Quantcast

SXSW WRAP-UP: LEVEN FEELS SHAME, AND OTHER EMOTIONS

Many of the rumors turned out to be true—things were smaller, lines often shorter, corporate activations less overpowering. As a result, though, more people I know (myself included) seemed to have caught more of their must-sees.

Many of the acts that buzzed coming in did indeed make good on their momentum: Amy Shark managed to deliver a warm and intimate set even in the metal caverns of the Container Bar, while Jade Bird accomplished a great deal with just an acoustic guitar and a handful of stages.

Soccer Mommy had some of the most consistent traffic, as expected, and the Frights completely delivered, frequently closing their sets with the crowd-pleaser SoCal pop medley that grace more than a few festival stages in years to come.

Lo Moon sounded great at their sophomore SXSW appearance, notably in a beautiful cloud garden at Sony’s compound, which Khalid jam-packed the night before.

If there was a consensus “winner” for the year, it was the U.K. act Shame, who delivered their Joy Division stylings with wrenching intensity time after time—most people who saw them once ended up choosing to see them three times.

Another great discovery was Northern Ireland’s the Touts, who take their Stiff Little Fingers lineage seriously, by which I mean “with liquid abandon.” On that note, a lot of us also found solace in time-tested favorites, including and especially Frank Turner, whose sets throughout the week were packed and uproarious, particularly his closing St. Patty’s Day set behind Skinny Lister at the Barracuda. Dashboard Confessional was also a huge sentimental favorite and their Gatsby set had probably 70% audience vocal participation all song every song.

Throughout the week there were other great surprises—for starters, Karen Glauber luring Todd Rundgren into town—but also Muse’s Matthew Bellamy taking on Beatles classics at the Rachael Ray party and Yonatan Gat’s witchy homage to sundown with the Eastern Medicine Singers, a Native American powwow drum group from Rhode Island that he first encountered at a prior SXSW.

Austin’s the Black Angels packed their sole Rainey St. appearance and Bones (UK) had some of the weeks’ very best guitar tones show after show. Good reports also followed Miles Francis, Gang of Youths, White Reaper (natch), Mint Field, Lovelytheband and NoMBe. As always the city somewhat broke into zones – the hipster wing east of the freeway, the true Austinites-seeing-Austin-bands zone on South Congress, the consensus big shows on Red River and Rainey, with all manner of other things scattered in between. For all the backlash, Austin remains a great place to see music, and a lot of it, year after year.

Editor’s note: A bomb threat caused the cancellation of The Roots’ Saturday show at SXSW; the threat occurred between multiple package-bomb attacks in the city. Our condolences to everyone affected by those incidents.

NEAR TRUTHS: KINGDOMS
File under: The enemy of my enemy is my friend. (3/26a)
ONE SHINING HITS LIST
She shoots, she scores! (3/26a)
YTD MARKET SHARE
Zeroing in on the elite teams (3/27a)
BEST IN THE WEST:
STEVE BERMAN
High time for another Eminem skit (3/26a)
MUSIC REVENUE TOPPED $17B IN 2023: RIAA
Streaming subscriptions lead the charge. (3/27a)
THE NEW UMG
Gosh, we hope there are more press releases.
TIKTOK BANNED!
Unless the Senate manages to make this whole thing go away, that is.
THE NEW HUGE COUNTRY ACT
No, not that one.
TRUMP'S CAMPAIGN PLAYLIST
Now 100% unlicensed!
 Email

 First Name

 Last Name

 Company

 Country
CAPTCHA code
Captcha: (type the characters above)