Yesterday was my first day at South by Southwest, a day mostly spent getting used to navigating the overwhelmingly enormous schedule of events. A friend and I brought bikes in the car from New Orleans, but even being able to get places and park efficiently, the biggest challenge here is still getting to the shows you want to see on time, especially since most performances have only a small 30-minute window of opportunity. Here are some highlights of what I caught though:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4Hy6kp5kIs[/youtube]
– Allen Stone at Mellow Johnny’s:
Allen Stone has been one of my favorite young musicians since I came across the video of him singing one of best songs, “Unaware”, with a full band in his parent’s house.
He grew up singing in church in rural Washington state before getting his mind blown by Stevie Wonder early in high school. A lot of wonder shows up in the songs Stone has written, but he’s also managed to sound contemporary, and not simply be pegged as a “retro” artist. Unsurprisingly, he’s often mentioned alongside the Alabama Shakes.
I caught him in a bike shop during the late afternoon. He was playing with a different band than the one in the videos I’d seen, but it was filled with crack musicians, and though Stone’s performance wasn’t quite as electric as in his best recordings, much of the crowd was singing along throughout his songs, and seemed enthralled with his pipes. I’ll be looking forward to when he makes it to New Orleans.
Aside: there was free Fat Tire beer during the show, the first time I’d gotten to try the brew. For years I’ve heard comparisons of Abita Amber to it, and in my admittedly biased opinion I’ve got to say—it was good, but…
– Caddywhompus and JC Styles at Hotel Vegas Patio:
I like Caddywhompus a lot. The duo of Loyola students play fiery rock with a sound so big you would assume it was made by a band twice as big. Their set during the New Orleans showcase outside at Hotel Vegas had a lot of good energy, but most of the crowd was there for bounce—the indie rock fans were probably elsewhere in Austin.
When JC Styles hit the stage after Caddywhompus finished, people quickly made their way close to the stage to get a better view of the five male dancers, who showed off their moves one by one. If you live in New Orleans it was just good, old-fashioned, elastic and acrobatic bounce dancing, but of course it’s always a joy seeing the eyes of bounce newcomers pop wide open.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emKQrMSbTm4[/youtube]
– Avan Lava at the Old Pecan St. Cafe:
Friends of a friend of my friend. Tagged along, but was pleasantly surprised by this New York-based band. They play early-’80s-style disco and boogie funk with two singers, a drummer, and a keyboardist. I’ve wondered for a while why more bands don’t play this music—Chromeo and Dam-Funk are two of the most successful, but there aren’t many more—so it was good to see this band giving it a go. They did better with the concept than the execution, but their best songs were catchy, funky, and memorable, a hard trifecta for any band to reach.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRalWLGCx5s[/youtube]
– Dee-1 and Mannie Fresh at Hotel Vegas Patio:
I made my way back to Hotel Vegas for the rest of the New Orleans showcase, arriving to see Dee-1 on stage performing “I’m On It”. I heard a lot of people in the audience talking about how much they liked him and how glad they were to find out about him—hopefully they’ll all their friends and spread the word. Dee-1 was clearly glad to be opening for Mannie Fresh, and he rapped Cash Money lyrics while everybody waited for Fresh to arrive. Best though was hearing him recite parts of Juvenile’s “Ha”.
After Fresh took the stage, Dee-1 kept a mic to act as hype man, rapping along with Fresh on “Still Fly” and performing “One That Got Away” along with him. I’m obviously biased and I haven’t seen more than 10 shows yet, but it’s the best thing I’ve seen at South by Southwest so far.
