The title pretty much says it all. I saw a cubic butt-load of bands at South by Southwest — upwards of 40, but probably way more. I heard that there were over 1700 bands at SXSW this year, so by my calculations I saw about 2.3% of the music being performed.
My full list follows, with a few notable highlights emboldened and expanded upon. Mind you, most of these sets were part of showcases and hence on the short side of 30 minutes, and I certainly didn’t stick around for the entirety of every set. Nonetheless, it was pretty incredible to hear this much music in such a short span of time.
- Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso UFO – best freak rock of the show…Japanese space oddity thrash that boggles the mind and tests the ear drums
- Bachelorette
- Balkan Beat Box – best dance party of the festival, these dudes threw down a mix of eastern european big band, hip-hop and groove that defies categorization and reminded me of how Ozomatli first took the stage by storm
- Barcelona
- Bear in Heaven
- Ben Sollee and Daniel Martin Moore
- Billy Bragg
- Birds & Batteries (SF)
- Born Ruffians – kind of in the vein of the whole Vampire Weekend preppy afro-pop, these Canadian youngsters really impressed with their angular yet smooth song-writing, great vocals and a clean, hollow-body rhythm guitar tone throughout the whole show (who else does that?).
- Broken Bells
- Cheeseburger
- Dawes – plain and simple, tasty alt-country with some nice, soaring vocal hooks
- DEVO – this actually wasn’t a performance but rather an interview which was more like performance art. DEVO, Inc. has hired a advertising company to market DEVO music like any other product on the shelves, like, say, a package of Charmin toilet paper. The interview included an riotous powerpoint and a live focus group about what DEVO’s new album should be called. These guys may not have been in the limelight for the past few decades, but they haven’t missed a beat
- Eisley
- Ferocious Few (SF)
- Frankie and the Outs
- Haper Blynn – best power pop of the festival, and maybe the most polished all around performance with great keys, awesome 3-part harmonies and wonderfully concise and catchy songs. I will definitely go see these guys again
- Hottub (SF)
- Hurricane Bells
- Jonathan Tyler & the Northern Lights
- Kashmir
- Lou Barlow (of Dinosaur Jr. fame) – solid, dye-in-the-wool indie rock from one of the genre’s pioneers that simultaneously felt unique and fresh
- Man/Miracle (SF) - of all the San Francisco bands I saw in Austin, these guys impressed me most with some great indie-afro-rock song-writing full of twists and turns and solid vocals delivered with confidence and intensity
- Minus the Bear
- Morning Teleportation – best psychedelic rock of the festival….these vintage fashion enthusiasts are young yet, but their high-energy delivery shows great promise
- Or, the Whale
- Quasi – did’t realize they rocked so hard…impressive.
- Royal Bangs – probably the biggest surprise find…a trio of drums, guitar and keys whose ferocious grooves and pounding drums set to some tasty loops reminded me of a southern soul version of Nine Inch Nails. if that kind of thing is possible.
- Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings – I’ve loved this retro-soul band forever but never had a chance to seethem…they didn’t disappoint. Sharon has a beautiful stage presence and her band is tight, tight tight!
- Shearwater – kind of alt-country-ish, but probably the best voice I heard all festival…haunting, really.
- Shinobi Ninja
- Spoon – these guys get better and better live, what else can you say?
- Superlitio
- The Beets
- The Dutchess and the Duke – eschewing the PA for an intimate set against a rowdy bar backdrop, this Americana duo really impressed me with their harmonies and passion and provided what was probably the most intimate performance I experienced the entire festival.
- The Lemurs
- The Low Anthem - part of the new folk movement that the young kids these days adore, replete with hand-pump organ, upright bass and dueling bowed saws…good stuff
- The Ready Set
- The Very Best
- The Walkmen
- Titus Andronicus
- Visqueen - maybe my favorite new find of the whole festival…kick ass indie pop-rock from Seattle lead by the beguiling and bad-ass Rachel Flotard.
Thank you for this list! I am going to try next year to get my band on this bill. Their name is A Living Daylight (www.alivingdaylight.com) if you would like to check them out.
Good times! I’m glad you liked the Morning Teleportation kids. So many bands to see, My brain is still at SXSW, I kinda need it back.
Well put, my friend! Such great variety and talent in such a short amount of time. We rawked together for many of those, and its fun to catch up some that I missed. We need to hang again soon.
Holy cow, you covered alot of bands. Well done! See my Top Ten 2010 SxSW Band Show List at http://slummy9.wordpress.com/2010/03/26/2010-sxsw-top-ten-shows. Cheers. Slummy