So, Sunday morning has come, and there’s little left to do but snip off your wrist band, try to scrub out all those ink stamps and marker pen blotches off the back of your hand, and get back to a South-by-free life for a year.
Everyone will have their own memories of music at SXSW 2007 … like furious Japanese pop muppets The 50 Kaitenz bringing their mop-top stomp to a day party in a barnyard (complete with goat) … Jello Biafra condemning the administration with a swift “seig howdy!” as the crowd sucks down crawdads … Schoolgirl ska-sters Oreskaband showing their seniors how it’s done … the anonymous hardcore crew that set up amps on the town lake foot bridge at 2am and gathering a crowd hundreds strong … standing unsuccesfully in the round-the-block cue for Bob Mould at Buffalo Billiards, and walking straight in on him accidentally the next day at Emo’s annex … Andrew WK explaining love to the crowd … Kid Beyond blowing minds … Michael Showalter admitting he hides his AOR collection under cool band names on his iPod … Athens, GA., funk-soul-glam-gospellers Dark Meat trying to cram all 18 members on the same stage … Mike of Riverboat Gamblers giving up on the stage and stalking through the crowd in a surprise late night set at Red 7 … Experimental noiseniks Gorch Fock winning over baffled drinkers with one of the last sets of the festival … Bowling For Soup playing ‘spot the camera’ with the people from DirecTV at ACC … psychofolkabilly crew Asakusa Jintaproving that, when it comes to audience participation, language is no barrier …
This article appears in March 16 • 2007.
