The last night of SXSW is always the most full of surprises.
This year was no exception. Unfortunately leaving many with a bad taste in their mouths.
Just after 1am fans who had waited to see the reunion of Death From Above 1979 stormed the fence at the back lot of the Beauty Bar and ripped it down… starting a mini-riot that caused the horse-mounted police to use mace and tazers to control the masses.
At the OMD show at Stubbs, a camera boom fell, injuring four spectators.
The highly hyped VEVO powerhouse ended up being a dud as literally thousands of fans who were promised access received a TXT message saying that they had been denied minutes before showtime. The anger of people who had to hear about special appearances by P. Diddy and Jay Z alongside headliner Kanye West in the old Seaholm power station was heard all over town. It’s one thing to put on a big show with big names, but alienating the giant crowd who came to support it was seen as completely against the vibe of Austin.
There’s nothing less cool than a party that uninvites you and then tries to show you how great it is.
As always, the amazing energy of unknown acts was the highlight of the day. Los Angeles’s Evaline played a stadium sized show on the back patio of the Gingerman that had everyone within five blocks buzzing like mad.
Daniel Berkal leads the trendspotting team at The Palmerston Group, and will be mailing reports from Austin, Texas exclusively to andPOP throughout SXSW 2011.
You can hear it in the way that Simon Le Bon says it.
It’s a string of mumbles that goes on as if by rote. The audience is waiting for the words and he knows it. Suddenly, it comes.
“And I’m HUNGRY LIKE THE WOLF”
The crowd goes mad.
People make their own interpretive ‘wolf’ faces. There are high fives. All is well in the world.
It’s become a tradition for classic acts to utilize the media focus of SXSW in order to launch a tour or stage a comeback. REM did it a few years back. Metallica did it. Billy Idol did it. Last night at Stubb’s BBQ was no exception. Even though young hotshot acts preceded them, the completely packed house was there for one reason only, to revisit their youth with Duran Duran. Although the band unadvisedly sprinkled ignorable new tracks amongst their set of well received pop classics, it didn’t matter. They played ‘Hungry’ and the people were thrilled.
The first real day of music showcases is predictably overwhelming.
By noon, the line for the Fader Fort by Fiat stretched for three football fields all the way to the highway. The biggest day party in Austin by far, this well-curated event effectively competes with the official festival by offering a hand-picked lineup of can’t miss acts presented in a makeshift art space alongside free libations. The place is decked out with Italian automotive inspired artwork. Over 40000 people RSVP for admission.
We arrive in time to see Oh Land drive through a captivating, soaring and beautiful set.
Meanwhile, at the Canadian Blast BBQ a who’s who of the Canadian music industry gathered to watch Polaris prize winning Karkwa play the first of their many showcases around town this week.
Music is everywhere. And our day was like an iPod come to life. Highlights for us included Raphael Saadiq and his band of perfect musicianship, and Chicago’s Smith Westerns… whom we only caught one song of, but a band definitely worth catching again.
The gem of the day was New Zealand’s Naked & Famous. They just blew our minds. Incredible energy and awesome stage presence. One of the best bands we’ve ever seen in Austin. The combination of tight rhythm, female vocals, young fire, crunchy guitars and stadium-ready choruses. I can’t imagine it being too long before we hear them everywhere.
Daniel Berkal leads the trendspotting team at The Palmerston Group, and will be mailing reports from Austin, Texas exclusively to andPOP throughout SXSW 2011.
In what’s going to go down as one of the smartest marketing moves of the year, Apple has taken over a Gold’s Gym on Sixth Street in downtown Austin and made it into a temporary pop-up store to meet the demand of all the techies, hipsters and media who are craving an iPad2.
As we waited in line for the store to open… a rumbling noise was heard down the street. Suddenly, like a pack of wolves, the Apple Geniuses ran down the line giving everyone high-fives.
Yes, this was written on the new iPad. And yes, it’s spectacular.
Daniel Berkal leads the trendspotting team at The Palmerston Group, and will be mailing reports from Austin, Texas exclusively to andPOP throughout SXSW 2011.
In a recent interview with PEOPLE, Sandra Bullock says that she and ex-husband Jesse James have “moved on,” and she supports his decision to move to Austin.
“I support Jesse in his move to Austin,” the Oscar winner, 46, tells PEOPLE exclusively in this week’s cover story. “We have both moved on with our lives and only want the best for each other. Anything else that is said on my behalf is inaccurate.”
Sandra also recently completed the adoption of her 8 month-old son Louis on Aug. 13.
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.
We get in at midnight. There’s an unmistakable energy buzzing throughout Austin Bergstrom International airport on the eve of SXSW. The baggage carousels are full of guitar cases. The air smells of leather. All you see are tattoos and tambourines.
Every year dreams are made and lost here at the world’s biggest showcase for new music. Over the next five days there will be more than 1900 musical performances, featuring countless genres and boundless excitement. Every single square inch of the capital of Texas will be filled with artists with a dream, looking for their moment to shine.
It’s a land full of showcases and secret parties. It’s the kind of place where you have to be in the know, to really know what’s going on. Lineups form outside massive events thrown by Perez Hilton and Rachael Ray. Complimentary drinks flow freely at parties thrown by corporate sponsors and the music industry illuminati. Arguably some of which have outshined the official festival itself. At the annual Levis/ Fader Fort event, it’s become commonplace for big name artists to appear by surprise. Last year’s appearance and secret set by Kanye West featured Common, Eryka Badhu and made headlines around the world. The year before had Lou Reed come out onstage beside Moby. Twitter’s buzzing with the possibilities of who will appear this year. Will it be Thom Yorke? Is Lady Gaga hiding out behind the curtain? Is Die Antwoord going to make their North American debut here?
