SXSW

Well, another South-By-Southwest Music Festival has come and gone. Unlike most Austinites who flee the city during this week of mayhem, the last few years I've attended the Scottish Showcase promoted by the Scottish Arts Council and hosted by the one and only Vic Galloway (pictured here) of BBC Radio Scotland and BBC Radio One. This year I also attended showcases for new music from Wales and from Northern Ireland. While nearly all the bands were very good, I have to say in all honesty the Scottish bands this year were the best and perhaps the finest set representing Scotland sent to SXSW over the years.



All the British showcases were held at a club called Latitude 30, temporarily renamed the British Music Embassy (pictured right). In the New Music From Wales Showcase on Thursday I had really hoped to catch Duffy, the hot new R&B artist from Wales. Well, as I highly suspicioned, she was removed from the list probably due to her newly found fame. This happens quite often with SXSW for some reason. Many artists are signed on for the festival as virtual nobodies but a hit single or CD released just before SXSW propels them out of that status and they no longer perform in anything but exclusive gigs. I don't think, stylistically, she would have molded very well with the other Welsh artists, however. The other bands, in particular, People In Planes, were all really good. I also quite enjoyed Christopher Rees. Sincere congratulations to the Welsh Rugby team as well for their incredible Grand Slam in the Six Nations!

As for Scotland, I think the biggest buzz was surrounding Frightened Rabbit (pictured left). I was unable to catch their showcase gig and although their appearance at the Scottish Showcase was fraught with equipment issues and them being rushed due to the showcase being behind schedule, they were absolutely brilliant!

The other band I really enjoyed were The Dykeenies (pictured right). Again, unfortunately, I didn't make their showcase gig but their performance at the Scottish Showcase was one of, if not the, best and the crowd was really, really in to them. Outstanding performance.



All the other Scottish performers at the showcase were fantastic as well and all were real crowd-pleasers. It is not possible to say a bad thing about any of their performances. Sons & Daughters and Make Model were great and I really liked Inverness band Jyrojets.

I felt really bad for the opening act, Stornoway based Our Lunar Activities (pictured left). As if it wasn't bad enough that their equipment never made it to Austin and they had to borrow from their country-mates as well as a kind donation from Taylor Guitars, they were unreasonably delayed in starting due to equipment problems that ultimately put the entire showcase behind by about an hour. Cheers to them, they rolled with the punches and put in a great performance!

All in all, an outstanding showing from all the Scottish artists. I hope they enjoyed their time in Austin as much as we enjoyed having them.

Cheers!
Neil