South by Southwest is a little like those Vegas travel commercials, except instead of gorgeous models filling every elevator, it’s a shirtless Justin Bieber with a police escort and two bodyguards twice his size.
Like Vegas, it’s limitless debauchery and sensory overload, and every day ends up stretching from noon until the early morning hours of the next day. On nearly every block of the festival in downtown Austin, there’s a party with corporate-sponsored free drinks and food for those with the right wristband or enough patience to get inside.
It’s the ultimate musical pub crawl. There’s a venue designed to look like a giant vending machine, a venue with pole-dancing clowns, a venue with a half pipe, a venue with rappers Twista and Trinidad James walking outside among the crowd, and so on.
Meanwhile, stars like Lady Gaga perform around the corner from bands just getting their footing, such as Santa Cruz’s Eliquate, which drove 36 hours straight to the festival for a handful of gigs in hopes of finding new fans and catching a break in the industry.
Unfortunately, among the highlights of one of the best music events in the world is the dark reality that people get hurt and sometimes die there. These things happen at events where hundreds of thousands of people are partying at all hours of the day and night.
The tragic accident Thursday night that claimed three lives and injured almost two dozen more when a driver attempt to evade police by driving through a festival roadblock was an acute reminder. We were standing at the accident scene two hours before it happened.
Highlights from the festival:
Texas Music
Something often overlooked in coverage from SXSW: There are a lot of great acts from Texas. We were most impressed with The Suffers, a 10-piece soul band from Houston with a healthy mix of R&B, jazz and Latin influences fronted by Kam Franklin on vocals. Fans of Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings will appreciate this new group.
Latin funk band Groupo Fantasma is another group that we run into every year in Austin, and when we do, we stop and listen. Recruited to back Prince on several occasions, the nine-piece group is among Austin’s best. Houston underground veteran Trae the Truth, one of the many rappers from H-Town that made the trip to Austin, was another highlight.
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