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SXSW scene report: Westside baby! Roaming the Warehouse District day party scene
Yes, the major SXSW day party action goes down on Sixth Street, Red River, South Congress and pretty much the entire east side of the city, but what’s happening in the Warehouse District? That was the question I was pondering on my way to the Nacional Records/Pachanga party at La Condesa this afternoon. Nacional was hosting an invite-only gathering celebrating its excellent roster of artists playing the festival. With beverages flowing freely, they managed to pack the bar area and the small outdoor deck with a lively crowd. I bumped into Pachanga Fest organizer Rich Garza, complimented him on last year’s fantastic event at Fiesta Gardens and wrangled a sneak peak at the flier for this year’s festival. But there was no music at the party, so after sipping down half a Mexican Coke I decided to check out the scene upstairs at Malverde.
There was no wait to get into the df Loft party at Malverde. The outdoor deck was a carefully guarded VIP area, but with the windows open, sun streaming in and a cool breeze rustling the leaves of impressively over-sized potted plants, the main room of the club was light and airy. Dos Equis appeared to be the (free?) beverage of choice and skinny jeans and immaculately highlighted hair was the look du jour for the trendy 20-something crowd. Chicago-based electropop trio Hey Champ took the stage around 3:30 and their set actually seemed pretty upbeat and promising, but unable to shake the overwhelming sense of my own un-hipness I decided to head on down the road.
A few blocks to the north, a blast of sweeping epic rock darkened by more than a hint of violin-induced melancholy lured me out of the sun and into the dark cavernous interior of Republic Live where the Consequence of Sound Day Party was going down. Once again, there was no line and this time a significantly grimier skinny jean clad crowd of twenty-somethings. The band on stage was New Jersey’s Titus Andronicus and after catching the end of their texturally dense set of emotional rock I understand why they’ve been building a fair amount of buzz. The band is playing a mess of parties over the rest of the weekend, and they’re definitely worth a listen. Next on the bill was Of Montreal’s James Husband, but the dark, oddly smoky (fake foggy?) atmosphere was putting a damper on the beautiful afternoon so I decided to head on.
Trekking west on Fourth Street, I wandered past a sleepy Ghost Room and a reasonably bustling Halcyon patio then stumbled directly into the crowd that spilled into the street from Cedar Street Courtyard. I’ve never personally experienced Filter Magazine’s Showdown at Cedar Street, but I’ve heard it’s a perennial fave for SXSW-ers, and the overflow of patrons craning necks and climbing on the iron sculpture outside the club to catch a glimpse of the Norwegian rock showcase certainly seemed to prove the point.
Even with a separate line for badges, getting into that mess was clearly going to be a tedious process. So it was off down the road. Heading toward Congress I caught wind of a clash of hip-hop deck parties with bumpin’ grooves wafting from the upstairs patios of Speakeasy and the Light Bar. A quick check of my Twitter account confirmed that the latter was hosting Urb Magazine’s SXSNext party and I decided to check it out. Again there was no wait and I easily breezed into the narrow wedge of a club. Downstairs the scene was low key. The plush couch by the water wall was practically empty and a group of backpackers clustered around a corner where L.A. rapper Tiron, who oddly enough was rocking a sweatshirt and a red knit hat on a 70 degree day, spit a respectable lyrical flow.
Upstairs the party was on. A crowd crammed the rooftop deck and when Yelawolf, a white rapper from rural Alabama with a steady building buzz, took the stage he rocked them hard. Seriously. Shunning the stage he climbed the walls and leaped over the clubs faded pleather couches to balance precariously on tables in the midst of the crowd while spewing an aggressive flurry of down and dirty Southern rhymes. The audience, an notably urban mix of true hip-hop heads was clearly with him. His set was brief, but long enough to establish why the dude’s prominently positioned on the lineup of a lot of this week’s hottest parties.
After Yelawolf did his thing the sun was starting to go down and the dinner hour was approaching so I decided to head back across the river to my office.
On the way I passed the second longest line I had seen all night, a crowd at least 40 deep, oddly enough outside the Elephant Room which wasn’t hosting any sort of event. I asked one of the girls at the front of the line what she was waiting for. “Kyoto,” she replied
“Really, you’re just waiting to eat?” I asked a little incredulously. I never knew the little sushi joint over the Elephant was so hopping.
“Yeah, and working up an appetite,” she sighed.
Weird.
Turns out the club hosts a regular happy hour that actually only runs for 45 minutes from 6 to 6:45 p.m. With good sushi specials and deals on Japanese drafts it draws a lot of regulars. I never knew.
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Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: SXSW 2010
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By Ethan
March 22, 2010 4:57 PM | Link to this
You should have stayed and watched the whole Hey Champ set… I actually found out about them through your site’s interview. They were awesome.