Day 1

Unlike the real TGE, I travelled virtually down to Brighton on the day. Luckily, the real world power cuts on the line to Brighton, didn’t affect my virtual train.

There were no issues with early check-in and TGE registration was amazingly quick (although to be fair, I’m usually pretty much first in the queue on a Wednesday night, so I’ve never had issues registering in the past)

Virtual festival going, is a breeze.

Arrived in virtual Brighton. Time to check-in and pick up my photo pass. #virtualtge2020 pic.twitter.com/EWleT03pPJ

— Down At The Front (@DownFront) May 14, 2020

The way I had decided to make it work was to use my living room, office and garden as venues. Each time, I changed venues, I had to move location, sometimes also doing five minutes on the exercise bike. It’s not the same as the 15 minute rush between venues, but it meant moving venue had some penalty.

Starting the festival were Sons of Raphael at the Hope and Ruin. They are two brothers with a fixation of religious imagery and noisy guitars. Most of the Youtube clips I could find were promotional videos. They were one of the few bands without any kind of live video presence. It’s hard therefore to judge them. I enjoyed what I saw. But the few Youtube clips were a bit shouty. Because of this, I decided to move on to the Prince Albert

Belako are a Basque band and completely new to me. As I was essentially catching the end of their set. I only watched two clips. Both featured a strong keyboard sound. The lineup appeared to be different in each clip, as did the sound. The earlier video had a strong post-punk vibe. The second clip seemed pretty unremarkable bland indie ballad. This had the later date. I guess they have changed their sound. But I would be willing to give them another listen.

Next up was Tragic Sasha at the Green Door Store for two songs – as I wanted to catch San Cisco at Patterns, which is a good 20 minute walk in the real world. She had a nice voice, but the music was pretty much generic singer songwriter fare. Far too much of it around. You need to have more than a good voice to stand out.

San Cisco were a band I saw at SXSW. I seem to remember enjoying them at the time. But in all honesty, I couldn’t remember anything about them. I thought I would give them another go and see if they would leave a strong memory this time. They’re an Aussie band with a breezy indie pop sound. The perfect sound for having a lazy day in the sun. (I was watching them in the ‘garden venue’). It’s probably why I enjoyed them in Austin. I could listen to the music all day as I kicked back in the sun. But that’s kind of the problem. It’s the sound that accompanies you, rather than taking hold and giving you a good shake. Again, I couldn’t tell you what they sounded like. Just that I enjoyed their set and I’m honestly not sure that is good enough.

My original plan was to see Miss Jane at the Hope and Ruin. But playing the game fairly. It would be pretty impossible to catch much of their set in the real world. Patterns to Hope is a good 20 minutes. So I decided to stick to a close-by venue and head to watch a band based purely on their name, Walt Disco. I am really glad I did. Just like the real festival, it’s stumbling upon unexpected bands that make festivals like The Great Escape so good.

Walt Disco are a theatrical Glaswegian band. Very much in the mould of the New Romantics and similar in the style of fellow Glaswegian band, Ninth Wave. I wasn’t initially keen on the singer’s voice. But on the second track, he went all ‘Freddie Mercury operatic’. All gloriously campy gothic. I decided to go with it there were some great clips of live shows in Glasgow.

After Walt Disco it was the short hop to Komedia for Diana Gavanski. Another singer songwriter. I enjoyed her set, but again, I felt like I had heard it all before.

You hit the point in every festival where you hit an artist your really don’t like. The thing I love about SXSW is that I can simply walk next door. This is why it’s the greatest music festival in the World. I have mentioned this in previous TGE reviews, the venues in Brighton are too widely spaced. which means if you do make a poor choice, you often have no easy alternatives. This was the first time my virtual festival threw in one of these bands.

The band in question was an Australian band called ‘Gang of Youths’. They really weren’t my thing. They have a big rock band sound. You know the type. All anthemic but without any edge. Radio friendly for indie music fans who don’t like indie music. I virtually moved on.

Next up were shouty punk from Chroma. I struggled to find any real live stuff. Mainly because their name was so generic (why don’t bands google their bloody names) and they seem to share their name with a long standing wedding covers band. So it was difficult to judge them. I liked what I saw. But I reserve judgement

Nearing the end of the first afternoon session, I decide to stick to the nearest venue. Again, a band with no live output, this time Toshin. Not much I can say. I called it quits and decided to head off to find some food.

When I constructed the schedule, there was a bit of method and a lot of madness. Taking my queue from past festivals. I decided the Dome (I don’t like the newer beach venue) was to be my headliner stage. The two obvious headliners were Fontaines and Hayley Williams. So both were given 1 hour slots on consecutive nights. I decided Concorde would have ‘2nd headliners’. Putting the local band Magic Gang on one evening and Ghostpoet the other.

I then created a few themed sessions.

Often a music magazine curates one of the stages, so DIY were given Green Door Store. The BBC always have an Introducing stage, usually at Paganini’s. Then were are the regional stages, with the usual suspects, Australia and Canada, joined by Ireland, as there appeared to be a lot of Irish artist on this year’s lists. I also filled up the slots at the Unitarian Church and One Church with classical and singer songwriters.

There’s the method.

The madness came from the fact every other artist was randomly pasted into a venue without really taking notice of their popularity or if they clashed. (or on my own pre-festival list of who to catch)

And this was where the problem came. When I went through the list of artists I had pencilled in. I suddenly had a very ‘clashy’ Thursday evening. With the hand-picked DIY stage being full or bands I wanted to see and the clashes often in venues like Patterns or The Hub. There was simply no way in the real world I could move between them. So it meant a lot of interesting bands, were off the agenda. Like the real world, it was the case of sticking to a venue for most of the evening. In this case the DIY stage.

First up were Lazarus Kane. I’ve seen them before. I didn’t particularly like them. Tonight, I was a little bit more impressed, but still left at the end with a fairly ambivalent attitude to them. I just can’t connect with the singer.

Dream Nails followed on the DIY stage at the Green Door Store. I hadn’t realised I had seen them before. They were a support band for Cherry Glazer (who I didn’t like). But I had first been to a Rough Trade gig, so arrived late, catching one song. What I saw on YouTube I enjoyed. But they aren’t somebody I would necessary rush out to see as a headline act

It turned out I had also seen the next band, Silverbacks, supporting Fontaines D.C.. I really enjoyed them tonight. They have a post-punk sound, often veering off in the Sonic Youth style guitar noise. But for most the time, pretty chilled in a Parquet Courts kind of way

One band I wanted to catch were ARXX who I had been listening to pre-festival. It turns out the racket I had been listening to was made by two people in pretty much a classic garage rock format. While, I enjoyed the clips I saw, they mainly featured the same songs. So again, I will reserve judgement.

In this fictional TGE, I decided that unlike in the real world. There was a chance to catch the end of the Fontaines set at the Dome. At the real festival, the headliners tend to be popular and the Dome often fills up early with big queues outside. I’ve only had a photo pass since they moved to the Beach venue. I assume though, I would have been allowed in for three songs – so I applied the ‘three songs and I’m out’ rule. As you would expect. There are some excellent Fontaines clips on Youtube.

I called it quits after the Fontaines and headed to a bar (fridge).

Day 2

The afternoon of Day 2 was dominated by Canada and Ireland’s showcase at Green Door Store and Horatios. This is the nightmare schedule. Two extremes of the map and a 20-25 minute walk between the two. As often with this festival. The scheduler really needs to be replaced. This is also why TGE will never be SXSW as it often seems to aspire to be. At SXSW, there’s 30 venues in a 15 minute walk. At TGE, there’s a 15 minute walk between venues. Making the wrong choice is costly at TGE.

Starting off to Horatios. The plan was to see Melts, meander up to Hope and Ruin and then finally end up back at Horatios for Sinead O’Brien.

It turns out this was a good plan. Melts, the first band, were one of my favourites of the weekend. Waves upon waves to great psych music.

After Melts I made a quick dash to Queens Hotel for Alicia Edelweiss. I really wish I hadn’t bothered. While I enjoyed some aspects of the music. I really did not enjoy Alicia’s voice. At times, I found it too affected and really out of tune. I ‘left’ after two songs and went back to Horatios to catch a song of Soda Blonde, who were too pop for me, before treking up to Komedia to catch the last song of Eve Owen.

Another cool band, The Cool Greenhouse, with an infectious sound played the Hope and Ruin. They were new to me, but I will definitely try and catch them again.

After a short trip to see Taylor Janzen at the Green Door Store as part of the Canadian showcase, I headed down to Komedia to see on the of buzzy bands of the festival PVA. I’m sure TGE place the buzzy bands into Komedia Studio on purpose so people have to queue to see them and these queues help contribute to the ‘buzz’ around the band. In PVAs case. While I can kind of see why there is a buzz. But they didn’t work for me.

Closing off the morning was Sinead O’Brien via one song of Mr Ben and the Bens at the Queens Hotel. The Bens are just too fun to miss and perfect indie for any festival.

Closing the afternoon was the always excellent Sinead O’Brien. Sinead and her band have quickly grown into one of my favourite bands around at the moment. Sinead’s storytelling, combined with guitar that arches around the stories, driving everything forward, really works for me.

The evening session started with Talk Show. Starting off a strong evening lineup. They’re one of my tips for 2020. Just a bloody good, fun band. Tonight playing the Green Door Store, they produced a storming performance that left everyone in the room with the same impression.

After Talk Show, I headed to headed to one of my favourite venues. It’s odd. It’s actually a terrible venue. It has terrible beer. It’s basically a posh function room. But, I like it. It’s where BBC host their introducing stage and therefore there’s always decent music. Tonight, was no exception.

I have a rule. If Steve Lamacq is in attendance, you are in the right venue. The next band, Bambara, are one of Steve’s current favourites. In fact I think we might have discovered them at the same time at SXSW where they put in several blistering performances. Tonight, on a much bigger stage, they showed that edge that caused them to stand out at SXSW. You can see why they have supported the Idles. They have that edge missing from many post-punk bands.

After Bambara’s excellent set it was a rush up to The Green Door Store to catch Girls in Synthesis. As is normal with this venue on Friday and Saturday evenings, it was a case of waiting to squeeze in to the back of the packed room. Thankfully I catch one of my favourite sets of the weekend. I’m surprised I’ve not seen them before in London. They are my kind of thing, with an edgy post-punk sound and great live performance. Definitely one to watch.

Sadly, they clashed with one of my other tips for 2020, Egyptian Blue, who were playing the Hope and Anchor. In real life, there’s pretty much no chance of getting into this venue on a Friday night without having to queue. (Can’t remember if you can jump the queue with a photo pass). So normally, it wouldn’t be worth heading down to catch their last song. But I made an exception in the virtual world, as it was good to catch up with them again (and another excuse for a real photo!)

The three options at this point were to stay and watch Public Practice, who I enjoyed at SXSW 2019, watch Chubby and the Gang at Paganini’s or Hayley Williams at the Dome. In real life, I think at this time of night. I wouldn’t go rushing off and I would stick with the the Hope and Ruin and take the opportunity when the crowd grabs a beer to get to the front to grab some photos. So that’s what I decided and I stayed and watched Public Practice who were every bit as good as I remember from SXSW.

Closing the evening were another a band I had seen before, Qlowski. They had played the Horn in St Albans in February as one of the support acts and while initially I wasn’t sure, as the set progressed, I really enjoyed where it headed and I was left really impressed. Tonight, was equally good. Another band to keep an eye on.

Day 3

I hate reaching the last day of a festival. You know you are going to soon have to leave the festival bubble and return to the real world. Even at a city festival like The Great Escape, you end up in a bubble. While everyone else goes about the weekend shop or is heading to work, I’m rushing between venues, always focused on who to see next. Even food is controlled by the festival, grab a bite here, bite there. I’d stay in festival world forever. Oddly, the same had happened with my virtual festival. Everything was revolving around the timings of the festival.

Like at SXSW, Australia always put on a strong showing at The Great Escape. While there’s usually free food and drink at SXSW, Australia still make sure they bring a healthy supply of new acts to the UK.

At a normal TGE I rarely go to the Australian events. It’s not because the bands are poor. Far from it. Australia has many fine acts. No, it’s simply because on the Sunday after TGE, they take their Aussie BBQ to London’s Hoxton Square and I know I can catch most of the acts the next day.

With ‘one thing and another’, I decided to catch as many of the bands as I could at the VTGE and spent most of the morning bouncing between the two Komedia stages catching Bananagun, Ali Baxter, Lime Cordial, Evie Irie, and Spacey Jane before heading out of the venue to catch The Snuts at the Green Door Store (who I thought were awful).

Overall, the standard was high. Bananagun and Spacey Jane were good. Ali Baxter was a big surprise. However, Eviei Irie was far too pop and did little for me and I took the opportunity to grab some lunch

Closing the morning was Mabes at the Green Door Store (pleasant) and Hayley Mary, the lead singer of a band I’ve seen quite a few times, the Jezabels, playing her solo stuff. I was really impressed.

As Jezabels lead singer, Hayley doesn’t play instruments and does a proper front-person job of performing each song, discarding the mic stand and making sure she earns her keep. But playing her own stuff, she stayed behind the microphone playing guitar and the performance was more through her vocals. I have to admit, I really enjoyed her performance.

I find at every festival, even SXSW, there are times when you hit a quiet spot where it’s not possible to find anything interesting. Saturday evening turned into one of those periods.

The Lazy Eyes started the evening off well in Patterns. Enjoyable psych. Although I did feel that there wasn’t anything particularly different to set them apart from recent psych bands

The next band, John, I have tried to catch and have missed. I have heard many great reviews about them and was looking forward to seeing them. However, I wasn’t overly impressed. Another garage setup. I thought they sounded a bit like Japandroids, quite heavy but nothing jumped out and new or interesting. Enjoyable, but not enough to drag me into London to catch them another time.

Eventually, Love’N’Joy popped up and surprised me. Another psych band, but one with an expanded sound palette drawing in other 60s and 70s styles, giving them an edge.

Closing my evening were Los Bitchos. An instrumental Psych band with a touch of the latin groove. I’ve seen them before. They are good. I just feel they are missing a vocalist.

So there you go. Thanks to a lot of YouTube clips. I managed to put together my own virtual TGE. It wasn’t the same. How could it be? But, I have to admit. I rarely trawl Youtube for new music, assuming most videos are pretty rubbish. But there’s some really good live recordings for many bands and as somebody missing live music. This was a welcome and enjoyable diversion.

As it happened (on Twitter)

This year, I’d dropped any such criteria and just concentrated on it being an enjoyable short break and from this perspective, it was definitely successful and I think this festival is now an essential fixture in my calendar.

This year was a good example of how my approach has changed. In all honesty, I didn’t feel the line-up was too inspiring. My first year, I would have found this frustrating. But I think like this year’s SXSW. We’re in a lull year. There wasn’t really a buzz around any new bands. But this year wearing a different hat, it didn’t bother my. The festival is so cheap that it’s still good value if you only catch two of three bands. With the early bird tickets, it works out at only £15 per day and at that price, you really can’t go wrong. So this year, I was just happy to bounce around and catch whoever I could find.

[youtube xB4ZMu297pk]

Day 1

Shark Dentist, Leif Erikson, Good Foxy, FRIGS, Cosmic Strip, Catholic Action, Anna Meredith, Crows, White Miles, Frankie Cosmos, Amy Von, Larkin Poe, Banff, Howling Owl, Wyldest, Cloves, Bleached, Anteros
(Bold – liked, italics – band I’ve never seen before)

As you can see from the list above. I concentrated on catching new bands. Starting the festival were Shark Dentist, a band I’d heard good things about. Sadly they didn’t do much for me.

Shark Dentist

Good Foxy

The first band who stood out were Canadian band FRIGS. They have a punky attitude led by their lead singer who growls into the mic. They were easily my band of the day.

Cosmic Strip

Cosmic Strip

Cosmic Strip

An enjoyable rocky set from Scottish band Catholic Action.

TGE was my first chance to catch Anna Meredith. I’m not sure a festival is the right place to catch her, as she mixes electronic music with cellos and brass. But the crowd were respectful and I enjoyed the set.

The always excellent CROWS bringing the performance to me, after I arrived late and was stuck at the back

I have a sneaky liking for the Hub. It’s a tiny tube-like venue in the sea wall. It’s got a claustrophobic feeling that works well with rock bands (although you do have to get to the front, otherwise you don’t see anything). So making my first visit of the trip, I accidentally stumbled upon a band I’d seen last year, White Miles. They’re a two piece with a lead singer with a lot of energy. They worked pretty well in this venue.

Frankie Cosmos

Amy Von

Larkin Poe

Banff

Howling Owl

Wyldest

Coves

Bleached

Bleached

Anteros

Day 2

Aldous Harding, Exmagician, Barbarella’s Bang Bang, Nadine Carina, REWS, Kim Churchill, PAUW, Ellie Ford, Dream Wife, Baba Naga, Inis Mor, Pleasure Beach, James Gruntz, Blush, Drones Club, Black Honey, The Anchoress

Starting Day 2 was the ever fantastic Aldous Harding. I think she’s a bit special. There’s something etherial about her performances that I just can’t get enough of. So it was a great way to start the day, but also a risky one. Starting the day on a big high means it can only go downhill. Luckily, there were a few bands playing who I thought could act as strong anchors. Dream Wife and Baba Naga around the middle of the day and Black Honey, to close the day. In all honesty, very little stood out during the rest of the day. But these acts were worth the admission alone.

Aldous Harding

REWS

Kim Churchill

PAUW

Ellie Ford

Dream Wife

Baba Naga

Inis Mor

One of the biggest draws at TGE this year was local band, Black Honey. I’m a bit of a fan of this band. Izzy the lead singer is pretty awesome. There’s a swagger about her that means this band is destined for big things. Obviously without the music it wouldn’t work and luckily they have some very catchy music. Izzy’s also brilliant to photograph as she always puts on a good show. Tonight they were playing Brighton Pier and I believe they closed the pier as the venue was at capacity. I suspect this is the last year they’ll be playing TGE as they’ll be too big next year.When I arrived there was a frankly awful band called Drone Club. I’d assumed that most people were there for Black Honey and was resigned to watch from afar. But oddly, it turned out, most people were there for Drone Club. As you can see from the photos and video. The crowd disappeared and I walked straight to the front. I guess that’s the great thing about music. What’s rubbish to one person is brilliant to another (though I’m sticking by Drone Club being the worst band I saw at TGE16)

Closing the evening was the Anchoress on the BBC Introducing stage. I quiet liked what I heard. But I have to admit, I’d done enough standing around and not enough drinking so I decided to call it a day and head off to find a pub.

Steve Lamacq introducing the Anchoress

Day 3

Joe Nolan, Coves, Pollyanna, Glass, Chastity, Post Heather, Beverly, Chastity Belt, Aldous Harding, Margo Price, Joy Formidable, Cult of Dom Keller, NOTS, Diet Cig

Oddly, when I’d pre-planned the final day. I hadn’t identified much of interest other than bands I had already seen. So I decided to just base it on take it easy. But there was the odd thing. Beverly was pretty good. I caught Aldous again. Watched some of the FA Cup final and decided to take a chance on getting in to see the Joy Formidable. Luckily, I think the walk down to the Concorde on a cold evening had put people off, so just like the night before with Black Honey, I was able to walk straight up to barrier. I spoke to a long time JF fan after the gig who’s extremely disappointed with their new material. But personally. I loved their performance. To close the evening. I headed to my favourite venue, Sticky Mikes to catch NOTS and Diet Cig, who’s lead singer was still bouncing around as if it was the start of the whole thing. She’s like a walking (and bouncing) advert for Duracell. Amazing energy, another fun performance and a good way to close off this year’s TGE.

Joe Nolan

Coves

A slightly mad Glass

Chastity

Chastity Belt

The wonderful Aldous Harding

Margo Price

Great performance from Joy Formidable

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

[Alexandros], Abjects, Amber Arcades, Autobahn, Avec Sans, Baby Shakes, Basia Bulat, Big Thief, Big Ups, Black Fast, Blaenavon, The Blind Suns, Bombino, Boy Toy, Burn Out, CallMeKat, Capsula, Castillo, Caveman, Chad Valley, Chocolat, Ciaran Lowery, Clean Cut Kid, The Crookes, Demob Happy, DEXSTRINGs, Diet Cig, Dilly Dally, The Do Aways, Dude York, Elanor Friedberger, Enemies, Ezra Furman, Faith Healer, Fear of Men, FEWS, Fior, Fizzy Blood, Get Inuit, Gold Class, Golden Boys, The Gooch Palms, Guerrilla Toss, Gwenno, GYMNSHORTS, Haelos, Harts, Heaters, The Heavy, Hinds, Hooton Tennis Club, Houndstooth, Jack Garrett, Jane Weaver, Judah and the Lion, Juiceboxxx, Kat Dehlia, Keeps, Khruangbin, Laura Carbone, Lazyeyes, Lushes, Lusts, The Parrots, Petite Noir, PMS and the Mood Swings, Jambinai, Julia Jacklin, Luke Sweeney, Magic Is Real, Mainland, Mercury Rev, _Methyl Ethyl, Modern Sons, MONEY, Mothers, Moustache Prawn, Mr Lewis and the Funeral, Nancy Pants, New Berlin, Night Moves, Obn IIIs, Oh Pep!, The Outfit, TX, PARTYBABY, PHASES, PINS, Phebe Starr, Poliça, Power Trip, Protomartyr, Pure Bathing Culture, Queen Suitcase, Ritual Howls, Rozi Plain, Rubblebucket, Runaway Saints, The San Juan Project, Sara [], September Girls, Seratones, Sister Fuzz, Slingshot Dakota, Sorority Noise, Spooklyland, Sons of an Illustrious Father, Spook School, Stealing Sheep, Sunflower Bean, Sweet Talk, Sweet Spirit, Sugarmen, Tacocat, TEEN, Tele Novella, Tiger Town, Thelma and the Sleaze, Trash, Trevor Sensor, Twin Limb, VACATION, Violet Skies, Warprty, Waxahatchee, The Weather Station, Welshly Arms, White Denim, White Lung, The Whistles and the Bells, Wild Belle, Yak, Yonatan Gat

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.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcuA-R0pCTw]

I have to admit, I don’t think Plant’s vocals are good on here. But that might be down to the mixing. But it doesn’t matter. Two of my favourite musicians on the same stage. If only this could become a regular occurrence…….

This first gig of the year was Joanna Gruesome with support from September Girls. I’ve seen Joanna Gruesome before and enjoyed the gig experience and Weird Sisters, their debut album was a great listen. So they were on my list of bands to catch again this year. However, I had intended to go and see Shopping over at Hoxton Square. But I caught ‘Sister’ September Girls first single from their new album which swung the deal.

The first band of the evening, Flowers were standard fare. Nothing really stood out. They were proficient but ultimately their set left no mark.

The September Girls take their name from a Bangles song. Like the Bangles, they’re an all an all-female group. In today’s age it shouldn’t really stand out any more than an all-male group. But it is still a fairly rare occurrence. With the release of their debut album that week which seems to have some excellent reviews, the room was pretty busy for their performance.

The five-piece lined up with the drums at the back and all other members at the front of the stage, each taking vocal duties and all sounding great. To my ears, their sound seems to draw from bands such a Veronica Falls. That glorious fuzz laden, gothic sound. The Girls make the sound their own with a greater emphasis on keyboards lightening the mood.

I hadn’t read up on their band before the gig. So I was unaware that they were all Irish. I’m a sucker for a girl with a Southern Irish accent. So I was rather enamoured with them every time they spoke to the crowd. I’d have paid the admission price for them to just talk all evening, the fact that they also played some damn fine music made the evening all the more worthwhile.

[youtube gHVNtkCObt 640]

Closing the evening were Joanna Gruesome. For some reason they had to alter their line-up as their bass played couldn’t make the tour. So they’d roped in their old drummer to play guitar and their current guitarist was playing bass! It could have been a recipe for a disaster. But despite the fact that the guitars were constantly going out of tune, they clearly were enjoying the experience for what it and not letting technical difficulties and their lack of practice as a band get to them. Combined with a great energetic performance from the lead singer, it made for a great example of ‘DIY-sound’ and a great spectacle. My only problem with the evening was that the set was too short. But I think they played every song that evening’s line-up knew. Maybe next time.