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Scene report: Chasing after Jay/’Ye, and watching Tony Williams
With rumors swirling of billboard-big-name artists parachuting into Austin for secret shows on the last night of SXSW, a good many showcases had an air of tension to them Saturday that made for a weird mood all around.
Take the Red 7 show with R&B singer World Famous Tony Williams, who was attached to one of the night’s more gaudy bits of speculation; that pals Jay-Z and Kanye West were going to drop in for his 10 o’clock set before heading to Seaholm Power Plant for the Vevo Power Station blowout party. Promoters of the Red 7 show put the rumor at “50/50” early on and door staff at the mostly punk club hemmed and hawed when asked what they knew.
Lending to the anticipation was a 25 minute delay in Williams’ start for no apparent reason that saw his band standing around on stage doing close to nothing for 20 minutes. It’s the kind of move you’d expect if the guests of honor were running late and Williams wanted to make sure they got to see him perform. Finally at around 10:25 p.m. Williams appeared in a gray tanktop and said he’d just arrived on a plane from France, and then proceeded to dress into a dress shirt, suit coat and scarf over the course of 35 minutes of Ralph Tresvant and Otis Redding-inspired R&B.
Of course, Jay and ‘Ye were nowhere to be found - Williams’ manager later said that by that point West hadn’t even arrived in Austin - and in the end all the waiting and anticipation was for naught. With big names increasingly using SXSW as a quick buzz generator, it’s probably inevitable that incidents like this will grow in frequency and continue to suck all the oxygen in town away from young bands fighting somewhat in vain for the public’s attention.
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