Fanfarlo – A fascinating group the UK who’s live show is energetic, eclectic and wonderful all at the same time. Brilliant instrumentation. Soaring hooks that transport the audience right out of the tent. A true collective of musicians who clearly love what they do and who they are. Arguably the next Arcade Fire. Do not miss their live show.
Nneka – A truly unifying artist. Her raw talent and sheer emotion captivated skater kids and old record execs alike. You get the idea that she’s singing about what she knows… which unfortunately is a whole lot of pain. Nonetheless, it takes someone remarkably special to transform that into the beautifully instrumented gems that she belts out onstage. This year will be remembered as the year that Nneka came to town.
You can tell that the festival is in full swing by the overall demeanor of the morning crowd as they gather to begin another day of rock n’ roll excess. Collective hangover and friendly audience are not two terms that usually go together well. Having the first set of the day at SXSW is often one of the most difficult gigs to pull off.
Her name is Nneka. ”Double N, E K A.” as she says from the stage. A truly gifted performer, she single handedly cured the headaches of the masses gathered at the Cedar Street Courtyard on this particular morning. Her songs are about infidelity, poverty and anger. You feel every word she sings. You can’t take your eyes off of her. An absolutely amazing way to start the day.
Welcome to the Live Music Capital of the World. There are over 120 music venues within a block of each other. It can get extremely overwhelming if you don’t have a strategy to conquer the madness. When I first moved to Austin, someone once told me “Walk down Sixth street and follow your ears. When you hear something good… go inside.” It’s a wonderful system to make it all make sense.
At the top notch Billboard showcase Dinosaur Bones capitalized on the amazing location of the stage facing Sixth street and actually drew a sizable crowd into the venue from off of the street. Within ten minutes, the tent was buzzing with a feeding frenzy of music-industry-types. The band has an uncanny way of making an organic transition from hook-filled rock to beautiful ambiance all in the same breath. No one left unimpressed.
Everything changes. That’s why when we got the TXT message at 1pm “Get down to the Red River parking garage across from Stubb’s RIGHT NOW” we just grabbed our iced coffees to go and ran down the street. We’ve wisely learned not to make solid plans.
We arrived at this abandoned parking garage a few minutes later to find a throng of bearded hipsters encircling a makeshift stage. They were everywhere…. even crawling up the chainlink fence surrounding the structure. The immediacy of the moment was perfect. A random happenstance in the heart of Texas. The camera crews were ready to go.
Broken Bells suddenly appear on the stage and break into a set containing The Ghost Inside, The High Road and Vaporize. There’s no question that the buzz on this group is well deserved. They nailed the pop-up show. Expect them all over the radio this summer.
Daniel Berkal leads the trendspotting team at The Palmerston Group, and will be mailing reports from Austin, Texas exclusively to andPOP throughout SXSW 2010.
The people at Zynga have been ruling Facebook with their ridiculously addictive Farmville and Mafia Wars games. Last night, they ruled SXSW by throwing a private party featuring exclusive performances by Atlanta’s The Constellations and indie-kid fave Metric.
By the time that Emily Haines and company took the stage a bit past 930pm, the invite-only crowd seemed to have gone through a centrifuge… separating out the Metric fanatics towards the front while those there mainly for the free Southern Comfort hung around the back. Neither group of patrons were disappointed in the slightest.
Metric were absolutely outstanding. Playing a long set full of both recent songs and fan favorites, the band has finally gelled into a collective force. Emily captivated all in attendance with her intense stage presence and spot-on vocals. It was such a pleasure to watch a group at the top-of-their game show up and give it their all.
