High flyers: there's plenty to see at the South by Southwest festival
On arrival in Austin today, I met up with Steve Rose hoping he might give me some tips on where to go to find the best tacos. He's been covering the film side of things. And he wasn't that happy to see me, symbolic as I was of the sudden change of mood in the town: the chin-stroking cineastes are on their way out, you see, being replaced by hordes of rockers.
And about time too. Because if there's one thing this small, pleasant city needs it's hundred of scrawny, hairy, tattooed individuals, chasing up and down the main thoroughfares hoping to catch 20 minutes of a band they had never heard of before this week but who have since been beneficiaries of positive word of mouth and are now playing at a showcase sponsored by a beer company (free drink!).
(BTW Gigs aren't called gigs at SXSW, they're either called showcases or parties. It's sometimes difficult to tell the difference between the two, though if I had to, I'd say that parties were showcases that take place either late at night or, oddly, early in the afternoon. Showcases, meanwhile, are parties hosted by nation states rather than brewers. You dig?)
Wednesday's national pop expo came from the Canadians, who held a showcase for some of the acts they're hoping to promote over the course of the week in a park over from the central convention centre downtown. Tomorrow it's the turn of the Brits to do the same at their annual barbecue; serving up bangers, warm ale and a brief performance by Scouting for Girls for the delectation of the crowd.
It's not easy to find a guaranteed winner of a show. There are 1,700 acts performing at SXSW in total and most of them fall into the bracket of "up and coming", which basically means only a tiny handful of people know their songs. Working out which of these acts will lift your soul (as opposed to wrap it in a tortilla and feed it to a dog) is one of the distinct thrills of this festival.
That's why I'm so buzzing tonight after taking a chance on a young up and coming performer by the name of Van Morrison. Opening the evening's showcases at the Zona Rosa venue this Irishman revealed himself to have a distinct, characterful voice, an aptitude for the saxophone and a keen sense of how to direct his band. I can think of only one improvement to his act; would it really hurt him so much to smile a little now and then?
Van was one of two venerable names to help to open this year's music leg of the SXSW festival, the other being REM (who are probably finishing their set as I type). While I plumped for Van, it seemed that there was much more excitement around town for the boys from Athens, Georgia. National Public Radio chose to broadcast live from the show and reports suggest the crowd was massive (I'll try and get some local response to the gig tomorrow).
That I didn't manage to catch them both (rather than, say, the totally awful Stones Throw showcase I went to instead) was something of a regret. But the queues for the big names are just too long.
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