Reuniting audiences on the second official day of SXSW Music certainly had plenty to chat about: the wave of dropouts from protesting acts, leading to plenty of schedule shuffling, and what about that Greg Abbott tweet?
As usual, the Chronicle music team traversed to events both official and unofficial, from a West Campus corner store to the new home of long-running presenters the British Music Embassy. Find 10 reviews from the team’s most memorable performances below, and stay tuned for our coverage throughout the week. For planning your own music week, check out the Chronicle’s “30 Breakout Music Acts to See in Austin,” as well as our listing of free and unofficial options.
Teezo Touchdown Scores at Future of Music Showcase
Teezo Touchdown first played “his favorite city in the state of Texas” during SXSW 2018. Where? On the corner of Sixth Street and San Jacinto, until cops shut him down for not holding a permit. Six years later, his official fest debut saw him headline the first day of Rolling Stone’s Future of Music showcase at the storied Moody Theater. The Beaumont native – a buzzy act at the supposed-dinosaur age of 31, co-signed by multiple rap stars – has applied that same street-show spontaneity to his music. Debut studio album How Do You Sleep at Night?, from which he pulled over half of his 45-minute set, features attempts at multiple genres. Hip-hop, disco, R&B, loud rock, pop-punk, dashes of Prince: He’s a master of none, but undeniable charisma and a penchant for crowd immersion made his one-man live act much more than an internet gimmick. Despite seats remaining largely empty throughout the night (Teezo returns to town in May at Emo’s, which holds less than half than the Moody Theater’s capacity), attendees packed the floor with energy for every unpolished croon and quirky dance move. Unconventional to his core, the nail-loving main-eventer even let fans pick his closing track (2020 cut “Social Cues”). After shouting out each opener, Teezo left the audience with a nugget to ruminate on: “Keep your eye on that guy dancing in the street. You never know the next time you’ll see him.” – Derek Udensi
Mina Okabe’s International Day Stage Reverie
”So, it rains a lot where I’m from – I’m from Copenhagen. The weather is bad all the time,” explained Mina Okabe, eliciting some laughs from the International Day Stage crowd, perhaps privy to its own fair share of mercurial weather. Backed by somber keys, the Danish-Japanese indie pop artist poured out a slower rendition of “Rain” while sitting on a seafoam-colored stool. Okabe started her seven-song U.S. debut at 2:06pm, after a meticulous soundcheck. The London-born traveler, who has lived in New York and Manila, boasted billowy vocals that floated above simple instrumental arrangements. Amid lyrical diary entries, the songwriter glazed her breakout single “Every Second” with adlibs and reverbed strums. Skittering percussion from a drum machine supplemented the feverish guitars in bossa nova-imbued tracks “Maybe One Day” and “Talk To Me.” After a gentle breeze scattered fallen leaves around the venue, the now-Copenhagen-based musician swayed along to temperate closer “Walk Away” before taking a bow, concluding a necessary 29-minute escape from the festival chaos. – Angela Lim
Kathleen Edwards and Arny Margret’s Play in Contrasts
Opening up the inside of Empire Control Room for High Road Touring’s stacked Tuesday night SXSW showcase, exceptional songwriters Kathleen Edwards and Arny Margret provided a study in contrasts. Edwards, who famously stepped away from music following the success of 2012’s Voyageur, began bitingly – singing, “Everyone’s a critic, and they can fucking suck it,” before settling into “Glenfern” from 2020 comeback Total Freedom. “This is terrifying,” the Canadian songwriter (now living in Florida) allowed as she offered up new songs to the packed room. Nerves were countered by the confidence of her voice. “I played this song 23 years ago at SXSW,” she noted before “Six O’Clock News” and a highlight “Hard on Everyone,” before welcoming Lauren Morrow to harmonize a heartbreakingly tender take on John Prine’s “Hello In There.”
If Edwards’ music seemed to be boldly bolstering herself against the world, Margret absorbed herself into it. A sparser, but no less rapt crowd welcomed the young Icelandic songwriter for a short set that hung on her fingerpicked guitar and her voice’s emotive tremble and sigh. “I don’t really talk much,” she acknowledged with an accent that otherwise only surfaced in a single Icelandic-language song. Her understated approach floated through the title tracks of last year’s Dinner Alone and 2022’s Intertwined, and a stunning, subtle turn of John Hartford’s “In Tall Buildings.” With her eyes closed and head tucked into her guitar, Margret punctuated her vivid vignettes with a sense of deep reflection, softly falling into closer “They Only Talk About the Weather.” The audience had to beckon her to finally announce her name onstage, but it’s not likely to be forgotten. – Doug Freeman
Merce Lemon’s Visiting Cast of Harmonies
The downcast, sturdy voice of Merce Lemon sounded remarkably great through the corner store PA. Maybe that shouldn’t come as a surprise, since Friendly Rio Market’s walls are now fully lined with past players’ concert tees. The Pittsburgh singer-songwriter’s warm fivepiece leaned smoother and twangier than her sometimes janglier recordings for a set of mostly new tracks (aside from 2020 select “Chili Packet”). After starting in with shared vox from drummer Pat Coyle, the show evolved into a who’s-who of visiting writers in the soft-but-steely-eyed indie folk/rock realm. Squirrel Flower’s Ella Williams, who made headlines last week for kicking off a wave of artists dropping out of official SXSW participation, joined for one track. Then hemlock’s Carolina Chauffe – a remote member of Austin’s Little Mazarn who co-organized the “Smash by Smash West”-affiliated show with Virginia Creeper – came up for another. Last in the line of bespoke friend-on-friend harmonizations, Lemon called lineup mate Lily Seabird up from her seat on the ground in the front row. After, back to five, the band wrapped with traded guitar and pedal steel solos on a new track. On the way out, drummer Coyle told my inquiring friends that it’s called “Backyard Lover.” – Rachel Rascoe
Virginia Creeper’s Assorted Slowcore Flavors
I’ve been stuck here for a couple sets now, staring at the Korean Oreo section of West Campus’ Friendly Rio Market. The sludgy, fuzzy, rustic rock band on the other side of the cookie rack is churning, burning, heaving – the songs aren’t slow so much as they’re hazy, sun-logged. My eyes glaze over each weird-to-me flavor (cinnamon bun, strawberry cream, vanilla mousse).
Austin act Virginia Creeper is maybe like an oreo: the inner filling of the project has, certainly, always been the same. Since 2019, singer-songwriter Genevieve Poist has been melding her placid, blue-lake voice with a poet’s ear for the banal glories of Southern living – staying up all night worrying about salvation (“Rotten Egg”) and dying at three o’ clock in the afternoon (“Wet Grass”) – but the outer shell those musings have taken has evolved tremendously, from ethereal acoustic daydreams with a sort of countrified lilt to its current form of convenience-store-rattling Marshall-stack slowcore. The drummer, Kyle Dugger (who is also doing sound), has a black-and-white cow print kit. Poist tells us we can thank him by buying him milk. – Julian Towers
Veeze Achieves Unhurried All-Star Status
If you’re not paying attention to what he’s saying, Veeze exudes a potentially off-putting nonchalance. Almost four years passed between 2019 mixtape Navy Wavy and last year’s Ganger, yet the Detroit MC continues on an upward trajectory that pushed him out of the underground and into the Moody Theater for day one of Rolling Stone’s Future of Music showcase. There’s the slurry Detroit rap of artists like Babyface Ray, and then there’s the intentional, unhurried nature of the 29-year-old. He’s deceptively nimble with his flows and punchlines: Who even thinks of saying “cup dark like the hair dye on Carlos Boozer”? General admission fans seemed to dwarf badgeholders in attendance as fans on the floor, rapping along to “Yachty Interlude,” drowned out the performer. Veeze ended his set with a well-received hat trick of his current Spotify toppers: “Get Lucki,” “GOMD,” and the more fast-paced “Not a Drill.” On the third, Veeze likens himself to NBA Hall of Famer Kobe Bryant, but he’s perhaps more like six-time NBA All-Star DeMar DeRozan than he realizes: refreshingly singular in style, no matter what’s happening around him. – Derek Udensi
Jazzbois Import Fiery Riffs From Budapest
It’s a very good sign when the jazz trio’s keyboardist is rocking a Prophet ’08. Modeled after Dave Smith’s iconic Eighties workhorse that powered “Thriller,” the wood-paneled polysynth was the first of many indications that Budapest’s Jazzbois were bringing a sound all their own to the Shangri-La patio. Aforementioned keyboardist Bencze Molnár wore a crisp Antone’s Records hat, and when he wasn’t busy tweaking the filter to squeal out a G-funk lead, his fast fingers channeled the electro-funk ghost of Herbie Hancock. Meanwhile, Viktor Sági oscillated between thumb slaps and Thundercat fretboard heroics, proving that he’s probably the best bass player you’ll see all week. (Bootsy Collins be damned.) Drummer Tamás Czirják served as the combo’s slacker backbone, meandering through a blazed-out solo with just the right amount of J Dilla swing. It was melting-pot jazz of the highest form – shifting from frenetic prog rock riff battles to blunted trip-hop tempos – and would fit right in at Wednesday’s Jazz Re:freshed showcase. The set was extra impressive given that it took place in one of those perfectly-unlikely official SXSW venues where the crowd ends up being mostly badgeless bystanders who happened to stumble onto some of the festival’s most masterful musicians. They play one more official show this week at the International Stage on Thursday at 4pm. – Dan Gentile
Mong Tong Sibs Loop Lethally at Taiwan Beats
Like Michelle Yeoh gangster indelible The Brothers Sun on Netflix, which begins in Taipei, the Taiwanese siblings of Mong Tong slay through two-part prowess. Sandwiched between Lombok rapper Majin (Taiwanese/German Indonesian Jo-Ann Ruff) and Taipei native Chih Siou’s alt-pop androgyny, lean sonic conjurers Hom Yu and Jiun Chi looped improvisational soundscaping into a Southeast Asian narrative of organic mystery and occultism. Deprogrammed metal extremists, the guitar-wielding vintage keys and percussion pad beatmasters tied trademark red bandanas over the eyes and set off across 40 transportive minutes. As Chi summoned gauzy vistas from his six-string, Yu attacked his basslines: fast, choppy, leveling. Sampling flutes, moans, and quadruple drumsticks, Mong Tong stacked multilayer audio into a psychedelic percolation, evoking Can one moment and Kraftwerk the next. Self-proclaimed documentarians of Taipei’s cultural specters, they gelled best when each manned his respective ax, Chi’s spidery lines and wah pedal groove crackling atop Yu’s cardiac plucks and siren bleat. Half a dozen LPs logged since 2017, including the skittering Epigraphy just last week, Mong Tong pulses binary in recordings, but live, they’re as lethal as Brothers Sun breakout Justin Chien. – Raoul Hernandez
Nottingham’s Divorce Hook the New British Music Embassy
The British Music Embassy has long been a reliable source for future breakouts playing their first shows on American soil. It’s where I first saw Black Midi, Wet Leg, Fontaines D.C., Idles, and even – way back in 2009 – Bring Me the Horizon. As I researched this year’s roster, a Nottingham quartet with a woeful name stood out with beautiful, broken songs from the heart that at times resembled grunge and, in other moments, alt-country. The BME headquarters has changed: From its historic location of Latitude 30, to its recent outpost at Cedar Street Courtyard, it’s now staged at “the Downright,” which is the Sheraton Hotel mid-rebranding. When I got in, Sub Pop-signed Aussie rockers Girl and Girl were demonstrating their wild charisma – a tough act to follow, especially with mid-tempo songs about “your life falling apart” – but Divorce’s well-written material uplifted the scrappy two-singer group. Opening pair “Sex & the Millennium Bridge” and “Birds,” both from November’s Heady Metal EP, started the bleeding, before two-day-old single “Gears,” with its lost-in-your-head verses and big grunge hook, confirmed a bulletproof discography … even if it only consists of 11 songs. As a cool wind blew in during closer “Checking Out,” I looked around to see a woman with tears in her eyes and a hand over her heart singing the hook, “I should learn to love myself without a reason or a doubt/ He’s always coming in as I’m checking out” – a suitable reaction to the aching songs of dual vocalists Felix Mackenzie-Barrow and Tiger Cohen-Towell. – Kevin Curtin
This article appears in March 8 • 2024.
