With so many gigs and venues at SXSW, lots of them are naturally to suffer from logistical problems. The LK's show on the last SXSW day was unfortunately one to suffer. I got in a bit late, since I was told in the door that the place had reached capacity, although when I got in there it was half-empty. The sound was actually the worst I heard throughout the whole of the festival. Also, I didn't hear the melodic The LK that I love, but they seemed to be in a more jazzy / experimental mood this time around. All well and good, I guess, despite it was quite rubbish (so not that well or good, considering). The last 5 minutes consisted of the singer sporadically jumping up and down while the other guy played his trumpet. Now and then Ola (the singer) also screamed a bit into the trumpet. Hmmmmmmmm! I saw some amazing bands at the 2008 edition of South By Southwest, so I wasn't that bothered that one of them didn't live up to my expectations.
This is how SXSW was for me: Wednesday: Got in to Austin, saw lots of unknown bands that were all pretty much pants. Thursday: Many amazing shows. Nice rock'n'roll end to the night. One of the best festival days ever, ever! Friday: Some ok gigs and three absolutely astonishing gigs. One was the best I've seen in years, but not by a Swedish artist, so I won't name him (or her!) here … Saturday: Tired. I thought this was the least interesting day of the festival. Saw a bunch of shows, nothing too exciting.
Being one of the most talked about artists of the whole SXSW (except R.E.M., Vampire Weekend, MGMT etc etc), the pressure was on Lykke Li to kick some serious ass! Her show was quite similar to the last time I saw her earlier this year, but much shorter, and due to a smaller sized venue, much more intimate (she didn't do "Can I kick it" either, unfortunately). It was a pleasure watching her perform though and if it had been a full length performance it would have been a real killer show. Another formerly hyped woman playing SXSW was Duffy, who was a massive disappointment. Whereas Lykke Li was mesmerising and super sexy, Duffy’s show was sterile and forced. Lykke Li seems to be at that stage where people are trying to figure out if all the talk about her is really justified. I’ve listened to her album a lot, and seen her live twice (so I think I'm almost a Lykke Li expert now, or at least a Lykke Li junior fan), and I’d got to say that Lykke Li deserves all the fame and money she can get. Don’t be a fool, go and see her live and buy her album (perhaps in the reversed order).
Before Jens Lekman played at Emo’s in Austin, Texas at the SXSW festival yesterday, he asked the audience if they could kindly not videotape his performance (which was something everyone actually respected). Stuff like this only adds to my perception of Lekman as a lovable pretentious eccentric, such as Jonathan Richman. It’s admiring how much heart Lekman puts in everything he does, which combined with his astonishing music I guess is what makes him such an ace artist. Yesterday It was just him and an electric guitar on stage (and his nice white shirt, as seen on the superb photograph above). He started out by playing mostly songs from the new album. It was quite interesting to hear these songs accompanied by nothing but Jens and his guitar, with no loops or other instruments. Then after a few songs he started dropping in some old classics in his set, such as “A Sweet Summer's Night on Hammer Hill”, and then when he played “Black cab” it’s was so great that my neck hair literally (and I mean literally, not metaphorically) stood up on end. I love that song! I’d almost forgot how much I love it though. How silly of me. He did all the usual little skits in between some of the songs too, which is charming, but perhaps a bit grating if you’ve seen him do a similar routine more than once or twice before. All in all it was pretty damn amazing though, as always with Jens Lekman, and together with some great sets from some American rock’n’roll bands later in the evening it made the second SXSW day one of the best festival days I’ve ever experienced, truth be told.
Just finished watching The Tough Alliance do a show at Karma Lounge, Austin at SXSW. They did about 4-5 songs. Last and first time I saw them, I hated it. That was about 4 years ago. This time I was almost falling asleep before the gig and ordered a shot of whiskey, as a pick-me-up. Instead of a shot, I got a glass (it was only $6 though - thank you bartender and weak dollar). This might have helped me appreciate TTA’s somewhat theatrical and absurd antics a bit more. I love their songs to death, but the whole karaoke is just so off-putting. The 20-30 people there watching the gig seemed to enjoy it though. Lucky bastards! The show was just stupid, I just don't get it. At stages it was quite disturbing, like when one of the guys do his "scarecrow pose". Oh well, you can't have it all, I guess.
Anyone remotely interested in music can’t have missed that South by Southwest (in Austin, Texas, US) is taking place in a couple of weeks. Every year I’ve looked at the line-up and sighed, wanting to go to, since there are usually about a million great bands playing. This year they’ve got a bunch of great Swedish artists performing there, but also some less great. Here’s a list of the good ones:
Peter Moren– Peter from Peter, Bjorn and John. Not a big fan of PB&J but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. He’s produced some amazing music lately.
Robyn– everyone’s favourite Swedish electro artist!
Shout Out Louds – everyone’s favourite Swedish quirky indie rockers!
