Monday, March 23, 2009

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.

PhotobucketTypically 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

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Wolves in the Throne Room reminds me of this and this.

Yar!