All South by Southwest goers pass the same phrase around as they mill about Downtown each night: “Who are you seeing today?”
More than a platitude, this exchanging of schedules usually results in at least one alteration, as us music lovers talk up the acts – international and otherwise – we’re most stoked to catch, live and in the flesh. As the 2025 music festival kicked off Monday, we shared the same enthusiasm. Here’s what we saw last night.
Aiko’s Perfect Pop Storm
Czech pop songstress Aiko made her U.S. debut at Rivian Park’s International Nights, accompanied by curly-headed drummer (and girlfriend) Kat Almagro and fiery blue-haired guitarist Dawe Gates. From the first note of cheeky opener “Everything is always about me,” audience members were undoubtedly entranced by the singer’s effortless confidence and unwavering gratitude. With lively dancing and high kicks, the Moscow-born singer’s punchy stage presence greatly surpassed Rivian Park’s stage. Concertgoers were met with back-to-back high-voltage beats, including hits “Nervous” and “Cleopatra.” Almagro’s deafening cymbal crashes, Aiko’s commanding belts, and whirlwind riffs from Gates created a perfect storm of electric synergy. Soon after, the guitarist jumped off the stage during “Lucky Streak” to shred in the center of the crowd as the 25-year-old singer belted “Be careful what you wish for/ You might get it, oh, you might get it.” The songstress closed her set with breakout track and Eurovision contender ”Pedestal,” softly crooning the first verse before breaking into the full-bodied rendition of the force finale. She hit the final beat with a pop star pose, which suited her well after the night’s nonstop dance party. – Miranda Garza
Adjua’s Attention-Grabbing Soul
Thirty years ago, one South by Southwest extreme dictated three songs per artist and onto the next. One colleague from Singapore notched 100+ acts on this mandate year before last. Decades later, where Monday soft-starts the festival’s music week – streets dead empty last night, sadly – one tune’s all ya get. Five minutes tops. Took four minutes less to be sold on this soulstress. Ascension curls, fab black John Lennon spectacles, black dress and Red Gretsch, the Cardiff queen sang a sole offering within a beatboxing hall of mirrors the showcase threw down at Red River pillar Elysium. At its large heart, Austin cedes its stages to aspirants round the round. Vibing visually like Valerie June, but casually sovereign like a young Erykah Badu, the Welsh-Ghanaian singer makes it count, a hint of new jack swing in her lock-in R&B. Way back in Nineties Austin, Catfish Station staked a Black mainstream west of the highway – on Sixth Street, no less – and Adjua would’ve fit right in among the likes of that aforementioned Dallas goddess. “I’m playing [Tuesday] at the Driskill,” she waved off. 9pm, yo. – Raoul Hernandez
Baby Said Shed Some Nerves
If SX Music Monday 2025 looked deserted, one had only to look inside the clubs – district mainstays Mohawk, Cheer Ups, Elysium, Swan Dive – to glimpse musicians playing to actual live music capitalists. South Asian House Soundvilla filled the ever-homey Flamingo Cantina at the heart of Sixth Street. Pro tip: The best showcases inhabit venues booking live original music decade after decade. Austin’s home of reggae teamed a whole new demographic to open music week, one as chill and welcoming as its usual chill idren. UK-based Punjabi/Italian siblings Veronica and Jess Pal strapped on lead guitar and bass, respectively, and thrummed dead away from the more contemporary traditional-isms of Carnatic crier Gayathri Krishnan earlier. Charismatic as any blooming 20- and 18-year-old rockers, respectively, they bounced and bumped but a bit overly so, obviously shaking off nerves, which undercut their SX opener. Singing between the sisters and drummer sounded badly out of sync, the guitars thin, and the songs more kennel than garage. Production covers most of that on Baby Said’s debut long-player, released last week. Someone check in on the Pals after a few afternoons of day parties and SX debauchery. Reputations got built on far less. – Raoul Hernandez
Gen and the Degenerates’ Muddied Topical Kiss Offs
The UK’s Gen and the Degenerates have their finger on the pulse – vocal fry, mutually assured destruction, and fast fashion are all addressed in their debut album ANTI-FUN PROPAGANDA. On stage at Palm Door’s British Music Embassy, the band’s emphatic playing and Gen’s confident crowd engagement energized their no-frills sound and post-punk message. Between the predictable rhythms and nearly rap-rock vocal delivery, though, something gets lost. “BIG HIT SINGLE” – their punchy, anthemic response to requests for a follow-up to their previous Spotify hit (“Girl God Gun”) – takes on a smirking, surrealist twinge that’s undeniably fun. Still, though I hate to side with a record label, sometimes there is something to be learned from your most popular song. Getting your finger on the pulse of your own sound can be the more difficult task. – Caroline Drew
Jo Hill’s Earnest Triumph
Early 2024 saw Jo Hill label-dropped, ditch-bound, and fresh out of confidence. One sun lap later, the English village songwriter has packed intimate jam gatherings across the UK, independently released her debut girlhood., and even inked the title on her arm. The diary-style folky pop LP stacks scenes, sentiments, and voice-memo entries championing female fortitude. Now crossing the Atlantic, the Cheddar native ran her first-ever SXSW stop Monday like a girl’s night host, invoking sing-alongs and cheerfully ordering crowd members to hug their neighbors. Although down a bandmate and bouzouki string, the multi-instrumentalist frontwoman leaned into an acoustic set still rich with her country-based, soul-laced vocal runs and ear-tickling harmonies by dexterous backing guitarist Kinga Hornik. The songwriter both nailed fail-safe album toppers like her Neil Young-esque “BIG BOYS CRY TOO” and braved a fresh first-time-live ode to her mom. While her behind-the-song talk meandered from the music, it also ran like an honest chat with a girlfriend who’s got your back. Sing-speaking a line from her Friday drop, “ZOOM OUT,” the songwriter underscored her mission: “’Cause damn you’re in a real deep ditch and I’m gonna pull you out.” – Amber Williams
Jurassic 5’s Soup Gets In and Out
Encoring his SXSW keynote Sunday, Jurassic 5 rapper Soup – aka Fullee Love, aka Zaakir, aka Courtenay Henderson from South Central Los Angeles – made his one official showcase feature Monday at Elysium, 11:50 to midnight. Emerging from a night’s beatboxing echo chamber, and in fact backed by an oral orchestra – a chorus of mouth gymnasts – the pioneering MC legitimized the zanier moments of the evening. Relatively speaking, obvs: he opened a cappella singing the theme to The Greatest American Hero. Where 10 minutes flat isn’t always enough to determine any act’s true worth, for a thought guru such as Soup, any more time on the clock couldn’t have concluded with his perfect onstage dematerialization, wherein suddenly you’re taking inventory about what just occurred. That’s analogous to the Left Coast rap war zone from which Jurassic 5 emerged. Sans the abject violence and gangsterisms of their contemporaries, the murderer’s row of rhymers slayed truly revolutionary. In snippets of J5 landmarks including trademark pairing “What’s Golden” and “Concrete Schoolyard,” Soup transcended. Like an Eighties-themed night at Elysium, the Jurassic 5 legend proved the karaoke walk-on GOAT. – Raoul Hernandez
Quiet Light Cuts Through the Noise
Donning tan cowboy boots and a simple white babydoll dress, Quiet Light was bathed in pink and purple hues on the slightly elevated platform at Cuatro Gato. She stood alone, bangs obscuring her eyes, nothing but a microphone stand and silver MacBook open on a table to her left. Amidst the closing of the cash drawer, low chatter, and incessant beeping in the kitchen, the artist’s synths flooded the room. Her harmonization on “You Know That I’ve Stayed” blended with a collage of laughter, spoken poetry, and dial tones, creating an abstract yet immersive soundscape. Each song was a careful culmination of acoustic guitar strums and unique synths. In between each track, her performance garners cheers and whispers of similarities to the Cranberries. Halfway through her 40-minute set, Quiet Light moved away from nebulous soundscapes, and her music became fully formed, with clear lyrics and structured arrangements of guitar, bass, and drums. She pushed her bangs back and finished with “Fresca,” looking outward and singing “You say I love you/ You say I love you/ But you don’t mean it.” Initially timid, she grew into the performance, her voice becoming clear and confident, beautifully contrasting with the hazy instrumentals. – Angelina Liu
This article appears in March 7 • 2025.
