photo by Bridget McQuillan
words by Jeremy Buckley, Michael Todd and Sean McCarthy | photos by Bridget McQuillan, Chevy Anderson, Chris Dinan and Michael Todd
No hyperbole: Sixth Street in Austin, Texas, on Friday night was populated with more DSLR cameras than any other place in the world, save perhaps for where they were first made.
South by Southwest is a gluttonous mess of journalists, musicians, gear, music fans — casual and devoted; the type who say "Iron and Wine is one guy? What about the Wine?" and the type who request songs from his first album years ago.
Among the crowded masses, Hear Nebraska's crew of six used their cameras, recorders and notepads to capture their Friday at SXSW. Here we've assembled the whole bunch of photos, reviews and a video interview from Nebraska-born and -raised Josh Rouse, who says his newest album could fit well with the Ogallala KOGA radio station mix.
Along with our coverage, we're posting photos from Nebraska's even larger cadre of fans and musicians further below, who shared their festival via the #nesxsw hashtag.
video
photos/reviews
Alt-J, Austra, BOY, Dent May, Eli Mardock, The Flaming Lips, Gregory Alan Isakov, Half Moon Run, Indians, Ivan and Alyosha, Jim James, Kendrick Lamar, Lucius, Mitzi, Pallbearer, RAC, Richard Thompson, Savages, The Staves, Steve Earle, The Thermals, Toro y Moi
Josh Rouse
interview by Michael Todd
Josh Rouse's Nebraska Roots from Hear Nebraska on Vimeo.
Alt-J
photo by Chevy Anderson
Austra
photos by Chevy Anderson
BOY
words by Jeremy Buckley | photos by Bridget McQuillan
My favorite set of SXSW was a band from Hamburg, Germany, called BOY. The sound system was not cooperating at the club they played at so they took the show to the front patio at 8th and Congress, which is a rather busy intersection. It's maybe 10 or 11 p.m. and the three-piece act with two soft-spoken female singers commanded the quiet attention of maybe 80 people. Gorgeous.
Dent May
words and photo by Michael Todd
If this show were a telegram — or a tweet, which it was — the message would read, "Found: Dent May. Missing: His magnificent ukulele."
Way out past the interstate (believe me, "way out" applies in Austin even though this show was less than a mile from the SXSW epicenter), I found Dent May in Hotel Vegas. The venue is one of the dozens of converted buildings that host music in March, though this old coffeehouse keeps it up throughout the year.
What I didn't find at the hotel, though, was Dent's magnificent ukulele. His clever lyrics about college, rent money and the like were instead supported by an electric backing, which for fans of the cuter and more eccentric instrumentations like me, was a bit of a downer. Still, with apparent friends from Mississippi up front and singing almost every word, the party Dent's dorky outfit built held up.
Eli Mardock
photos by Bridget McQuillan
at Big Bang
at Uncorked
Eli Mardock can write great songs. What Eli Mardock can't always do, though, is put on a great show, though that's been happening fewer times lately.
His concert at Uncorked proved that he and the band are finding their sure footing, fittingly so right now as the Uncorked show's coordinator — Paper Garden Records — will be releasing Mardock's album in April.
The difference a year can make. Last year at the same venue, Mardock and the band took some time to work up momentum. This time around, they played wonderfully through material from the upcoming record and his recent EPs.
The Flaming Lips
words by Sean McCarthy
If Thursday was all about finding the Plan B to shows you couldn't get into without a badge or waiting in line, Friday was all about playing catch up. There was at least one show that was virtually impossible to be refused admittance to: the free Flaming Lips show at the outdoor Auditorium Shores stage.
The result of the Flaming Lips' set depends solely on who you asked. Choosing to debut an entire album that has yet to be released to a crowd of well over 10,000 sort of cements the tradition of the "Keep Austin Weird" ethos. However, the pausing between songs to readjust everything from instruments to props was an absolute momentum-killer. The new album, The Terror, may be a great headphone experiment, but in its live setting, the effects went from boring (Coyne spent most of the set cradling a baby doll attached to pulsating electrical tubes) to borderline offensive (he invited Phantogram's Sarah Barthel onstage, but with the caveat that she sit down while Coyne clutched her hair).
The band seemed to lose track of time once The Terror was finished. Coyne stated that as a reward for the audience's patience (the Terror performance bled a lot of attendees out), they would perform Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots in its entirety. But four songs into the album, they apparently realized they were running short on time, so they brought back Jim James to the stage (after repeatedly teasing the audience that Justin Timberlake would be singing backup) to sing "Do You Realize??" After James' set earlier, there were no objections.
Gregory Alan Isakov
photos by Bridget McQuillan
Half Moon Run
words and photos by Michael Todd
Sometimes the numerous hitches bring a band down at SXSW. Other times, they adapt on the fly and perform even better because of them. Half Moon Run chose to take the latter route at St. David's, which I can easily name as the best venue among hundreds at the festival (quiet crowds, great music, inexpensive, good food).
I saw just two shows at St. David's, but with last year's concerts in mind as well, the hitch that Half Moon Run ran into was the only one this venue presented any band. And it wasn't too terrible: Their set would be cut a little short to keep the night on schedule. While multi-instrumentalist Devon Portielje grimaced when he heard the news, the Canadian indie-folk-pop group played their hearts out.
Indians
photos by Bridget McQuillan
Ivan and Alyosha
photos by Bridget McQuillan
Jim James
words by Sean McCarthy
At the Flaming Lips show, opener Jim James proved why My Morning Jacket remains one of the best live bands in rock as his vocals were so crisp, they were almost indistinguishable from his recorded output. At the same time, James had enough moments of jam-band spontaneity to satisfy longtime fans.
Kendrick Lamar
photos by Chris Dinan
Lucius
photos by Michael Todd
Mitzi
photos by Chevy Anderson
Pallbearer
words by Sean McCarthy
My day started with Brooklyn Vegan's free showcase at The Jr. (former Emo's location) with Arkansas-based doom metal band Pallbearer. Pallbearer's type of metal doesn't bode well for moshing as its pacing is more like a steamroller than a jackhammer.
RAC
photos by Bridget McQuillan
Richard Thompson
photos by Michael Todd
Savages
photo by Chevy Anderson
The Staves
photos by Bridget McQuillan
Steve Earle
photo by Michael Todd
The Thermals
words by Sean McCarthy
Because of a late start with the main stage bands at The Main, The Thermals were on stage the same time as Pallbearer, so I ended up catching only The Thermals' last two songs. Still, it was a sweaty mess in the best possible sense.
The glaring sunlight made the band's set all the more powerful as fans crowded the front of the stage to either revel in the band's nervy energy or to avoid the intense rays.
Toro y Moi
photos by Chevy Anderson
#NESXSW photos
Our SXSW 2013 team is composed of managing editor Michael Todd, intern Chevy Anderson, contributors Bridget McQuillan, Chris Dinan, Jeremy Buckley and Sean McCarthy. Reach them all through Michael at michaeltodd@hearnebraska.org.