Day 3 in Austin at SXSW broke sunny and warm. We really did make out well with the weather. And to me there’s nothing better on a fine morning in Austin than to pay a visit to the happiest place on earth – The Magnolia Cafe. The friendly staff and awesome eats have made the Magnolia a favorite stop since my first visit to Austin. Huevos rancheros and some damn fine coffee.
‘60s psych-rock legends The Zombie’s have a new documentary out entitled Hung Up on a Dream, and they were at SXSW to promote it. [Check David Hopper’s thoughts on the doc here.] In addition to their official festival performances, they also played an in-store at Waterloo Records. We arrived at the store on time to find that many of our fellow fans had the foresight to arrive early.
We took our place at the end of the queue that wrapped around the building and up the side street. A helpful store employee informed us that we were just about at the cutoff. With nothing else planned, we decided to hang. Predictably, we just missed the cut and were stuck out on the sidewalk. Lead vocalist Colin Blunstone and keyboardist Rod Argent played their duo set just feet away from us, on the other side of the wall. But Colin can still belt it, and we could hear them through the open door. It was nice that they let us in to hear the last song.
Afterwards, we chose not to get shut out of more films, opting instead to hoof it over to the Driskill Hotel. Located at 6th & Brazos, The Driskill has been catering to discerning clientele (such as ourselves) for well over a century. We bellied up to the lobby bar for some day drinking. Legend has it this is the place where Matthew McConaughey was discovered when he was working as a bartender (citation needed). All right, all right, all right.
No visit to Austin would be complete without grabbing a ride in a pedicab. These things are like a modern version of a rickshaw, and come in all sorts of decorations and usually feature boombox tunage. We hailed a guy with an umbrella (to keep the sunshine off my pasty Midwestern forehead) and rolled off with some yacht-rock accompaniment. The Lucky Duck had a late-afternoon slate of acts that featured a set from Rock Eupora, a Nashville rock quartet that we covered last year at SXSW. Clayton Waller and the band kick out guitar-driven rock inspired by the classics, with hooks that veer their sound toward power pop. Clayton’s exceptional vocals and witty lyrics set Rock Eupora apart. Click here to check out our interview with Clayton from SXSW 2022.
After the Lucky Duck, we made our way back to Congress Avenue to catch a screening of Going Varsity in Mariachi, a film about competitive high school mariachi bands. It’s a documentary with a premise I found intriguing. First of all, wait, there are competitive high school mariachi bands? Turns out there is intense competition among high schools in the Rio Grande valley in southwest Texas. But the real story of this film was about the students from New Edinburgh High School and their director, Abel Acuna.
Directors Alejandra Vasquez and Sam Osborn moved to the valley for a year and followed a number of bands until they settled on New Edinburgh. The story they tell is much more of a coming-of-age story than a story of competition. There is some drama, but the actual obstacles the band overcome have to do with the daily reality of limited budgets, family challenges, wrestling with values and becoming adults. There is inspiring support among the students and between the bands. The filmmakers cut together a compelling story without villains, that had the audience on the edge of our seats rooting for these kids. This is definitely a film to look for.
After a quick upscale taco nosh and hard cider with a dash of bitters (try it!), we made our way over to 5th Street to Antone’s, the venerable blues club. We were planning to catch a set from my homie Michigander, the indie rock alter ego of Jason Singer, a Midland, Michigan native who now works out of Nashville. I dig what I’ve heard from him, but I’ll have to catch his show in Detroit in April, because we were in line and nowhere near getting inside when he started his set. Oh well, c’est la vie at SXSW. Click here to check out our pre-fest interview with Michigander and sample his tunes.
With Antone’s a straight crap-out, we fucked off to the British Music Embassy, where I (once again) had to chug an entire bottle of water that I had in my backpack before they let us in. The Embassy is a week-long showcase of UK bands, featuring all manner of shit. On this night, the highlight was Folly Group from London. They’re a post-punk band very much in touch with their dance and electronic influences. They were percussion-heavy and switched up instruments between them. Their most recent single “I Raise You (The Price of Your Head)” is hooky and angular and is still purchasing space inside my head.
And that was about it for my first experience at SXSW. It’s a festival that’s as much about what you miss out on as what you see. Given the circumstances, I had a great experience in the limited time I spent in Austin. Same time next year, if the festival gods smile on me once again. That’s all I got.
