Two days into SXSW and my legs are already jelly. Here’s a wrap-up of some of the best stuff I saw on Monday and Tuesday in Austin.
After flying into Austin from LA on Monday, I kicked things off with a special acoustic set from New York indie rock trio Sunflower Bean at Prohibition Creamery — a dope little bar with ice cream. The open bar got me pretty good, but not as good as hearing the band play stripped-down versions of songs from their new album Twentytwo in Blue, which drops next week. I got to chat a little bit with Julia and Nick from the band and they were really cool, and they said they haven’t really played many acoustic sets before so it was a pretty special thing.
Next I went out to the SoundCloud showcase at Native Hostel. There I caught Nilufer Yanya, who I first heard on NPR’s 100 Can’t Miss SXSW playlist when doing research for the festival. Her sax player rocks and Yanya has quite a unique voice.
Los Angeles-based electro-pop producer and singer Elohim played her only SXSW set at the SoundCloud event and had the crowd turning up pretty good. Her song “Sensations” is such a fun jam.
After enjoying that open bar for a bit I caught BRONCHO at 1 AM at Hotel Vegas for Strange Brew VII and it was a nice hazy rockin’ way to close out Monday night.
Because of all the free drinks, I got a later start Tuesday than I would’ve liked. I did however make it back downtown in time to see one of my can’t miss acts of the week, Montreal indie pop act Men I Trust. It was a perfect soothing and grooving set to help ease me out of my hangover. Singer Emmanuelle Proulx has this very Sia-like rasp to her voice that really rocks.
Louisville garage rock band White Reaper brought the house down at Scoot Inn for C3’s party. The crowd turned into a mosh pretty quickly and beer cans went flying in every direction. Their keyboard player always looks like he’s living his best life, and at one point he took a microphone into the crowd and had the fans singing along.
One of my favorite moments so far was catching Blackillac at Empire Garage. The Austin rap duo is comprised of Zeale and Phranchyze and have been working on new music produced by Austin legend Gary Clark Jr. Though Clark wasn’t in town, the duo brought the house down with their high-energy set. I love hip-hop but am often underwhelmed by live shows because they rely on vocal tracks too much — not Blackillac. They rapped every bar and had the crowd yelling “ooh” at how savage some of them were.
I closed out my Tuesday night with a set from Minnesota indie pop band Now, Now at Elysium, who had a pretty good singalong going for their single “S.G.L.” — a nice catchy banger of a tune. At the end of their set I was pretty beat and called it a night.
Lots more great music to catch Wednesday and the rest of the week in Austin!
Photos by Maggie Boyd.
