SXSW 2022 has come and gone.
The highest density showcase festival on the planet returned from a 2 year quasi hiatus, and, let me tell you, I’m so glad it’s back.
A few weeks have passed, during which I’ve had the opportunity to sleep a ton, run some numbers, and come up with some stats, some superlatives, and some takeaways to share with you, dear reader.
To recap a bit from my last coverage, as prep for the festival I wrote some code to scrape every single performing artist off of SXSW’s official website.
I then put all 650 of those artists in a single spreadsheet, along with metadata such as their genre, location, and Spotify links. From there I spent an absurdly long amount of time listening to literally every single artist on the list, assigning them a “live set” power number, and coming up with my list of 80 artists I wanted to see.
I would be surprised if anyone did more research than me on this front; the common reaction when I told people about the spreadsheet was one of concerned shock.
Enough of that, let’s get to the recap. But first, some stats:
SXSW By The Numbers
47 sets over 6 days
Out of 650 artists with official showcases, I barely scratched the surface.
10 sets at 10 venues in one single night
This night was mayhem.
I basically sprinted from one venue to the next for 8 hours straight.
3 artists twice
Considering how much amazing music there was to see, three artists impressed me so much that I changed my schedule to see them again.
Jot these down for later, Antti Paalanen, Portrait XO, and MOTHERMARY.
But back to the numbers…
Out of the 80 aforementioned artists on my hit list, I saw 47. Over 50%! Considering how hard I was hustling, I’m not sure if I could have beat that number except by cloning myself.
What consistently shocked me day after day was just how many of these bands knocked me out. Most were extremely professional, well trained, and understood how to put on kick ass shows in person. Additionally, there was this feeling, amongst audience goers and seemingly with the bands themselves, that we were making up for two years of lost time. The excitement was textural, spiritual, delicious.
Considering how many amazing artists I saw, and frankly how many amazing artists I missed, it feels rather paltry to try to rank them into any kind of ordered list. Instead of pursuing such a fruitless end, I thought it better to reward a number of superlatives based on why an artist, or an event, really moved me. Here we go!
Best field trip to the Uncanny Valley – Portrait XO
Portrait XO is one of the most fascinating projects I’ve seen in quite some time, maybe ever.
Melding human with computer, she fed 100 hours of her own vocals into a machine learning algorithm. By doing so, she created a “digital twin,” who sounds like her, sings like her, but communicates in ways we are completely unfamiliar with.
This digital twin is the centerpiece of this project, with beats, percussion, and samples adorned around the mystifying and yet nearly-human expressions of the algorithm. There are fleeting moments where you feel like the machine is just short of speaking in a way we’d understand.
Those moments are truly, truly unlike anything else you have ever heard.
[Tie] Best Smorgasbord – Tequila Rock Revolution and Antti Paalanen
Peanut butter and chocolate. Sweet and sour. Pineapple and pizza (if you’re a heathen like me). Three great combinations of seemingly unrelated things that somehow sums together greater than its parts. For Antti Paalanen it is an accordion, house beats, Finnish folk songs, and Siberian throat singing. For Tequila Rock Revolution, it is heavy metal and traditional Mariachi songs. Although the sounds of both of these groups could not be further apart, you could feel how proud they both were to share some part of their culture with a willing audience. The charm therein warmed me to the core.
Best Visit From Another Realm – Hydrovox 2.0 / Cifika
Have you seen “The Fifth Element”? Do you remember the scene where the other-worldly singer goes on stage and sings that impossible song? Watching Hydrovox 2.0 reminded me of watching that scene for the first time. For some context, Hydrovox 2.0 is a project by Cifika, wherein she is immersed in a cylinder of water (through some fancy AV tricks), surrounded only by her collection of synthesizers.
She performs a positively ethereal blend of electronica and ambient, all the while laying her haunting vocals on top. Add in the fact that this took place in a beautiful church and you’ve got a performance that felt from another galaxy.
SXSW’s First Official Drag Show
Lil Cherry and her big bottle of milk
Poppy Ajudha!
Student 1
Pom Pom Squad
BabiBoi
Tone
[Tie] Most sweetly vulnerable – John Moods and Tone
Who needs all the hullaballoo of a band? Definitely not these two. Watching them reminded me of watching some of my favorite NPR Tiny Desk concerts. Stripped down to their core, earnest and heartfelt vocals are all you need to hold the attention and adoration of a crowd. Tone’s performance brought tears to my eyes. The courage to bare one’s soul is not something that we all have and it was inspiring to watch him do so unabashedly.
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Along the same lines, John Moods, with his honeyed falsetto, brought enough joy to take the place of the band he couldn’t afford to fly to Austin. Plugging in his iPhone (!!!) to play the songs to sing to… Are you kidding me? It was perfect.
“I’m scared but I like it” award – Jan Verstraeten
For the entirety of Jan Verstraeten’s set, I couldn’t help but feel we were dancing on the edge of a razor blade. Between the haunting lyricism, the striking string section, and the extremely mysterious eponymous lead singer, there was this constant feeling that we were one misstep away from falling fast into a world of phantoms and ghouls. Like fresh fallen snow covering a field of blood; delicate and dangerous.
Super Star Quality – Poppy Ajudha
I’m certainly not the first to note this, but skills alone do not make a star. In those who we see greatness, it often comes with an unexpected or unexplainable essence. I’ve only met a few, but Poppy Ajudha is undeniably one of these. Say nothing of her extraordinary voice, air tight diction, and impeccable tastes, when you see her on stage you feel like you’re seeing a solar system’s worth of energy beaming out from behind her eyes. The focus, the passion, the X, undefinable, quality.
“I Can’t Believe What I’m Seeing” award – MOTHERMARY
Stop what you’re doing, open your favorite music streaming app, and find MOTHERMARY’s album “I Am Your God.” Either listen to it now, or save it for later. The self-identified recovering Mormon twins are starting a new religion, and you’re invited.
If you’re lucky enough to see them in person, you’ll see how much power they command over the room. Through pure will, outrageously sexy dance moves, and power-play crowd engagement, you, like me, will not believe what you are seeing. Like a pair of tantalizing fallen angels, inviting you to see how it feels to worship a flesh and blood god.
Biggest Attitude – Lil Cherry & GOLDBUUDA
South Korean Lil Cherry in particular was the artist I was most excited to see in person. Her mouth-full-of-marbles raps are unleashed with such intense aggression, I was so curious to see what kind of energy she brought to her on stage performances. Hearing how seamlessly she wove from Korean to English was extremely exciting to witness firsthand.
Her and Goldbuuda were positively dripping with attitude.
The production staff literally had to cut out their sound mid song, as they were going well over their set times. Unperturbed, they screamed the rest of the song over the vocal complaints of the pissed off SXSW official. I stan Lil Cherry.
Top Blast From The past – W.I.T.C.H.
Familiarize yourself with Zamrock. In the 1970s, this genre emerged from Zambia as a homegrown response to the psychedelic rock, blues and funk, and hard rock and roll of the era. Perfectly incorporating elements of traditional African music and dance, the end result is absolutely delicious. We Intend To Cause Havoc (aka W.I.T.C.H.), formed in the 1970s, were one of the great bands on the cusp of this Zamrock movement. For SXSW, two of the last surviving members of the band (including the lead singer) traveled to Austin to transport us far, in both time and space.
Glaswegian Wonders – MEMES and Walt Disco
Fancy coincidence that two of the most exciting and hilarious bands I saw all week were both from Glasgow, Scotland. MEMES is a stripped down 2 person punk band with stupid funny lyrics and crazy fuck-you attitude. They brought such delightful punk energy to the stage and it was so great to thrash it out with them in person. Walt Disco on the other hand is anything but stripped down.
A six person band with an incredible front person ascend to truly operatic heights. Walt Disco was one of the darlings of the festival, and it was quite fun to watch them be received so well.
Vincent Hannah “GIMME ALL YA GOT!” award – Albi X
If you’ve seen Michael Mann’s heat, you surely remember the scene where Al Pacino screams at the top of his lungs at a source in the pursuit of fresh intel. Aside from the context, Pacino is ACTING with everything in his formidable frame.
When Afro-German Albi X got on stage there were nary a half dozen tired people on the dance-floor of the tiny bar and I was a bit worried at the lack of attendance. I need not have been worried. Within 10 minutes, Albi X’s insane amount of energy filled the room, both figuratively, and as dozens more people showed up, quite literally.
I have never in my life seen someone turn a room devoid of energy into a room that is so full of life that nobody dared leave it. The crowd, including myself, were following along with his crew’s choreographed dance moves, and at one point when Albi X felt he wasn’t getting enough energy from us, he stopped the song, gave us a dressing down, and started again in earnest.
That might sound patronizing, but let me tell you it was transcendent. Albi X is truly a special artist who gives everything in his soul to his performance. So much so that, when he finished, his crew had to literally carry him off the stage.
[Tie] Most innovative performances – DJ_Dave, Dan Gorelick, d0n.xyz, R Tyler at Algorave
Algorave at the Neon Grotto. What a sentence! I implore you to do some research about the Algorave, either through my interview with DJ_Dave or by diving deep on YouTube.
Simply put, it is hard to explain how exciting it is to watch music, and associated visuals, being coded live in front of you, all as you watch the action on projector screens. It elevates the experience of being at a show in a way that is totally unexpected. Do yourself a favor.
Find an Algorave community in your city and go pop in to see what it’s all about. I promise, they wont bite!
“Please Don’t Stop Playing” Award – ADOY
This was most unexpected! I listened to this South Korean indie-pop group a few times during my analysis. They were clearly solid, but didn’t seem like a group that would put on a killer show. Boy was I wrong! I’m an indie electronica head through and through and I must say I have never seen a tighter, more practiced, more confident group.
They knew exactly what they were doing, and they executed perfectly. After listening to many bands who had enough of one thing to satisfy, it felt like going on a vacation to be in the presence of a band that had everything dialed in. I did not want them to stop playing.
One more plug for my Spotify playlist, so you can find any artists that I missed!
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