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Wednesday, March 27, 2013

SXSW | MUSIC


Foxygen // Besnard Lakes // Eric Pulido // Diiv

As nice as all of the delicious food that surrounds SXSW is, we're all really there for the music. I'm not fancy or well-connected enough to be able to attend the showcases at night or any of the super exclusive parties, but I happily navigate the free (badgeless peasants allowed) day parties. We mostly saw music on Wednesday and Thursday because, truth be told, shit starts getting really obnoxious by Friday. Saturday: beware. I can manage crowds fine, but the torrent of drunk frat bros stumbling into events by late afternoon is more than I can handle. Excuse the snobbery but I definitely like the atmosphere at the day shows better. Less industry, more fans. 

I managed to see most of the bands that I was hoping to. The one event that I never made it to was Pitchfork's Day party on Thursday, because, to put it crudely, it was a shit show. We got there 40 minutes early only to get into an already excruciatingly long line. "No thanks," we said, and made our way to Under the Radar's party at Flamingo Cantina. We walked in, no line thank-you-very-much, and were given free beer. There were empty seats on bleachers right next to the bar with a perfectly unobstructed view of the stage. Sold. We spent the whole day there, drinking reasonably priced alcohol after the beer ran out, and enjoying an impressively solid line up of bands. We saw Foxygen (for the second time that week) who, even though I was eagerly anticipating seeing them live, managed to exceed my expectations purely based on the fact that they were nothing like I imagined live. I thought that considering the music was '60s-inspired, it would be a fairly mellow, but decent, show. But singer Sam France was a spectacle to behold. His performances was manic, frantic, ecstatic. He has the kind of charisma and swagger that made Mick Jagger famous.  I swooned, just a little. Diiv closed out the show, and I happily swayed and stared at my feet to their shoegaze-inspired brand of indie rock. 

We saw a lot of great music, and despite ending Friday exhausted and sore wondering why I subject my body to these kind of events, I can say now, with a clear mind, that I will be back next year.

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