On Wednesday, March 17, the Interactive portion of the 2010 South By Southwest Conference gave way to the Music portion of the festival. And we were there. Suddenly, the nerds in ironic Firefox t-shirts had been replaced by hipsters in tight jeans. The Macbooks had been replaced by guitar cases. And the party carried on. Here is our coverage of the shows and after-parties, witnessed on the ground by Joran Oppelt, Bryan Childs (Autopsy IV) and photographer Shanna Gillette.
(Scroll to bottom of post to see more pics and video).
DAY FIVE – Sunday, March 21
DAY FOUR – Saturday, March 20
@joranslane reporting:
Flatstock, the traveling concert poster exhibit put on by the American Poster Institute, always makes an annual stop at SXSW and never fails to amaze. 2010 was no exception, including artists like Mexican Chocolate, Chuck Sperry and Anville. However, this year the Austin Record Convention, which is usually cordoned off in an entirely separate room, took up half of the exhibit hall, making for a pretty dizzying experience. Browsers could take a break from the art and browse through tons of vinyl, CDs and music memorabilia. Talk about getting chocolate in your peanut butter.
This being my last night in town, I decided not to follow the crowds and just see what new music I could discover. I stopped in over at Cuba Libre to check out The Knew (Denver, CO) at the Red Gorilla Showcase and when I arrived, Alexa Carter was on stage. While only a couple of the heavy, guitar-driven pop songs were anything special, she definitely sang her ass off. Imagine if Avril Lavigne had balls and was from New York, you'd have Alexa. I stepped out into the alley to have a smoke, and as the band packed their gear onto the tour bus – and I do mean tour bus (the sound man told me it was Tracy Byrd's old bus) – Alexa's manager was on his Bluetooth. In the most professional way, he was complaining to "someone" that "someone else" hadn't made it out to the showcase, that they weren't happy with the size and location of the venue, that the band was disappointed, and other things managers have to say. It's moments like this that I sure don't miss the music business.
This article appears in Mar 24-30, 2010.