South by Southwest is chaotic, and people like me who return year after year don’t just go for the free music, swag and booze—we go because we embrace the chaos. Bands’ schedules change at the last minute and concertgoers’ schedules turn into suggestions. We kick ourselves for missing acts we had starred before the festival (in my case Kendrick Lamar, Big K.R.I.T., Grimes and The Shondes) but end up seeing new bands with unfamiliar names that blow us away (in my case Fidlar, The Henry Clay People, Inches to Pixels, The Black Ryders and The Dikes of Holland). We know that this is the one time of the year that we’ll definitely get to see our like-minded compatriots from across the country and that it might be the only time of the year that we get to see some of our favorite bands.
Of the five top acts I saw at SXSW last week, two were from overseas (Future of the Left and Carsick Cars) and two were from the Bay Area (Thee Oh Sees and Mikal Cronin) and will not be here anytime soon. Thankfully, neither will the The Big Pink, the one irredeemably awful band I saw.
The following 16 acts, however, will be. Here, in the order that I saw them, are the bands that will soon grace the region’s stages, and my thoughts on whether they deserve your ticket money.
Caveman draws inspiration from many different styles of rock, bringing in muddy shoe-gazey riffs, folk-inspired harmonies and some obvious Real Estate homage. When it worked, we were intrigued, but ultimately the conversation going on next to us had more hooks.
Caveman will be performing at Red Palace on April 9.
David Gedge may be the band’s only remaining original member, but this current version is mightily potent. Although at this point, I shouldn’t be telling anyone why they should see The Wedding Present. I should only be kicking myself for not seeing them sooner myself.
The Wedding Present will be performing at the Rock and Roll Hotel tonight.
Screaming Females
It feels like Screaming Females come to D.C. once every two or three months. However, Marissa Paternoster’s guttural howl and 1980’s style of unabashed guitar shredding always causes jaws to drop. One of the most intense performances of the festival.
Screaming Females will be performing at the Black Cat on April 8
He parties hard, he has songs about partying hard and his entourage, which looks like the parody of a Motley Crüe video, also parties hard. It’s equal parts absurd and amazing—and the crowd eats it up. After all, partying hard is the M.O. of many SXSW-goers.
Andrew W.K. will be performing at the 9:30 Club on April 1.
No, you’re not. You’re boring, middle-of-the-road indie pop. I tried listening to you on Spotify after the fact and came to that same conclusion. Pass.
Family of the Year will be performing at the Black Cat on April 28.
We loved Pela, the previous band of We Are Augustines frontman Billy McCarthy, so it’s not surprising that this new project is also a winner. We Are Augustines thrives on the sonic grandeur and wrenching emotion that colors many Springsteen disciples—but they manage to do it without sounding like an overblown shitstack. McCarthy has one of the most emotionally nuanced faces in rock and roll, fluctuating between awe, heartbreak and pure, unadulterated joy. It’s easy to believe that rock and roll actually did save this man’s life.
We Are Augustines will be performing at the 9:30 Club on March 24.
Merge Records’ latest precocious youngsters write a lot of mid-tempo pop songs in major keys but otherwise aren’t terribly memorable. However, they’ll be opening for label-mates Wild Flag before coming back here on their own, so there’s a chance for you to see if their music sticks with you more than it stuck with me.
Hospitality’s performance at the 9:30 Club on April 2 opening for Wild Flag is already sold out, but they will also be performing at the Black Cat on April 19.
This Baltimore band’s spacey guitars and folksy harmonies soundtracked the muggy Austin afternoon well. Deerhunter fans, this should tide you over until their next date in the area.
The Lower Dens will be performing at Rock and Roll Hotel on May 4.
“A lot of my songs are in the key of C. Nobody probably knows what that means,” Friedberger quipped. What it means: Many of her songs have the warm familiarity of a night with an old friend or a song we may have learned in kindergarten. It meant that her set without her backing band felt cheerful but intimate.
Eleanor Friedberger will be performing at the Black Cat on April 19.
Cloud Nothings’ debut album last year sounded like a breezy, lo-fi, surf-pop affair, but this year’s Attack on Memory is a much heavier collection of songs. The quartet played those songs with the passion of a band that had cut its teeth on the emo and hardcore of the late ‘90s and early ‘00s, proving that they won’t be in a Red Palace-sized venue much longer.
Cloud Nothings’ show at Red Palace on March 31 is already sold out but they will also be performing at Ottobar in Baltimore on April 1.
Surprisingly, this was the first official showcase for the local experimental pop workhorses. The energy they exhibited onstage seemed very focused and natural, a byproduct of regular touring. However, Scheuerman’s occasional banter between songs telegraphed the combination of nerves and awe that he’d channeled into that performance.
Deleted Scenes will be performing at Comet Ping Pong on April 20.
The band itself is a fantastic tribute to the enduring energy of the hardcore spirit but inevitably that’s not the most interesting part of a Regents set. Regents sets will at some point or another turn into The Jason Hamacher Show. In this particular episode, the charismatic drummer (who I later saw crowdsurfing at an OFF! set) borrowed a crowd member’s Mardi Gras mask and at the end of the set, moved his drum kit onto some rather unsteady seeming bar tables to finish pounding away.
Regents will be performing at DC9 on March 31.
Oh, where to begin? Fite sort of looks like a less creepy Pee Wee Herman, complete with hair gel and bow tie. He puts up bizarre animations of crudely drawn animals between his sets that have nothing to do with his bizarre songs about living in bunny cages, dropping F-bombs and fighting bullies. Yet, amid the weird atmosphere, Fite has written some catchy, melodic tunes on acoustic guitar and mandolin. Even the uninitiated who weren’t sure what the hell they had just seen sang along heartily with songs like “Big Mistake.”
Tim Fite will be performing at U Street Music Hall on April 13.
They were the more vocally subdued of the two very similar-sounding bands playing back-to-back (their countrymen The Twilight Sad convey more emotional gravitas), but We Were Promised Jetpacks are still an emotional powerhouse, mixing very loud guitars with pretty, heart-wrenching lyrics. The venue emptied after the conclusion of their set…and the show wasn’t over.
We Were Promised Jetpacks will be performing at the Black Cat on May 2.
By Sunday night, half of Austin had emptied out and extreme exhaustion blanketed the remaining stragglers. Thankfully, Malin understood. Through his stark songwriting and candid banter, he spat brutally honest truths on everything from gentrification in his old neighborhood to music industry elitism and then roused the sleep-deprived crowd into a clapping frenzy as he closed the set with The Clash’s “Death or Glory.”
Jesse Malin will be performing at The Hamilton on April 1.
His biggest claim to fame was as bassist of The Replacements, but Stinson’s solo work sounds veers more toward the Americana end of the rock-n-roll spectrum. His family affair (which included his wife and her uncle) sounded far more Tom Petty than Let It Be and this show will absolutely fit in with the rest of the bands on Jammin Java’s schedule.
Tommy Stinson will be performing at Jammin’ Java on April 13.
