissing the power of the Internet to support actions. In his opinion, people writing on the Internet are all wankers who just want their voice heard. As there’s nothing pulling these voices together, as he did with music, these voices end up being noise. But it’s amazing how he managed to dismiss the power of the Internet with all everything that’s happening in the Middle East right before our eyes.

The thing I loved about SXSW was that it gave me a chance to listen to loads of new music. Overall, the standard was pretty good. There were only a handful of bands that  I didn’t like but it just gave me an opportunity to move on to a new venue. The quality of the venues varies considerably. Also with so many changeovers, there was the odd sound problem. But none of this distracted from the festival.

I think over the four days I saw around 70 bands. These are the bands I noted down, but there were many more:

Dutch, Dicta, Said the Whale, Boat People, Ximena Sarinana, James Vincent McMorrow, DeVotchaKa, Chapel Club, The Black Angels, Black Joe Lewis, Shilpa Ray, Woodsman, Erland & The Carnival, Harrys Gym, Blaqstar, White Denim, Adanowsky, Gustavo Galindo, DJ Yoda, Streets of Fire, Kinch, Matthew & The Arrogant Sea, The Black, Mr Lewis & The Funeral 5, EatLiz, Dry the River, Fences, Mr Heavenly, Jonquil, Clock Opera, Bobby, Bell Gardens, Josh T Pearson, The Loom, Twin Atlantic, Admiral Fallow, The Hounds Below, The Bangles, King Creosote & Kid Canaveral, Thavius Black, Pitch Blond, Screaming Females, The Joy Formidable, The Kills, Austra, Little Comets, Esben and the Witch, Bombay Bicycle Club, The Burning of Rome, Endless Hallway, The Black Cloud Collective, The Belle Brigade, Scars on 45, The Republic Tigers, Veronica Falls, The Jezabels, The Seedy Seeds, The Bangles, Suck Piggy, Joan of Arc, Dinosaur Pile Up, Pulled By Horses, Filligar, The Chevelles, Capsula

The highlight from this long list was The Joy Formidable. I’d been hearing that they were a great live band. Before heading out to Austin I’d purchased the album and a ticket for their London gig in May but it wasn’t my plan to catch them. But like many of the UK bands, they were seemed to be playing everywhere. Taking the opportunity to play as many gigs as possible while in the US. So I ended up catching two of their gigs. In both cases I just happened to walk past venues they were playing. Both gigs were warmly received and rightly so. The Joy Formidable were amazingly tight and despite being a three piece, have a sound that fills venues. Bryan the lead singer,  storms through the sets like she’s possessed. Definitely worth catching.

SXSW Photos

Videos

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