Austin music festival provides preview to Wakarusa

Editor’s note: Peter Lewis, the only cultured member of The City Wire staff, is traveling to Austin, Texas, to provide updates on the popular SXSW music festival. He will provide updates on festival events and performances Thursday through Sunday. Stay tuned.

story by Peter Lewis

March, for many, is simply the month of basketball, rain, and warming temperatures.

With the madness of March and the requisite rains, however, comes a fabled event cherished the world over by music lovers: South by Southwest (SXSW). This annual event in Austin, Texas, has grown from its birth in 1987 to become one of the largest music festivals in the world.

With an estimated economic impact of more than $100 million, the festival and conference is a highly coordinated event that showcases hundreds of bands from all over the world on upwards of 80 different stages throughout Austin, with most concentrated in the downtown area.

FORT SMITH AREA CONNECTIONS
This year’s lineup features several artists with a connection to the Fort Smith area. Justin Townes Earle, featured this past December by Second Street Live in their ongoing concert series, is scheduled to play three showcases in Austin.

A music festival of our own is looming around the corner. There will be several chances in Austin to see acts scheduled to perform at the Wakarusa music festival at Mulberry Mountain Ranch (north of Ozark) in June. Langhorne Slim will perform his folky Americana tunes as a part of the Big Shot Touring showcase at Club de Ville on Thursday.

Jason Isbell, formerly of the successful band The Drive-By Truckers, will perform with his latest outfit, the 400 Unit, as a part of the Ground Control Touring showcase Friday at the Habana Bar. Both artists are scheduled to play the Wakarusa festival and are just a small sample of the Arkansas connections performing in Austin this week.

SXSW DETAILS
While SXSW was initially devoted to music, it expanded to include film and interactive festivals. Each unit largely operates separately from the others, and occur within about a 10-day span while the film and music portions overlap one another. The 2009 music festival begins Mar. 18. Although it officially ends Saturday evening, the parties and shows will last well into the morning hours of Sunday, Mar. 22.

SXSW is an industry-based event that is loaded with panel discussions, trade shows, and talks by industry big wigs during the day (this year’s keynote speech will be given by the Grammy award winning producer, Quincy Jones).

Although the 2009 event features a few big name acts like Ben Harper or The Decemberists, the majority of the bands performing each March are lesser known acts on independent labels. There are many unknown or unsigned bands as well, which coupled with the length and size of the event, grants bands a chance to not only strengthen their following but to audition for industry execs and fans alike. SXSW is one of the best “auditions” a band can have as it regularly becomes the launch pad for commercial and critical success.

THE EXPERIENCE
The size and breadth of the event is a wonderful thing for music fans, but it also is a daunting challenge to those wishing to see as many acts as possible in their four-day window.

Jordan Kramer, a resident of New York who will once again make the trip south by southwest to Austin, said the paradox of the festival is quite evident.

“SXSW is one of the most humbling events I have ever participated in,” Kramer told The City Wire. “Not knowing any of the bands makes you feel dull. Lumbering from venue to venue, panting and sweating, makes you feel weak. Missing the hip party or the best act makes you feel stupid. Yet after less than a week you’ll find yourself collapsed from exhaustion, your head throbbing, you body covered with indecipherable goo and an iPod full of new music. You have been reborn. That’s what SXSW is all about.”

While his views on the festival certainly illustrate the extreme possibilities to be had courtesy of SXSW, many others just go for the music itself.

For Skip Hobbie, an independent filmmaker from Austin, it’s simply about the music.

“I just love hearing all these great bands. You can’t find anything like it anywhere. Taking a few hours every night to listen to music with some friends, stumbling upon something great and unknown only a few hours prior … It’s just a wonderful and unique and experience.”