Controversy’s SXSW 2009 Experience

Every year, throngs (not to be confused with the subject of one infamous Sisqo megahit) of music appreciators converge in Austin, TX, the alleged Music Capital of the World. Every year, Austin, TX is made a little more uncomfortable by the ever-expanding group that visits. And yet, every year, some relatively unknown musical act puts on such a show that catapults them to a status that so greatly dwarfs their previous status that even more artists are inclined to sell whatever soul necessary to partake, multiple times over, if possible.

Okay, I’ll admit that my strategy for South by Southwest may seem flawed. I went to the hip-hop shows. Before any rotting vegetable is thrown, it should be understood that a number of popular hip-hop acts have come through in recent years and some of the aforementioned breakout stars etched their way into the limelight per SXSW. Add to that the fact that everyone comes to see the indie bands, making the hip-hop shows significantly less crowded and therefore much more enjoyable, and I stand by my strategy (which differed from years past, where I would just try and see bands that I was told were cool or look for really weird stuff. I only did a little of that this time.).

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Wednesday night was, for all intents and purposes, not the peak of SXSW, but the show I went to shed some light on some acts that I had recently become interested in. U-N-I are an underground hip-hop group, at the moment. Unfortunately, I walked into the Wednesday night show as they were performing. I say it’s unfortunate because they were one of the best acts I heard all weekend. Their energy was really high. Their lyricism came through beautifully, thanks to this being one of the only acts that had enough sense to yell at the sound dude to turn their mics up over the music that normally covers everyone else up. They had a lot of style and confidence, engaged the audience, and seemed generally like they were excited to be there and like they were supposed to be there. The crowd was very responsive and the music was great. It was like eating dessert first!

In that same showcase, Blue Scholars performed very well, and Blu did a good job, despite a demeanor that seemed like he would’ve been just as happy being anywhere else. In fact, he seemed like his state was quite altered, which was certainly appreciated by some.

As I stated earlier, when doing SXSW, I do try and see some stuff I wouldn’t normally be exposed to. Thursday night was Japan Nite at Elysium, and Sparta Locals was a really good Japanese band there. I’m not sure if it would’ve been better if the lead singer and apparent spokesman for the group hadn’t been speaking broken English, but the band’s relatively exotic chord progressions, infectious energy on stage, and overall demeanor all contributed to a really enjoyable stage show.

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Later on that night, we changed gears and went back to hip-hop, although some wouldn’t even classified some of what we listened to as such. At any rate, Lady Sovereign’s set went well. She seems to be one of those many artists that has a lot of talent but can’t seem to consistently find a broad audience. It’s unfortunate. After her came Asher Roth. His current big hit “I Love College” was a huge hit, but his charisma and fun stageshow seem to indicate some staying power, or at least, some staying power for right now. Finally, despite being hoarse, Kid Sister came out and performed. Her show featured a couple of dancers, a lot of dance music, and hoarse vocals. Needless to say, it left something to be desired, but it was still a good show, as long as you don’t mind letting loose a little and just having some fun dancing and being entertained (as opposed to being as mentally stimulated as you would at maybe a Mos Def show, etc.).

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As hip-hop is fairly easy to define according to which region it comes from, on Friday night, we moved to the dirty south. I felt lucky to experience one of the pioneers of the dirty south movement and a trailblazer for all those small-vocabulary rappers from Atlanta. But truthfully, Big Boi’s a star in his own right, and a very good lyricist. It’s truly telling of Austin and SXSW, but this was actually one of the least crowded shows we went to. It was in the Austin Music Hall, so there was plenty more space, but it occurs to me that a few years earlier, I would assume this show would’ve been much more packed in. At any rate, Big Boi mixed in some Outkast and some of his solo work, deftly transitioning from party song to political number and back again. Despite him not looking like any superathlete, he brought a lot of energy and got a solid response from his audience.

Now, I’m not in the best shape of my life, either, and I don’t really drink that much. Blame it on me no longer being single, but even though I’ve been working out a lot lately, the alcohol takes a toll on me. Suffice it to say that when I go out to stuff like this, I feel I should be drinking. If for no other reason, we’ll say that I feel that I should be doing my part to support the venues that host these shows. By Saturday night, we were fairly well exhausted. But that wouldn’t stop me from seeing one of my favorite hip-hop acts of all time, Dead effing Prez!!!

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Unfortunately, Dead Prez seems to have moved from Brooklyn to Atlanta and their upcoming album reflects it in the beats. That being said, the whole rest of the show was a lot of southern hip-hop that just didn’t compare with what they were doing. I like Bun B okay, but not like the rest of Texas, which loves him. And before Bun B, whom was just before Dead Prez, it was local acts, again, with fairly limited vocabularies. All that being said, by the time Dead Prez was ready, the majority of Bun B fans had left. It was very very strange to see how Caucasian the audience was considering lines from Dead Prez like, “I’m down for runnin’ up on some crackers in their City Hall.” I’ll pause to allow some reflection on this irony. *Pausing* Okay, that having been said, I’m mostly a white guy who mostly agrees with Dead Prez, so I guess I just assumed I was more marginalized than I am. At any rate, Dead Prez came on and just seemed like stars from the first moment. I yelled nearly every word of nearly every song at them in unison. Their energy was high and they had a lot to say. It’s obvious that they’re genuinely concerned with the state of our country’s people, and they actually took a few moments out to talk about the incident in Oakland with the police shooting. The show was so great that I just wanted it to go on all night. It was easily the most exciting show, despite my apparent bias, even better than U-N-I and Asher Roth and that Japanese band, the Sparta Locals.

I figure I learned something from SXSW. Austin’s hip-hop scene is fairly nominal and a very mixed bag, and I think that some of the hip-hop shows probably suffered as a result of the lack of substantial buzz for hip-hop in Austin. It really made the shows a little less enjoyable, I have to admit, and I’d imagine the artists aren’t as geared up to perform for a half-empty venue as they are for a full one. That being the case, I might change my strategy next year. Then again, I might be performing next year, and I might just have a full venue, if I’m lucky. We’ll see. All in all, it was a fun time.