While gigs that fall outside the official SxSW jurisdiction tend to be where you find more left-of-centre bands, it’s also where you experience schedules not being kept to and slapdash set-ups. While this Friday in Austin is plagued with missing bands because of unofficial gigs not keeping to schedule, the day also begins with some disappointing soundbleed at a non-SxSW gig at Betsy’s Bar
The Music at SXSW
SXSW Day 2
SXSW Day 1
The first song I hear upon arrival in the US (playing in a cab outside LAX) is Beach Boys’ ‘God Only Knows’. That’s gotta be a good sign. Less than 24 hours later, it’s the Ghost Room and HBO have chosen Austin’s SxSW, the world’s biggest music conference/festival as the place to launch the new season of their New Orleans musical/drama Treme. Not only does it begin with one of the show’s signature second line celebrations (which goes a little awry at the end as someone is knocked down by a car) but inside Orleansesque Ghost Room we are immersed in the jazz keys of Henry Butler.



