SXSW: The bands unseen

My eardrums tell me I heard a lot of music at South by Southwest, but the numbers show that I caught only a fraction of what was available.

Typically I see about 50 shows, or about 2.5 percent of the total lineup (around 2,000 bands). This year I had to leave a day early, so I saw only about 40, or 2.0 percent. That’s inevitable, given the size of the event, but it’s also frustrating. How can anyone truly get a sense of the festival when you’re missing 98 percent of it?

Here are some of the performers I had wanted to see, and in some cases planned or even tried to see but couldn’t because of basic time-space physics, long lines, coverage redundancy or because they played while I was performing some essential biological function like eating or sleeping. (I’m sure I’m forgetting about at least 100.) Biggest regrets in bold itals.

• Webb Brothers with Jimmy Webb
• Diane Birch
• Jason Lytle
• Theresa Andersson
• Afternoons
• Magneta Lane
• The Rural Alberta Advantage
• Flower Travellin’ Band
• Wolves in the Throne Room
• Rolo Tomassi
• Lissy Trullie
• Girls
• Port O’Brien
• John Forte
• An Horse
• Gabriella Cilmi
• Descartes a Kant
• The Asteroids Galaxy Tour
• Mariachi El Bronx
• The Drones
• Passion Pit
• Little Boots
• Natalia Lafourcade
• Chin Chin
• Cancer Bats
• La Gusana Ciega
• Jana Hunter
• Belong
• Rokhsan
• Nid & Sancy
• Mieka Pauley
• Roll the Tanks
• Ron Flynt
• Shelley Short
• Alela Diane
• Lisa Hannigan
• The Low Anthem
• Shellshag
• Micachu and the Shapes
• Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head
• Slaraffenland
• Slow Club
• Abe Vigoda
• Titus Andronicus
• Jack Oblivian and the Tennessee Tearjerkers
• Afterhours
• Hollywood Holt
• Pato Fu
• Belong
• Chairlift
• The Mae Shi
• Or, the Whale
• Max Tundra
• White Lies
• GZA with the Black Lips
• Explosions in the Sky
• Sleepy Sun
• Ringo Deathstarr
• Say Hi
• Monotonix
• The Shackeltons
• Takka Takka
• Those Darlins
• Dananananaykroyd
• Fionn O Lochlainn
• The Octopus Project
• Thao with the Get Down Stay Down
• Ponytail
• PJ Harvey and John Parish
• Woods
• Psychedelic Horsesh*t
• Deradoorian
• Phosphorescent
• Deer Tick
• Cursive
• Janelle Monae
• Roky Erickson with the Black Angels

I’m also bummed that I missed Flatstock. Biggest regret of all, though, is that I never bumped into Joe Gross. Shoulda made it to Flower Travellin’ Band. Maybe they’ll play in another 30 years.

UPDATE: After looking at Jake’s list, I can now add these:

• Mount St. Helens Vietnam Band
• The Week That Was
• Viva Voce