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Like (WASHINGTON, D.C., AND AUSTIN, TEXAS, might be separated by 2,000 miles, but that didn't stop a host of D.C. bands from making the journey down to take part in the annual SXSW Music festival.
After four days, 12,500 conference attendees, 1,700 performing bands and an awful lot of beer, Express contributor Katherine Silkaitis caught up with six local acts to find out what they thought of the mayhem.
Susan Hsu, Exit Clov
» EXPRESS: What was your overall impression of the festival?
» HSU: It's a mix of insane fun and downright absurdity. Thousands of bands crammed into a one- or two-mile radius, a lot of style, ego and talent, a lot of rock 'n' roll cliche, and everybody wants to be homecoming queen.
» EXPRESS: What was your experience performing?
» HSU: The Cream Vintage D.C. show was especially fun, seeing so many D.C. bands in one place partying together just to celebrate our D.C.-ness. There's no occasion to do that when we're actually in D.C. But it says a lot about the cool things going on right now in our hometown musically. Last year I can only remember two or three D.C. bands in Austin and we were hardly aware of each other being there. We were just floating around doing our own thing.
» EXPRESS: Were you able to see any other acts? What were your favorites?
» HSU: I saw My Brightest Diamond on recommendation, which was amazing. ... She played in a church with pews, it was such a contrast from everything else. It was air-conditioned and seated, and the backing band was basically a string quartet, so it felt like a classical recital. Lykke Li from Sweden was also a nice surprise. Also JuiceBoxxx and The Black Keys.
» EXPRESS: Would you like to do SXSW again?
» HSU: Give me a year and I'm sure I'll be up for it again.
Sam Simkoff, Le Loup
» EXPRESS: How did you like SXSW?
» SIMKOFF: We loved it. We played five shows, but it didn't feel very hectic at all. It was very laid back and everybody was really nice there.
» EXPRESS: What other acts were you able to see while you were there?
» SIMKOFF: Really, the only other bands we saw were bands we were playing with in our showcases. Let's see, pretty much all the other D.C. bands. These United States were awesome. We got to see Yeasayer. Their live show is fantastic, and we got to see Ra Ra Riot. I had never seen them live and they put on a fantastic show.
» EXPRESS: Is it weird to go back and do the normal touring thing after the chaos of SXSW?
» SIMKOFF: No, not at all. We're looking forward to it — it was nice to be in the same city for a few days. It was was much less hectic — when you're on tour, you finish one city and then you drive 600 miles to play a show in another city and you never get any time to enjoy the personality of the city. So with SXSW, we got to walk around Austin.
The Whole Damn Band, You, Me & Everyone We Know
» EXPRESS: What did you think of the festival?
» THE WHOLE DAMN BAND: The entire festival was really overwhelming. We had a blast but there was almost too much going on. All of the free booze, shows and food left our heads spinning after spending a week in the Texas sun.
» EXPRESS: What other acts did you see?
» THE WHOLE DAMN BAND: To be honest, a lot of our time was spent recovering from the previous night. The bands we played with — Steel Train, House of Fools, Socratic — were all phenomenal. One of my favorite acts this year had to be Anathallo. They had such an amazing live show. I feel like they are masters of knowing how to make the most of any PA system.
» EXPRESS: What was the first thing you did once the festival was over?
» THE WHOLE DAMN BAND: Drove. We had two days to get from Austin to Michigan. It was a long drive. The fever of 103 I had didn't make that drive especially fun either.
Olivia Mancini, Olivia and the Housemates
» EXPRESS: How would you describe SXSW?
» MANCINI: Total chaos. It was like being inside of a kick drum. You're assaulted by music and people and sounds and smells and sights 360 degrees around.
» EXPRESS: What was your experience performing?
» MANCINI: It's wonderful to see festival-goers who have their choice between you and 1,799 other bands stop to look at you for a song or two and decide to stay. You know how many other places those people could be for those 30 minutes, so it means even more that they liked your music enough to stick around.
» EXPRESS: Were you able to see any other performances?
» MANCINI: We caught a fair number of other acts. I saw Le Loup play at Homeslice Pizza and they were great, as usual. I saw The Watson Twins, The High Strung, The Spinto Band, a terrific Half Japanese reunion. My favorite performance was by an Austin band called The Black. They kept us dancing for about 30 minutes straight at about 2 a.m. on our third day at the festival. No small feat.
Ben Thornewill, Jukebox the Ghost
» EXPRESS: How would you describe SXSW?
» THORNEWILL: It's like the biggest parade or festival you can imagine. Exhausting but amazing.
» EXPRESS: What other acts did you catch?
» THORNEWILL: I saw this girl Jesca [Hoop] out of LA and our drummer saw NOFX — and Peter and the Wolf were amazing. You just can't walk down the street without hearing a band play.
» EXPRESS: How did your performances go?
» THORNEWILL: They went really, really well. It was fun to see all of our friends — all of us in the middle of Texas, kind of bewildered about how we got there.
Brian Minter, Meredith Bragg and the Terminals
» EXPRESS: What was your experience performing?
» MINTER: We played a non-SXSW daytime show, which was pretty sparsely attended, although spending the day drinking beers and gin with cucumbers in it more than made up for that. Our actual showcase was a lot of fun, and there were a fair amount of people there who actually came to see us play, which was nice.
» EXPRESS: What other acts did you see?
» MINTER: I like Aloha's set, because they kicked ass, and I liked Portastatic, because I love Portastatic, and I like Lucero, because they were unbelievably drunk.
» EXPRESS: Would you like to do SXSW again?
» MINTER: Absolutely. Does anyone need a bass player?
Jesse Elliott, These United States
» EXPRESS: Since this is your second year playing SXSW, how did you approach it this time around?
» ELLIOTT: We played a bunch last year and we did the same thing this year, which is just play a bunch of parties. Actually, last year we did a lot more and this year we did less so we could take it a little easier. It was slightly more fun this year — it was certainly easier and more relaxing and we got to see other good music.
» EXPRESS: What were favorite bands that you saw?
» ELLIOTT: We saw so many cool bands, I hate to pick favorites, but one was this band called The Physics of Meaning. They're from Chapel Hill and they were awesome. The D.C. show we did was really fun because it was all of our good old friends from back home. We did this fun show with Forcefield PR and Terrorbird Radio and we payed with The Raveonettes and WHY? and YACHT [Ed. Note: More! FUN! punctuation! BANDS!] and all these fun, hip kind of bands. But I'd still put Physics of Meaning at the top of the list.
» EXPRESS: How would you describe SXSW?
» ELLIOTT: It's just kind of a big carnival and you just deal with it the best you can. We paced ourselves somewhat ... that's actually not true. We didn't pace ourselves as much as we should have, but we tried a little bit more. Our multi-instrumentalist Tom [Hnatow] got interviewed by BBC2 and they asked him to sum up SXSW in less than 10 words or something. He said, "It's just Mardi Gras for hipsters." That pretty much sums it all up. If you want to use that before the BBC gets to it, you're more than welcome.
Written by Express contributor Katherine Silkaitis
Le Loup by Hatnim Lee; You, Me & Everyone We Know by Eric Smith; Olivia Mancini by Chris Combs/Express; These United States by Jen Marigliano; other photos courtesy the bands
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