Credit: Photo by Todd V. Wolfson

Saustex

8:30pm, Saxon Pub

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.

This article appears in March 18 • 2016.

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Tim Stegall contributed to The Austin Chronicle 1991-1995, and was a staff writer 1995-1997. He returned as a contributor in 2013. He has also freelanced for publications ranging from Flipside to Alternative Press to Guitar World. He plays punk rock guitar and sings in the Hormones.