In Austin, Texas for this year’s South By South West music conference, Paul Melbourne is documenting all the action for Clash. Read on for day one’s exploits…
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As we get up and head in to town today we’re continuing the hunt for the freebies and head down to the Spanish Music showcase. There weren’t any expectations really for Spanish Rock but free paella, gazpacho and sangria did the trick, and a nice surprise were Guadelupe Plata, whilst we could understand none of their lyrics it sounded good and last tune where they got their wooden sticks out really stood out with their accessible dirty blues sound.
As I said yesterday, there’s a lot of love for We Were Promised Jetpacks so we head over to the Stage on 6th for them, great as always and they’re keeping it interesting for themselves by mixing the set up a bit, stand out tracks were definitely ‘Sore Thumb’ and ‘Pear Tree’ from their new album ‘In the Pit of The Stomach’. If we were feeling rough earlier then ‘Jetpacks have sorted us out and we’re back in the game! It’s then down the road to Clash’s own party in conjunction with Ben Sherman. We missed Breton unfortunately but manage to catch Slow Club, their extended live line up works really well in showcasing tunes from new album ‘Paradise’.When Clash thrown a partuy they do it in style and the free bars gets suitably rinsed! Clock Opera finish things off here with their eclectic synthy warblings, winning over the Austin crowd.
The Auditorium Shores outdoor stage is next, this stage is free to all so is packed out for American favourite, M. Ward. ‘Country disco’, is that a genre?! Well anyway that’;s what he sounds like. Then The Shins are up, and they were good, but they’re one of those bands that manage to be really really good yet really really boring at the same time!
We head back in to town and over to Stubbs, one of the bigger venues if the festival with its outdoor stage. After bumping in to half of Slow Club, whilst they head down the road for show two of loads this week we stick here to watch Girls. Christopher Owens is obviously atroubled soul, like a Californian Evan Dando, but with all his troubles he writes great sings and with a line up including three Gospel singers they sound great. After Girls it’s England’s own Kaiser Chiefs. They do get some stick but to be honest they write good pop songs and they don’t half put on a good show, a pleasant surprise for the day. Followed up by Temper Trap, who are good but seem quite boring after Girls and Kaiser Chiefs.
Last show of the day is Future of the Left again down the road at Swan Dive. Finally coming on at 1.30am they get everybody going mad for it, even after a few technical difficulties with Andy Falkous not seeming a happy chappy. Don’t worry about it mate it’s silly o clock and everybody is loving it. After making a few more local friends it’s time to get a cab…
Visit Clash’s SXSW 2012 hub for more reviews, galleries and antics.