HULLABALOO // SXSW Roundup!
Post by Misha
A little essay about my experience at SXSW and the importance of physical spaces to share music – plus tunes from a few of my favorite acts from the weekend. (Cover image courtesy of my favorite bathroom stall in Austin.)
I went to SXSW for the first time this year. I didn’t quite know what to expect. Part of me felt foolish for buying into what I had heard widely decried by the music community as a corporatized farce masquerading as a music festival. But I had a free place to stay and a few days off work and a longstanding weakness for impromptu vacations, so late one night after a couple beers I bought my ticket to Austin.
The thing about Austin is, with or without a major international music event going on, it would be hard not to have a good time there as a music fan. The place breathes and bleeds twang, distortion, thump, and bass lines. Every bar in town has a stage for live music, if not two (indoor / outdoor, because why not). The goddamn donut shop has a stage.
But the infusion of SXSW into that space produces something approaching magic. I’ve never been anywhere with so many people converging to love something so wholeheartedly together. It was electric. Every street was lined with beat up tour vans of bands making the SXSW pilgrimage for the first or tenth time. I heard music in crowded bars, windy parking lots, and, one night, in a quiet church.
I DM’d internet friends and we said hello a little awkwardly for the first time in between sets at the Father Daughter showcase. They introduced me to their friends. The next day I caught a ride with them out to an end-of-SXSW party on a big property outside of the city. On the way we stopped at the state park and went swimming in the river. After running this blog so long in isolation – just myself behind a computer screen, never being sure whether my words reach anyone, connect to anyone – I’ll never get over how cool it feels to make new friends because of it.
I thought a lot while I was there about all the tweets and articles and hot takes that had told me not to bother with SXSW. And you know, I get cynicism, I really do, but must we always?
Once or twice I caught the aggressive neon green of the Uber Eats stage signage in my periphery. Got handed a Tito’s vodka beer cozy while wandering around 6th Street. Heard an acoustic set floating out from under a Citi Bank tent. The hyper-capitalistic, algorithm-driven, bloodthirsty corporate sharks that everyone complains about are there, sure. Such is the world.
But so are a lot of small labels, blogs, magazines, and folks who care about music working really hard to share their passion with others. Perhaps for some of them it is the one time out of the whole year that they can do this in a physical space – be a part of sharing music with others and actually see the looks on faces as they hear a great song for the first time.
Isn’t the world sad and lonely enough without taking the few things that are still ok and finding reasons why we can’t have them?
We need spaces – real, physical spaces in the world – where we can meet each other face to face and remember that connection is possible. That we love the same things. Isn’t it worth having to skirt around a few sponsored stages to get to be in a space like that? Isn’t it worth choosing community over aloofness, inspiration over bitterness? To give yourself the small, totally essential joy of belonging somewhere?
Also! Wasn’t able to find links for their music online, but two other faves were Dropper and Love You Later. You should be following them. They’re great. Like wow.