SXSW: Running the Numbers
Usually, I rely on J to keep track of these things. I am easily distracted by promises of trampoline parks and squidgirls to keep track of meddlesome statistics. I know that J will take care of the numbers in the same way that I know J will take care of the photos. I don't think that I've snapped a picture for the purpose of documenting an event since 2004.
Because I have not checked J's notes, I do not know the exact number of bands that we saw at SXSW, but I estimate that it falls somewhere between sixty and seventy. We were not able to exceed last year's record of 18 bands in a single day, but we managed to see more than a dozen bands on every day of the music festival. A few bands were so good that we saw them twice: Asteroids Galaxy Tour, Intimate Stranger, Dirty Epics. Likewise, there were bands that we had seen before that we chose to see again: Metric, Polly Mackey and the Pleasure Principle, The Coathangers, and Ume. We were mistaken for a band twice, though unlike last year we were not offered any gigs. Perhaps this year we looked like a less talented band. I had my picture snapped either because someone liked my outfit or because they thought I might be somebody famous seven times. I was randomly kissed by one girl I did not know. Random kissing by unknown girls is down 50% from last year. A Mexican Lolitapunk, Descartes y Kant, band threw glitter at us and then smeared each other with cake.
Absurdly young musicians continue to be the order of the day. Polly Mackey is now presumably 17, which makes it a little ludicrous when she has the rest of the band take a break and drink some beer while she sings one of her "old songs." I assume that she has been writing music since she was a zygote. New Zealand screamers, Bang Bang Eche, looked as if not a single one of them was old enough to buy a pack of cigarettes. I assume that one day they will breed with the members of the Coathangers and spawn a race of tiny punk rockers. The wee blonde fairy creature that fronts Asteroids Galaxy Tour can't be more than twenty years old -- alternately, she may be Bjork, in which case she is ageless.
Foreign bands were well-represented on our band list. We saw a lot of international showcases. Tone, a trip-hoppy duo that sounds almost exactly like Lamb, hails from Copenhagen, as does Asteroids Galaxy Tour. Intimate Stranger traveled all the way from Chile. The Dirty Epics are Irish. We saw an indie band from Beijing and a metal band from Hong Kong and a very large number of Spanish bands that we listened to while standing in line for free paella. We saw a Siberian band named after the Moomin Trolls that had once been in the Eurovision Song Contest -- they made the most dreadful Russian restaurant music. Capsula may also have been from Chile, but they also could have been from Argentina. Viva City was also a band of indeterminate foreign origin, with a guitarist who looked like a stray Ramone and a singer who looked like Chrissie Hynde The Kissimmee Trail is from Norway, as is the inexplicable samba band that caused us to flee the venue.
American bands acquitted themselves with honor. I enjoyed The Like, a trio of sweet, inoffensive girls who appeal to people who also enjoy Metric. Zlam Dunk sang songs about Labyrinth and (the late, great) Patrick Swayze, and Top Gun with enormous enthusiasm. I do not know where Spleen United came from, but they sounded like Underworld and that made me happy. Electric Valentine was the most radio-ready thing I'd heard at SXSW, with a front woman that looked like Lisa Cuddy from House. The Death Set was so punk rock that the lead singer climbed up on top of the speaker stack and nearly tore the sprinkler pipes down.
J says that SXSW is like the father who just caught his kid smoking a cigarette: "You like concerts, eh? Now smoke the whole pack!" I have smoked a whole pack of concerts, My Imaginary Readers. I think I may have a bit of a cough.
Because I have not checked J's notes, I do not know the exact number of bands that we saw at SXSW, but I estimate that it falls somewhere between sixty and seventy. We were not able to exceed last year's record of 18 bands in a single day, but we managed to see more than a dozen bands on every day of the music festival. A few bands were so good that we saw them twice: Asteroids Galaxy Tour, Intimate Stranger, Dirty Epics. Likewise, there were bands that we had seen before that we chose to see again: Metric, Polly Mackey and the Pleasure Principle, The Coathangers, and Ume. We were mistaken for a band twice, though unlike last year we were not offered any gigs. Perhaps this year we looked like a less talented band. I had my picture snapped either because someone liked my outfit or because they thought I might be somebody famous seven times. I was randomly kissed by one girl I did not know. Random kissing by unknown girls is down 50% from last year. A Mexican Lolitapunk, Descartes y Kant, band threw glitter at us and then smeared each other with cake.
Absurdly young musicians continue to be the order of the day. Polly Mackey is now presumably 17, which makes it a little ludicrous when she has the rest of the band take a break and drink some beer while she sings one of her "old songs." I assume that she has been writing music since she was a zygote. New Zealand screamers, Bang Bang Eche, looked as if not a single one of them was old enough to buy a pack of cigarettes. I assume that one day they will breed with the members of the Coathangers and spawn a race of tiny punk rockers. The wee blonde fairy creature that fronts Asteroids Galaxy Tour can't be more than twenty years old -- alternately, she may be Bjork, in which case she is ageless.
Foreign bands were well-represented on our band list. We saw a lot of international showcases. Tone, a trip-hoppy duo that sounds almost exactly like Lamb, hails from Copenhagen, as does Asteroids Galaxy Tour. Intimate Stranger traveled all the way from Chile. The Dirty Epics are Irish. We saw an indie band from Beijing and a metal band from Hong Kong and a very large number of Spanish bands that we listened to while standing in line for free paella. We saw a Siberian band named after the Moomin Trolls that had once been in the Eurovision Song Contest -- they made the most dreadful Russian restaurant music. Capsula may also have been from Chile, but they also could have been from Argentina. Viva City was also a band of indeterminate foreign origin, with a guitarist who looked like a stray Ramone and a singer who looked like Chrissie Hynde The Kissimmee Trail is from Norway, as is the inexplicable samba band that caused us to flee the venue.
American bands acquitted themselves with honor. I enjoyed The Like, a trio of sweet, inoffensive girls who appeal to people who also enjoy Metric. Zlam Dunk sang songs about Labyrinth and (the late, great) Patrick Swayze, and Top Gun with enormous enthusiasm. I do not know where Spleen United came from, but they sounded like Underworld and that made me happy. Electric Valentine was the most radio-ready thing I'd heard at SXSW, with a front woman that looked like Lisa Cuddy from House. The Death Set was so punk rock that the lead singer climbed up on top of the speaker stack and nearly tore the sprinkler pipes down.
J says that SXSW is like the father who just caught his kid smoking a cigarette: "You like concerts, eh? Now smoke the whole pack!" I have smoked a whole pack of concerts, My Imaginary Readers. I think I may have a bit of a cough.