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SXSW: Memories of a (Not Quite) Free Festival Everythings bigger in Texas people say, and in a way, they have a point. Thats certainly my impression after my third trip to the South by Southwest (SXSW) Music Festival in Austin, Texas. There are over 40 stages packed with bands throughout four days, and half of the clubs are open-air venues that take full advantage of the fine spring weather Texas is blessed with in March. But SXSW is a unique festival in other ways, mainly because its incredibly expensive for someone out of town to attend: $450 expensive just to register! But theres a little secret that most Texans seem to keep to themselves. Any Austin resident can buy a full music festival badge for $90. So SXSW attracts artists and music industry representatives from around the world, and most of them pay the full registration fee, but there is certainly a spattering of financially-challenged indie rock fans who happen to know someone in Austin that can score the cheap admission fee and offer free floor space to old friends in need of shelter. The fun thing about being in the latter category of attendants is that you dont have to attend music industry meetings and miss all the amazing shows! Plus, when SXSW starts, all the University of Texas students run away on Spring Break leaving hundreds of fabulous bars, clubs, and barbecue joints anxious to cater to the whims of the descending indie rock hordes. ===== Wednesday March 12th My 2003 experience at SXSW started on a Wednesday night where I was balled over with excitement at the prospect of seeing an early show at Emos featuring Soviet, a synth-oriented rock outfit that Ive been trying to catch for ages. The stage was littered with analogue synths, moogs, and the apparently recent addition of a live drummer, but it was very refreshing to hear synth-pop generated live from a bunch of normal looking kids with all the energy of youth on their sides. Their elusive album We are Eyes, We are Builders has yet to see any official release due to the bankruptcy of their former label, so it was nice to find it on sale at the booth too. Their sound is very light-hearted and poppy, but they layer their simplistic melodies so thick that you can hardly resist the gleeful tempo changes that creep into songs like Marbeleyzed and Sensitive. Even my four friends who dislike electronic music admitted that Soviet put on a fabulous show. Thursday March 13th The next day at La Zona Rosa, Simian and The Rapture were opening a showcase with a surprise band coming on at midnight. It didnt take much detective work around Austin to discover that Blur would be performing for the first time in 4 years that night, so the venue reached capacity by about 9 pm. Simian is on Astralwerks, but I was not too impressed with their set. Then The Rapture came on, and I guess my expectations were a bit too high for their performance. Ive heard so much hype about their song House of Jealous Lovers that I expected their live performance to jump out at me even though Id never heard their record. After the show, I couldnt have guessed which track was the single if my life depended on it. Basically they are a rock band thats been working with DFA Records to move in a dancier direction, but after a few opening songs with a nice keyboard intro, a somewhat uninspiring horn player seemed to take turns boring me with the lead singer whose repetitive vocals became equally dull. Ending with a short version of Louie Louie seemed entirely unnecessary, but maybe I need to hear their album before I swing down the hammer of judgment too hard. They were fun but different from what I had been led to expect. So to fulfill my expectations, there was always Blur right? Well, sort of. 50% of Blur was there. After axing their brilliant guitarist Graham Coxon, their bassist Alex James got held up in customs, which left Damon and the drummer to soldier on with a few hired guns when debuting their new material from Think Tank to the world for the first time. I enjoyed the new stuff, particularly the songs that mixed gospel singers into the slower ballads that Damon had come up with this time. They were much in the same vein as 13s Tender, but thats not a bad thing in my book. The live performance of Damons song inspired by the Clash left a lot to be desired, but I imagine that the absence of Alex James might have played an unfortunate role in this. Thankfully Blur did choose to sprinkle the show with old standards like Beetlebum, Song 2, the always raucous Popscene, and even an inspired rendition of Girls and Boys that infused a rockier edge to the somewhat overplayed studio version. Ending with the anthemic This is a Low off of Parklife was just enough of a reward for me to leave the show content with my decision to spend the whole night in La Zona Rosa. Friday March 14th Another perk of SXSWs Texas location is the preponderance of Lone Star beer which at some venues can be purchased at an exchange rate of 20 ounces/$2.00. After two nights of heavy rockin though (in a failed attempt to Drink Texas Dry) the Lone Star state began to take its toll on the energy level of my crew, and the third day was spent mostly in recovery mode, which, as it turned out, was a real shame. We showed up around show time to see Spoon, Cat Power, and Yo La Tengo, but all we saw was a line of about one-hundred people waiting to get into Stubbs. Having blown a chance to see a fabulous showcase due to our collective sloth, we ended up seeing LAs psychedelic shoegazers The Brian Jonestown Massacre and Texas own Daniel Johnston, the mentally challenged yet oddly inspiring singer-songwriter that you might know from the Kids Soundtrack. Both shows were very enjoyable, but after listening to Spoon's new record all week in preparation for the show we never saw, it became painfully obvious that we had blown it big time. At least we still had one day left to redeem ourselves Saturday March 15th We werent going to goof up this one! Leaving my friends house bright and early (at 1:00 pm) we were all anxious to see the Glurp Records showcase at The Red Eyed Flyer. This showcase would feature The Mendoza Line as well as two of our favorite Austin bands, Grand Champeen and Okkervil River, playing an early show in an outside club well stocked with Lone Star. First up was Okkervil River, and I cant recommend this band highly enough to anyone who hasnt heard them. I saw them at SXSW in 2002, and they literally blew me away with the energy they pack into their alt-country tunes. Buy their Jagjaguwar album Dont Fall in Love With Everything You See, and you can thank me later. In this set, the singer obliterated three strings on his acoustic guitar as he raged through the mandolin-coupled homicidal harmonies of Westfall and onward to the aching ballad of Kansas City, which featured a welcome surprise appearance from the pedal steel player in another Austin band called Lil Capn Travis. The band may have been frustrated with the dead-time that resulted from repairing their instruments, but they pulled strong through the set which culminated with a beautiful version of The Okkervil River Song, and I for one couldnt have been more satisfied. It wasnt too long before fellow Austin locals Grand Champeen took the stage, and they blasted through a fine set of infectious rock tunes from their two albums 1999s Out Front By the Van and 2001s Battle Cry For Help. Both albums display their fondness for The Replacements and old Soul Asylum, but they carried off a fresh attitude of their own by combining the clear vocal charms of Channing Lewis with the heavy drumming and adept musicianship of the rest of the band. It seems that Grand Champeen has developed a bit of a Midwestern following, and they are always a great band to catch live. Singing along to Missed Out with a cold beer outside on a sunny day is a pretty hard thing to top! After Grand Champeen, there was a whole showcase sponsored by Filter music magazine to enjoy down the street at Stubbs. This included free Beer and free barbecue, and a slew of new performers to take in and enjoy. A nice change of pace came from Annie Stela, who gave a solo piano performance that reminded me of Tori Amos on a good day; you know, a day when she remembers to take her medication. Recent studio projects from artists like Tori and Fiona Apple neglect the simple pleasures of the female songwriter and her piano in favor of overproduction, so it is refreshing to see Annie as a young new talent that seems to be heading in a more appealing direction. Onwards we go through a slew of bands at Stubbs including Ed Hardcourt and The Coral, who both put on fun shows, among others. The Coral from the UK had a jam-oriented style full of quirky style changes and poppy refrains, so it was surprisingly enjoyable to a fan like me whos only heard two of their singles so far. Then my concert crew split in two, and I reluctantly chose to miss The Polyphonic Spree and Supergrass for the novelty act W.I.T. who I was very curious to see. Well, just like Cher, if I could turn back time I might have done things a bit differently that day, but you cant accuse W.I.T. (or Whatever It Takes) of failing to entertain. Electroclash guru Larry Tee was the between set DJ, and oddly enough, he must have been operating all the music; because W.I.T., who is now a threesome of sorts, just smiled at the audience and delivered infectious pop vocals like a sexed up version of Bananarama. They performed their infamous Cars cover, an electro version of Just What I Needed that involves a guitar being lifted in the air at certain parts of the song, but the ladies of W.I.T. could hardly be bothered enough to actually play the instrument. The rest of the songs were just as catchy, leaving one to ponder what the point of W.I.T. is anyway. They are a straight sugar-buzz if you like electro, but after rejecting the big money offered by the major labels, what exactly are they trying to accomplish? I hoped to find answers when I sacrificed a shot to see The Polyphonic Spree and Supergrass, but all I was left with was more questions ===== If theres one thing I did learn in my trip to SXSW, its that the music scene in 2003 is alive and well with all sorts of bands, big and small, making all sorts of exciting music out there. SXSW no longer seems like a festival where major labels scoop up developing indie talent. Hell, some of the most popular draws at the festival were indie artists anyway. If anything connects all the bands I saw at this years festival, its a genuine love of live performance, and a willingness to step out on stage with the modest hope of winning over a few new fans at a time when the music industry as we know it seems to be imploding. If any of these artists ever work their way back over to tour the East Coast, theyve all got one more Virginian thatll probably show up to see them play. All of them except Simian, anyway.
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