Seattlest Arrives at SXSW
Seattlest is in Austinist territory for the next few days, experiencing the glorious clusterfuck known as South by Southwest. After debating coming down for the techier Interactive segment, we narrowed our itinerary to just the music portion of this huge annual media-centric event. There's no Seattle parallel to this, so we'll be sharing our thoughts on the music, the scene, and of course the food we're experiencing. Not to worry, we'll try to keep things on the brief side.
Wednesday is a bit of a transitional day, with a few remaining straggling 'net nerds around town while the music crowd rushed in. Seattlest was part of that throng, and while we missed all of the day parties, we still managed to see (and hear) plenty.
While walking to pick up our wristband, we passed by Bell's performance, which we would have loved to catch despite having just seen them perform. After wading through the maze and standing in line, we grabbed a bite to eat at Stubb's while listening to Ladyhawke from across the street (our brisket sandwich was delightful).
Our first proper show was catching the final moments of Michna at the Ghostly showcase. It was packed, but the performance sounded great, although the visuals were a waste to those of us in the back. Next was Holly Golightly and the Brokeoffs. We aren't usually fans of the more countrified side of the music spectrum, but this group won us over with songs about Satan, domestic violence, and escalators.
We then made our way over to see Peter, Bjorn and John, which was the first dud of the festival. They started 25 minutes late due to technical difficulties with their "IKEA samplers," then proceeded to start their set with new material. After all the waiting we just wanted "the hits" and left midway through the set, disappointed.
That was thankfully turned around by the Australian duo An Horse. We've had their album for a few weeks and love it, so this was the first must-see act of the festival for us. The male/female vocal interplay reminded our partner in crime of Seattlest fave Rainer Maria, which we understand, but this was more fun than angsty. This is a band you'd want to eat breakfast tacos with, as they joked about how crowds make them worry about zombie invasion, endearing themselves to us even further.
As delightful as An Horse was, we left partway through their set to catch Echo and the Bunnymen. As expected, there was a long line outside of the venue a half hour before their set, but patience paid off, and we got inside 45 minutes later, despite repeated warnings that it might not happen. In short, we hope we rock that hard when we're fifty. For many, this show was the highlight of the day, and you could see it on their smiling faces. For us, this was more about seeing them because the opportunity was there, and we were just as happy to have made that decision. With all of the young scrappy bands here at SXSW, it's good to balance that out with some rock veterans that can still hold their own, and aren't just cashing in. At the end of their set, it was time to call it a night.
If you want to keep up with all of our pics, we'll be posting them here.
