SXSW Diary, March 15-19, 2006

By Kent H. Benjamin

[I asked our esteemed editor Kent Benjamin for his impressions of SXSW '06. Little did I know I'd be receiving some 15,000 words on the subject! Well, that's what cyberspace is for, right? So without further adieu, here's Kent's sometimes personal, highly opinionated, always detailed account of this year's event. --Luke Torn]

Everywhere you went, everything you read, folks commented on this being the biggest SXSW ever. After 20 years, it's become the go-to event for most major record labels, publicists, and A&R folks. Almost 2000 additional badges were sold this year, making the total (which SXSW doesn't officially publish) about 10,000 badgeholders, and another 4000 wristbands. Now, understand that SXSW has always, intentionally been scheduled for spring break, so that the week that most of the 50,000+ University of Texas students living in Austin are gone is the week SXSW happens. In addition, SXSW has always been intended to be for conference registrants (i.e., badgeholders), not for the public or local music fans. To include Austinites, they've always scheduled big free shows (currently held at Auditorium Shores) with name touring acts and the biggest name locals, and they've always sold a limited number of wristbands which locals could buy to get in to see some of the evenings' music in clubs. Otherwise, it would be impossible to get in to clubs on 6th Street during SXSW -- Austinites will tell you that 6th Street is frequented during 51 weeks of the year only by UT students and locals mostly under the age of 30. See below for a rant on wristbands.***

Overall the music at this year's conference simply couldn't be faulted on any level. Over 1200 bands, many hundred more locals playing at day parties and the like. And for me, personally, there were quite a few of my favorite recent records represented by bands playing this week. As it turned out, I got to see almost none of them, but we'll get to that. It was a still an amazing week for me, and a totally fun and exciting one -- will have to go down as one of the best weeks of the year, although the crowds made it less than my favorite SXSW overall.

A few comments about some of the bands I didn't get to see. I was really kind of sorry not to go see The Pretenders, although as you'll see below, that option wound up not being open to me. The Pretenders played Memphis in 1980, one of their first US shows. Did their first US radio appearance on one of my best friend's radio shows, and I met 'em all that day (if memory serves, it was their 3-5th US gig). Only wound up not being with Chrissie when she got arrested at Friday's that nite because my DJ friend wouldn't let me bring my girlfriend that night and I went nowhere without Ann. Met Chris and all the guys several times, and they put us on the list at all their gigs for several years after that, met 'em a number more times. But for the last ten years, I dunno, haven't cared that much. Pre-ordered the new boxed set on Rhino that they were appearing at SXSW to promote, but haven't played it since it arrived by mail. And I didn't care to go see Chrissie at her SXSW 'interview,' and didn't make the show a big priority Saturday. Figured I'd seen 'em enough times already, and I should see bands I hadn't already seen a lot, Jimmy and Pete were still dead after all, and dammit, I haven't liked their guitarists since the legendary Billy Bremner was filling Jimmy's shoes. Now today I find out that Chrissie's folding the band at last, and that this would have been my last chance to see a long-time beloved band. And that's a very very sad thing for me. Bad choice on my part, as it turned out.

This year's biggest buzz band was undoubtedly the Arctic Monkeys, a young bunch of Brits who still live with their moms, and who sold out their Feb. US debut tour on word of mouth before their album was even released. Bought the album, like it a great deal. But most critics (and let me just say right up front: 90% of all rock writers are sheep -- they all have the same opinions on every band) have been ranting about how they're the new Beatles, new Oasis, or whatever. Bullshit. I've yet to see one critic who correctly called them what they in fact are: the new Franz Ferdinand or the new Kaiser Chiefs. That's the correct comparison. They were on Saturday Night the weekend before SXSW. I enjoyed 'em, would have liked to see them (still would if they come back), but you know what? Anyone who'd stand in line for the several hours it would've taken to get in to their gig in a SXSW this crowded kinda needs their head examined. Two listens to the record and a single viewing of the SNL appearance would've convinced any halfway intelligent rock writer of that. But no. Instead, you get hilarious rants like the one by Austin's local daily's main writer (a fellow who's famous among other music writers in Austin for writing about gigs he either (a) didn't even attend or (b) came late and left early to). He predictably (I could've written his review for him almost word for word just knowing how he was likely to whine and what about) whined and moaned about how hard it was to get in, and then when he got there, they were just average, not life-changing or mind-blowing. He left early, insisting 'they might have gotten better, but I doubt it.' Which could be a college course on how NOT to write rock criticism. Rule #101: if you go into a show believing the hype, odds are overwhelmingly in favor of your being underwhelmed by the show. Never believe the hype. Rule #102: rock critics are sheep. If they all agree on something, odds are excellent it's not true. See Rule #101. And yeah, all that said, I quite recommend the Arctic Monkeys myself, for what that's worth.

SXSW always utilizes many venues that aren't regular music venues (sometimes in 'real life,' they're shot bars, special interest clubs, etc.). This year, I’m happy to say that overall the sound and lighting everywhere I went -- even the places that don't normally have live music -- was excellent. And it's always a tremendous juggling act to match venues to bands, especially now that so many showcases have labels or magazine names on 'em, since those labels and magazines have input into the artists on their showcases. So sometimes bands get booked in places that are too large, or more commonly, too small for 'em. Rumour has it the Arctic Monkeys' people deliberately insisted on a venue that was clearly too small for 'em, so as to make it seem more crowded and exciting. Assuming that's true, I hope someone pointed out to the band themselves that they fucked over a whole bunch of fans (and writers) who queued up hours early to get in. Not cool on their part.

Parking, on the other hand, was a nightmare, and that caused this to be a less than perfect SXSW experience for me, because that and the over-crowding severely limited my mobility, so that I saw fewer bands overall this year than in probably any SXSW for 5-10 years. Mind you, seeing 50 good to great bands in 4 days really isn't bad, it's just that I've been managing 60-80.
Normally at SXSW, showcases and events run by SXSW run like clockwork. If a band's supposed to start at 9pm, you get there, and by 9:01, they're onstage and rockin'. Been like that for 20 years. This year, the norm was for most showcases I went to be running late, sometimes horribly so. I really can't explain why overall. I know sometimes this year it was the artist. At one place, it was caused by our creepy, bought-and-paid-for-by-big-business governor. In others, I know it was caused by a particular artist. But in the past, if someone ran late, they just had to do a short set. They ran over, SXSW pulled the plug. Are they not doing that anymore? I have a feeling this is largely caused by labels who have their own showcases, in many cases, but that's speculation. SXSW should pull the plug, IMHO. It's completely unfair to both the other artists on the showcase and to all those who registered for the conference or bought wristbands for bands to be running late. If you start 20 minutes late, you only get 20 minutes to play, that's how it used to work and still oughtta. Next year, I hope SXSW stage managers will go back to plug pulling on grandstanders. This shit must stop. Late start times at showcases was the #1 contributor to my missing a lot of bands I really wanted to see this year. Now, to be fair, it seems from talking to friends that most showcases were in fact on time -- I might've been unlucky enough to visit most of the venues with problems.

Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Registered Tuesday morning. Gotta hand it to SXSW for starting registration a day early now. Registering on Tuesday is a godsend. No hour-long lines! In and out in 15 minutes. Only snag for me is that they reused an old picture that barely resembled me in the first place, and looks no more like me now that I'm clean-shaven than Bob Dylan or Brad Pitt does. So I got stopped frequently at the door because the badge they gave me didn't have a picture that looked like me at all. Me, I was just happy that the picture didn't look like me, and thought one door minder was someone I knew and couldn't place when she wouldn't let me in with my badge because she didn't think it was me....

The City of Austin, in its infinite obtuseness, had policemen going around the Convention Center and covering up ALL parking meters in walking distance of the convention center when I arrived. I guess the [noun self-censored] wanted to force all the rich out-of-towners to pay $6 at the parking garage instead of a pair of quarters to register. You know, the Austin police, to my mind, just get closer and closer to the ineptitude and corruption in cops I grew up with in Memphis.
After work, I met up with LA music talk show host Art Fein (in town for his annual visit with me) for supper at the Austin Chili Parlor. My friend Peter Case was gonna come meet us as he was staying at my place too, but he didn't make it for supper, nor did my friend John who left us waiting for 45 minutes for him to arrive although he'd already headed home at the wife's beck&call without bothering to let us know he wasn't coming after all. Thanks, John (alcohol and John don't mix well anymore).

We'd planned on catching some non-SXSW music that night, but all elected to stay in and chat, not getting to bed nearly as early as we should've.

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