SXSW 2011
03.15.11
Day Zero
The annual South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, TX encompasses two thousand bands over five days in every building in the downtown area that has an electrical outlet and a toilet (toilet optional). Representing a wide strata of artists, from the do-it-yourself crowd to the multi-platinum established label types, it is possible to see non-stop music from the crusty-eyed morning to the bleary-eyed extra late evening (morning).
Celebrating its 25th Anniversary this year, the festival, (known as SXSW), is anchored by the official convention: showcasing speakers, panels, discussions, open floor trade show, select musical acts. It also hosts sites away from the convention center, events that are purely band driven. All around these official showcases, there are countless unofficial ones, sponsored by labels, magazines, and agencies of all stripes that run bands from early until it’s almost early again.
This was the first year that we were able to arrive the day before the official music portion of the festival begins. Credentials obtained, we reacquainted ourselves with Austin, roaming the streets, visiting Guero’s and the Driskill and S. Congress and 6th Ave. There is an overwhelming feeling of the 1926 Hemingway novel The Sun Also Rises, as they spend some time in sleepy Pamplona before the Festival of Fermin begins with the running of the bulls. There’s a drastic change about to happen, and it’s like static in the air, potential energy that is about to burst into kinetic.
03.16.11
Day One
If South by Southwest in Austin parallels The Sun Also Rises, then Wednesday officially starts of the music portion of the festival with fireworks as people pour into the frenetic streets, chasing and being chased by the running of the bands, including the incidental trampled bystander. It comes with the territory, it’s part of the deal, dodging the loading and unloading of countless and tireless bands, their wheeled amplifiers and overloaded shoulder bags and tightly gripped instrument cases. There’s no denying the grueling efforts of bands here, most playing anywhere north of four times throughout the festival.
Wednesday began at the Convention Center with James Vincent McMorrow near the press lounge. It also saw the advent of the Jawa. A small plush toy for children, tis true, but also an interview accessory that seemed appropriate and grew to be a mandatory post-interview picture. From there we checked in to the Paste Magazine party on 6th with The Civil Wars, offering a stunningly beautiful set in the early afternoon for a deathly quiet audience rapt with attention, no small feat in the distracted, sweaty and overcrowded Austin streets. One of twelve shows over the next few days, they’re making quite the impression. Trampled by Turtles took to the stage afterward to a packed house as we made our way to our next scheduled interview with the enigmatic J. Mascis, a suprisingly low-key individual compared with my idea of the prime mover of Dinosaur Jr.
After dinner and walking around downtown for a bit, I settled in at Stubb’s on Red River, one of the prime venues in town. It’s a large outdoor amphitheater behind a BBQ restaurant and known for it’s musical selection, sound and capacity. First up tonight were Smith Westerns, a young band out of Chicago that has a lot of buzz going for them right now, as they made a lot of must-see lists around the country, enough apparently to snag a prime slot at Stubb’s. It seems their youth pulls them in many musical directions, making their description something like a Ramones/Cure/Dream Pop/Lynrd Skynrd/Wyld Stallynz hybrid, or it could be said that they knew enough of the Ramones to be dangerous, but filtered through enough In Utero to fall short. In the end, the live show of these 19-year-olds was lackluster, embodying the notion that youth is wasted on the young.
In one of the most dramatically contrasting set changes I’ve ever seen, Raphael Saadiq exploded on stage with a high energy performance, backed by one of the hottest, tightest, and dynamically minded bands around. Saadiq took these two-thousand plus people here at Stubb’s to church, engaged the crowd and launched into Sure Hope You Mean It, riding that roller coaster through the highs and lows for all it’s worth, taking it way down dynamically, challenging the audience to some yeah yeah yeahs, and winning.
03.17.11
Day Two
Day two in Austin at South by Southwest began with the word sluggish. However, late nights and early mornings and on your feet in between define the festival. First interview of the day was TV on the Radio, followed by checking out the Seedy Seeds at the Buzzgrinder day party. We made time for the sets on the Radio Stage at the convention center of both Josh Ritter and Emmylou Harris in an appropriately hushed environment. It was quite early in the day to be getting chills from music, a powerful reminder of why an event like this exists: music is meaningful and makes life meaningful and shakes us into awareness. This would be an important thought as the day went on and detours occurred. Our schedules do not always align with artists in the music industry. One of the interviews I was most looking forward to, Raphael Saadiq, had to be nixed when he was delayed by more than an hour and a half. However, in his absence we picked up an interview with Cults.
That delay pushed our schedule up against a Cold War Kids interview, from which they were coincidentally not present due to some other form of typical SXSW chaos. Off we went east of the expressway, an area to which we had never ventured, only to find, unsurprisingly, dozens of more clubs, tents, throbbing music and huddled masses, yearning to breathe free. And there we found Moby. In a sparse, nondescript, graphic design studio nonetheless, as one might expect to find someone like Moby. Quite the surprising and willing conversationalist, he made for a great interview.
We found ourselves traveling down south Congress, over the river and past the shops the area is known for, stopping at HomeSlice pizza for, well, you know, and then on to the showcase at St. Vincent DePaul with American Aquarium, an excellent band from Raleigh NC. This festive set put us in the mood for Antone’s and a killer bill: Band of Heathens, Abigail Washburn, Kelly Willis & Bruce Robison, Emmylou Harris and the Old 97’s. Losing the ability to tell how many days you have been immersed in South by Southwest is characteristic of the event, and if you are having trouble calculating by day two, it’s clearly time to fall like a bag of sand into bed.
03.18.11
Day Three
No rest for the weary, we were up and out the door and walking through town, seemingly not long after many were trickling into bed. A full schedule of interviews began at the Four Seasons Hotel in their amazingly comfortable lobby, complete with balconies overlooking the lawn gently spilling into the Colorado River. Fresh from an early downstairs showcase, the first interview of the day was G. Love, still animated and full of caffeine and dragging us all with him. Up next was a mere block away, on a balcony overlooking 2nd and San Jacinto we set up for a great interview with two of the fine members of The Head and The Heart, representing themselves well with a full slate of performances this week.
We had a quick brunch and intelligent discussion with Chris Walla of Death Cab fame at the comfortable Manuel’s on Congress. He was here in support of some of his production projects like Telekinesis and Lonely Forest, as well as in advance of a new Death Cab album. Through constant stop-bys and introductions, we talked about projects and OMD, sounds and influences and inspirations. It was surprisingly one of the more laidback and interesting discussions of our week.
Stepping into the bright Texas sun, we made our way to the next interview, now with Ellie Goulding on the 22nd floor of the Hilton. With one of the more impressive views of the city, Goulding and her crew held this suite for interviews. She turned out to be surprisingly personable and relaxed in the interaction, showing a bit of her fun side.
After a bit of rest in the press suite in the convention center, we grabbed an interview with Lohio, followed by Cheyenne Marie Mize. After this full day, we caught sets by Surfer Blood at the Cedar Street Courtyard, Theophilus London at the W Hotel for the Nylon party, and headed to Antone’s for the Head and the Heart. Theirs was a great, energetic, powerful set, made all the better by the knowledge that they were good people.
Our final stop of the night was at the Driskill Hotel, a landmark in Austin if ever there were one. Grand and opulent, it is also a pivotal anchor of SXSW, connecting the main arteries of 6th St. and Congress. Their Victorian Room was housing an ASCAP party, and we were able to catch a couple of sets, the first of which was Dan Wilson. He of Semisonic and Closing Time fame, these days he does a lot of co-writing, including Josh Groban, Adele, and the Dixie Chicks, with whom he won Album of the Year and Song of the Year at the Grammy’s in 2007. Songs from his solo album were the set on this night, featuring Tracy Bonham, the Dixie Chicks Martie Maguire, and Jeremy Messersmith. Tuneful, well constructed songs, this was a very enjoyable set. He was followed by the Nashville band the Civil Wars, consisting of Joy Williams and John Paul White, featuring their amazing voices, his acoustic, and some kind of cosmic interconnectedness that was chilling to hear. It was like a science experiment running a current of electricity through the room. This was their final of 12 shows, and they appeared neither weary nor any less than ecstatic to be on stage, going all Nikola Tesla on the crowd, who absorbed with utter attention what was happening on stage, bursting with applause at the end of an incredible set at the end of an incredible day near the end of an incredible week.
03.19.11
Day Four
Our final day of fun in Austin at SXSW found us settling into the groove of interviews, the sequence of set up for cables and lighting and cameras and audio moving with the fluid efficiency of the industrial revolution. Our first location was a church by the capitol putting on the AOL party. While waiting on the Dodos to finish their sound check, we happened to be stationed near a T-Mobile sponsored ice cream sandwich truck: choose your dream cookie (chocolate chip, snickerdoodle, etc.), choose your dream ice cream (vanilla bean, mint chocolate chip, etc.) and they will literally hand your dreams over to you! If only all dreary waiting spaces (hospitals, government offices, traffic jams) had these guys, the world would be a better place.
After the Dodos interview, we paid a final visit to the convention center for one last plundering of the press room followed by the interview with Afie Jurvanen from Bahamas, who is also the guitar player for Feist. A genuinely affable guy, he made for a great, laidback and informative interview.
Seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with two more left, we girded ourselves for one more trek to the other side of the expressway, to what was known as the Fader Fort, a fenced in absolutely huge area that felt more Mad Max meets refugee camp. Sponsored by Fiat, this stage ran for days and had a lot of notable acts. Our interview was with Jamie from the English indie pop band the XX. Falling on the reclusive and less than comfortable end of the spectrum, we finished and took a quick loop through the rest of the Fader Fort and left humming California Love.
Our final interview of SXSW was at the Central Presbyterian Church, at 8th and Brazos. We met Sharon Van Etten there in a fun and free flowing interview in the courtyard before she prepared for the Red Ryder showcase that evening. We talked with her and her band for a bit and walked back to the hotel for a brief rest before heading out to absorb one final night of the festival.
We stopped by the capitol for a recap video on the way back to 6th. We popped into a few places there, being the main drag and the most accessible to the largest number of options. Maggie Mae’s rooftop is usually a good option, and we caught the set of Wolf & Cub at the Aussie BBQ party before dropping by the Hilton to hear a few songs by Kim Taylor in a quiet, quiet room. Not far from here we heard the Dead Milkmen play Punk Rock Girl, sending me straight to seventh grade and all that comes with that. We dropped into Stubb’s for a bit, unfortunately hearing a band called Electric Touch, who managed to combine the worst of the Killers and Poison in 1986 and injected it with what Freud might have called the Pomp Ego. Fortunately, Tres Mountains provided the palette cleanser of aggression, combining Pearl Jam’s Jeff Ament and Mike McCready with King’s X’s Dug Pinnick on vocals. We took off after this and went back to the Central Presbyterian Church to catch some of the sets by Rural Alberta Advantage, Jukebox the Ghost and Great Lake Swimmers. We bounced around the town the rest of the night, ending up at the Parish for Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, running in to friends as well as Michael Stipe. It’s just one of the weird things about Austin, you never know when you’re having dinner next to Jack White, giving directions to Michael Ian Black, walking next to Aziz Ansari or having routine occurrences next to people you’ve listened to and laughed with halfway across the country for years.
It was refreshing that most of these artists we interviewed were down to earth people, usually not difficult or awkward socially or arrogant. Of course, there’s nothing like being surrounded by two thousand other bands to shatter the illusion that what you do is completely unique, that since you pluck a string or open your vocal chords that you belong amongst the elite and are in a class of your own. It’s kind of like how when you get married, it’s this beautiful thing because the other person finds you special and unique and you feel the unconditional acceptance of being yourself. Experiencing South by Southwest in a band is more like the exact opposite of getting married.
The Sunday that ends the week in Austin is one of the strangest experiences there, the emptiness contrasted with the pandemonium of the previous nights. In many ways, it is exactly as Hemingway describes Pamplona after the Festival of San Fermin, after the crowds have gone, after the noise has gone, after the charge that runs through the streets like electricity has dissipated. South by Southwest may be grueling for bands and the search for success more akin to buying dollar scratch-off tabs, but I really love that optimism. I think that each of us chooses music to be the soundtrack to our lives. We live deeply, we hurt deeply, we experience great joy, and that music is forevermore attached to those experiences, is there to amplify the joy and soothe the hurt. To those who create, this is the meaning and the reward; from the rest of us, thank you.
Brian S. Meurer
