Judging by this DVD, I picked a good year to miss the annual music conference held in Austin, Texas. South by Southwest features myriad bands (1,400) at more than a dozen venues, but this doc focuses only on artists playing The Bat Bar and Lone Star Lounge, leading viewers to believe that a performance by a generic disco-rock act like The Bravery qualifies as a major highlight. Sadder still is a clip of Rickie Lee Jones sounding downright rough on a new number called "Nobody Knows My Name." Incidentally, Kings of Leon, Spoon, The Stooges, Lily Allen and Carrie Rodriguez also performed at this year's SXSW, but aren't anywhere on this DVD, which does a horrible job of repping one of music's best bashes. 1.5 stars
This article appears in Aug 29 – Sep 4, 2007.