Post Mortem: SXSW Music News & Notes

Well, we survived. As the dust (both literal and figurative) settles, we're taking a moment to take stock of all the week's most interesting moments, magical photo opportunities and occasional blunders from 2009's SXSW music festival in Austin. Have a story for us? Email Email us.

One of the most interesting exercises of the weekend included finding places to charge iPhones. Flickr user Zenoglow caught her friend charging outside a venue - where did you charge your phone all week?
Roxwel has tons of SXSW video coverage, including live performances and interviews from acts like Johnnie Goudie, Fol Chen, the Pains of Being Pure at Heart and more.
The Village Voice discussed the Levi's Fader Fort as an economic indicator. "Surely this year, given the calamity in the music biz and beyond, would result in a more demure, cost-cutting operation. Ha, ha."
There is a general thrill in the air post-Metallica, who played the set almost everyone was hoping they would. We hoped for Ride the Lightning straight through, but the mix of hits (in anticipation of their upcoming Guitar Hero game) kept the crowd elated and the not-so-surprising appearance in the legit column. Add a random Perry Ferrellappearance in the crowd with the commoners and you've got yourself one hell of a show. The ex-Jane's Addiction frontman sidled up between Austinist staffers Stephanie Beasley and Tom Thornton to sing along to Echo songs with the rest of the fans.
Though Bill Jenson was dubious, the Black Lips' performance with GZA proved interesting.
The party no one can really enjoy but everyone wants to go to was well documented. Oh, and Kanye showed up.
For next year: Eugene Mirman's SXSW Tips.
The New York Times has several photo slideshow recaps online to peruse here, here (wrap up) and here (fashion).
Miss the fight between Late of the Pier and the Cedar Street security staff? NME reported from the scene.

Follow the jump for more news, tales and photos!

On Friday night at Cedar Street, Tom Thornton witnessed the only major screw-up we're aware of this year. The staff failed to create any type of organized line system for the Beach House / Peter, Bjorn, and John / Grizzly Bear / Dinosaur Jr. show. "So of course 1,500 people turned up to a venue incapable of handling that size of crowd, and chaos ensued." Thornton reports that there were no feeder lines, no signage, and no directions given to anyone. "The bouncers and security started being patronizing to the crowds and yelling at them to get off the sidewalks, the crowd yelled back, and the Fire Marshall and police turned up and shut down the street. I could've left, but it was all such a train wreck, I waited to see what happened." The police were good humored and cleared everyone without a wristband or badge out immediately, telling them no cash covers and no guest list for the rest of the night. Then they told the wristband folks to come back in an hour, and many left. Then they let people in using a feeder line, which seemed to solve everything. Mind you, the cops actually coordinated this while the venue folks mostly stood around looking surly - likely due to the fight earlier in the day." Just goes to show that big shows should be saved for venues like Emo's, Mohawk, La Zona, and The Parish where the staff handles big rock crowds on a regular basis. "All that said, that was the only hiccup I saw, and honestly, most bouncers and volunteers were being great to everyone all week long."
At the Scotland showcase, Camera Obscura were talking about how the bill was all the best Scottish bands except for them, and someone yelled "Yeah? Where's Mogwai?" They quit hyping it after that.
Naturally (though we don't remember their coverage being this complete last year), Pitchfork has oodles of photos and set reviews from the week.
NPR Music and local affiliate KUT delivered live streams, performances, downloads, videos and more (including a surprise set from local pop outfit Fastball) all week.

Austinist contributing photographer Pooneh Ghana's photos:

Austinist contributing photographer Eric Uhlir's photos:

Austinist contributing photographer Nash Cook's photos:

Contact the author of this article or email tips@austinist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Paige Maguire in Arts & Entertainment on March 23, 2009 9:53 AM 0 Comments

Comments [rss]

Maribelly

I feel so lucky to have hosted 32 awesome bands such as Pete & the Pirates, Mae Shi and others without the fuss of parking, all at the Red House Pizzeria & Bar on Manor Rd. www.musicforlisteners.com/mfla... outlines 4 days of bands.

sml2401

I'm surprised there's no story up about that EPIC Explosions in the Sky show Saturday night at Auditorium Shores, featuring a brilliant fireworks display at the end. There were supposedly 20,000+ people in attendance. Absolutely amazing.

super_nova

Agreed about Cedar St Ctyd., I'll also add Buffalo Billiards to the "staff didn't get what's going on" list. Nothing on the 1st entrance said you had to go to the 2nd and once gone all they way to the other side was told to double back out and come in the other entrance after walking through a crowd of people. I chose to go out that door and didn't look back. Venues have as much of an obligation not to waste attendees time and energy unnecessarily as attendees have to be respectful to staff and volunteers.

Also, the splitting of Maggie Mays into 3 separate sections was a little dicey at first, but once everyone was on the same page it was fairly straightforward.

On a positive note, Elysium had the easiest to understand signage on what to do - big banner with arrows and the rules. Simple, easy and profesh. Elysium staff should train other venues on how to be better organized for SXSW next year.

Chadio

I am not surprised about the scene outside Cedar Street on Friday night. We showed up to see the first band, which was Pete and the Pirates by the way, and found the scene to be chaotic 30 minutes before they were scheduled to go on. The venue staff got people into the respective lines but then they didn't even start letting badges in until Pete and the Pirates started! Even though we were only about 20 people into the wristband line, we had to listen to the first three songs from the line. We experienced similar chaos the previous night at Central Presbyterian Church. We chalked it all up to the "Grizzly Bear" effect because most people in the lines at both venues were there just for them.