Thursday Night SXSW Showcases

Photo by Todd V. Wolfson

Saustex

Every year, Jeff Smith injects a welcome dose of raunch and irreverent Texas humor into SXSW via his Saustex Media label's annual showcase. Hardly the haybales-and-handbags lunacy of his Hickoids' Eighties heyday, enough of the spirit remains to loosen the entire Festival's shoelaces for a spell. Memphis soul legend Timmy Thomas, freshly exhumed via sampling of his 1973 hit "Why Can't We Live Together" on Drake's massive worldwide smash "Hotline Bling," eases the night into a proper groove backed by the Overtown Soul Revue. Ex-Zeros/True Believer Javier Escovedo drops a dose of post-Johnny Thunders punk & roll on his recent Kicked Out of Eden disc. The party-time roots trash of New Orleans' Dash Rip Rock then motors into view, followed by industry-legend-cum-rockin'-beat-poet and Irishman BP Fallon. Baltimore's Western Star inject enough desperado swagger into Southern rock's ghost to suggest Black Oak Arkansas' life wasn't lived in vain.