The plane ride was bad. From Zurich to Dallas it took over 10 hours, everyone on the plane had a space next to them empty, except me. I was sat next to a german, who like me was vegetarian, and also like me had not had his vegetarian meal reserved.
I arrived in Austin around 5 in the afternoon on wednesday the 15th March. The SXSWest music festival in Austin, Texas, was just getting under way.
Checked into my hotel, 15 minutes by cab from the centre of town, and hit the town to register. Already thousands of people are huddled around the conference centre in Austin, picking up passes, badges, wrist bands, cds, bags , magazines, rumours of secret shows.This year just happens to be the most action packed SXSW on record, with some 1300 artists confirmed to play, and a whole lot more going on besides. Any band who's worth seeing are at the event. I decide i'll make what i can, pace myself, try to avoid obviously packed shows, and let's see what i catch.
Leaving the conference hall, a text arrives, Flaming Lips, tonight at the Fox & Hounds. I'm jet lagged, could just go to bed and feel fresh for the morning. Sod it-it's the Flaming Lips, have not seen them as a band since Clouds Taste Metalic days, though i was in Austin many years ago for thier famous Car Park experiment, and caught the beatbox experiment in London in 98.
I get in suprisingly easy, it seems that people have not caught on yet about the show. Balloons, Nun hand puppets, dry ice, vocoders and starting the set with Bohemian Rhapsody, means everyone sings along, the whole tent goes wild. Flaming Lips just make you smile, by the time the young couple come on stage and the boy asks the girl to marry him, it's a giddy evening, a piano based Yoshimi a real highlight. I decide to hit it and leave out the Matador night (Belle & Sebastian, Mogwai etc), the Flaming Lips set was so great, don't need anymore of that action.On the way home pop into theEndearing showcase at Copa on Congress. Say hi to Blair & Heather (always a pleasure), meet a Heavy Blinker, and listen to Julie Doiron play on her own. The voice is great, she's wearing so many jumpers! Highlight for me is her cover of Pavement's Shady Lane.
The British Party at the Bush kicks off Thursday morning activities, and Billy Bragg takes me back in time when he plays his whole 1st album in sequence (17mins), and still manages to call James Blunt a cunt. Great stuff!
I'm walking down 6th Street at around 2 in the afternoon, it's warm, probably about +20 in the sun. The Flaminco Cantina (?), is having a Kill Rock Stars showcase that afetrnoon. I wander in and hear that Laura Viers is plaing a short set. Great!...and it was. Her band set up, not so many people for the show, but enough, It seems that Laura is playing about twenty thousand shows over the next few days, so they'll be more pact ones i'm sure. Her band are cool, and Laura in red dress, and daglo green pumps and gloves cuts an eccentric figure. The voice again, is great, and the band compliment the songs real well. The guitarist/bass player is tall, does not seem to care to much for fashion, but plays real good.
Listen to Loney Dear, who soundcheck for the Nordic showcase at The Drink on 6th St. , and it sounds good. Not a big fan of Swedish music, but this band have something of their own going on.
Spin Magazine has a party on Friday, catch The Go-Team (amazing!), The Stills (average) & Animals That Swim (terrible!).
Go to the Vice magazine bash out of town, catch a band who sound like Lightning Bolt, playing a small pub in the afternoon.
The band is good, but the TV above the bar is playing ABC's the Look of Love video (genius) , and that inspires me to get out of this dull place.
That evening, head to La Zona Rosa, for the Domino Records bash. Get there early, anticipating a big cue due to the Arctic Monkeys being on the bill. The Beautiful New Born Children play a sweet and noisy set, the Archie Bronson Outfit play there good new album. Then, as the place gets packed (must be a few thousand), the Arctic Monkeys come on and blow everything away. Great songs, amazing performance and fuck you attitude, it's an antidote to most of the hiipy good vibes going on through out SXSW this year. The Arctic Monkeys are the real deal. Check them out!
After all that excitement, Saturday pales. Rogue Wave playing an acoustic set at the conference hall is a real highlight of the day-catch the top of Jose Gonzales' head, but can't hear him for all the talking. See some of Richard Swift & Pink Mountain Tops at the Secretly Canadian bash, but have to watch through a fence! Watch Iain Archer (formerly of Snow Patrol), play some nice acoustic songs, then catch the Tigerbombs play through a very overdriven/fucked up P.A. Then bed.
Austin was good fun this year, the only real problem were all the great bands playing at the same time, which happens all the time, because there was too much. It was like overdosing on Sugar!
The plane ride home was hell!
Nick Triani is a record producer, singer songwriter in the band Treeball and a dj on Radio Helsinki.
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