Austin360 blogs > Out & About > Archives > 2010 > March > 19
Friday, March 19, 2010
SXSW 34: Via Downtown
In reporting on the rapid expansion of traffic during SXSW Interactive and Film, I by no means want to suggest that SXSW Music has been superseded. Not with 1,900 official showcases, and those acts playing multiple additional gigs, and all the other bands tacking on their quickie concerts. That could mean 6,000 or so discreet sets of music.
One could feel the magnetic pull in each direction crossing through downtown, first northeast, then southwest on Thursday. People on the margins of the grid shimmered with energy. They strode toward events with a bounce in their steps. Their stage make-up and rocker outfits looked fresh. They gabbled tirelessly.
Cathy Wallace, Brandi Hale, Debbie Barrera and Catherine Daniels
Returning from East Austin, I noticed more hobbled fans taking pedicabs. (Did we import some for the weekend? Seems like they swarmed every street.) By the time I hit the blockaded Sixth Street west of Interstate 35, the masses resembled the disintegrating remains of a summer street fair. Exhausted folks lined the curbs. Faces faded pink-gray. Incompletely consumed street food joined the other detritus.
Lines into official SXSW venues crinkled, crackled with complaints. Meanwhile, other clubs simply blasted out their usual sounds. I even saw some completely new clubs: Just for SX?
Syztem 7 from Seattle
On Congress, visitors and locals spilled off the wide sidewalks. Still, the weather blessed this Thursday with a sort of glorious glow. Boulevardiers staked out their regular spots at sidewalk cafes and just watched the world go by …
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SXSW 33: East Side Story
The entire zone from East Seventh Street to the MetroRail tracks, east of Interstate 35 and west of Comal Street, was honeycombed with improvised outdoor music venues.
Brianna Bardhi, Ella Pala and Jen Shoemaker
The prime destination: Levi’s Fader Fort, a combination of retail outlet, secret fort and mini-Austin City Limits Music Festival, timed each year to South by Southwest.
“It’s warm and real,” said Austin’s Brianna Bardhi of the enclosure around an industrial structure. “Like a clubhouse.”
Although originally conceived partly as an artist’s retreat, the Fader Fort now attracts pods of locals looking for non-SXSW action — and tall Budweisers, consumed in abundance among the smokestacks and corrugated relics of East Austin.
Allen Reed and Carrie Back
Across East Fifth Street, the Texas RockFest occupied almost an entire vacant block. Music seekers circled it to visit open-air stages up and down East Sixth Street.
Although many pilgrims crossed under the freeway at Sixth, others swerved along the bikeway at East Fourth Street, the thoroughfare for pedicabs, who ranged from the Mean-Eyed Cat near MoPac to the Brixton east of the Texas RockFest.
When a MetroRail train barreled down toward the Austin Convention Center at Red River Street, pedicabs and pedestrians scattered, but not very quickly.
Nobody took the huge metal missile seriously. This is a disaster waiting to happen.
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SXSW 32: Official Austin Music Showcase at Ghost Room
One can become so jaded in Austin. Live music? Scores of options every night. Why bother? The acts come and go. Who could keep up with all of it?
Well I was introduced to two that took my reason away at the Ghost Room, an astonishingly sensitive room for various genres of thickly layered music. First was Monarchs, a band Austin shares with Birmingham, Ala. The players run the gamut from rootsy to indie, but it’s frontwoman Celeste’s supple voice that elicits the most awe from an appreciative throng.
I thought, OK, so far three good acts my first night of SXSW (see House of Song Showcase post). How long will my luck hold out? That’s when Charanga Cakewalk squeezed all their instruments onto the small corner stage. Lordy. All manner of Latin dance music ensued.
I danced with friends. I danced with strangers. I danced until the Cakewalk ended their too-short showcase set.
Well, I wanted to end the night on a high point, so I started to leave, then Reyes told me about the other celebrated local talent that night — Zeale, Danny Malone, the Black, Carrie Rodriguez — and I mentally noted their names. If they are anywhere as accomplished as Monarchs and Charanga Cakewalk, then I will ferret out their club dates.
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SXSW 31: House of Song Showcase at the Ginger Man
Blown by the winds of chance, I took refuge at the Ginger Man the first night of SXSW Music. Clearly, many in the crowd were still still indulging their St. Patrick’s Day itch. Yet out on the patio, a goodly number were primed for the House of Songs unofficial showcase.
So one more band, then on to the next showcase. This was an exceedingly charming Danish act called Leaving a Small Town. Their simple melodies proved contagious, especially one written with Austin’s Matt the Electrician. OK, so pop music is the universal language.
I’ve run across the House of Songs on occasion, but I must pay more attention.
[I’d credit the Leaving a Small Town photo, but my Danish is rusty.]
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