Descending upon Austin, Texas on the 17th of March, the expectations brought upon the all-encompassing journey that is SXSW are at an extreme high. Press scurrying to the Austin Convention Center to get their badges, kids RSVP’ing to any free unofficial festival events they can, and the hard-knock artist/promoter trying to get a second of attention from passer-bys on Sixth Street. What is missing from that entire spiel is the sense of euphoric confusion there is in terms of just walking around Austin. Day 1 surely brought an introduction to the madness and ended it in a fashion that wasn’t just great, but the perfect wake-up to call to the joy that this festival brings.
Arriving with the nuisance that traffic would be an issue (and paying $15 more than a regular cab ride), the badge pick-up was no sweat. Within a couple of hours, Sixth Street was an undoubted home to everyone at SXSW; from street vendors, badgeholders, drunkards and annoyed townies (granted the first day was St. Patrick’s Day), it was a hub that was battery-powered by the constant stream of footsteps. Scouring for freebies, the descent to a few parties grew bothersome, as we seceded from the Sixth Street madness and visited the off-site madness of the Levi’s FADER Fort.
Melding a mix between massive clubhouse and used-car dealership in terms of design, the Fort was home to DJs, bloggers and artists alike. With DJs like Annie Mac and Nguzunguzu spinning tunes to crowds formulating to the booth, the bands who played the actual fort were second in line in terms of interest. The experience came to a close on a day one as a shelter for the chaos of SXSW in downtown Austin along with a steady set of good tunes and vast amounts of alcohol.
As the day grew darker, the same darkness began to match the music. The decision was made to go to WARP Record’s artist showcase at The Phoenix, again an off-site venue from the madness. It played home to some of the most astonishing performances in recent memory. With band openers Nice Nice, Pivot, and Born Ruffians all providing a canvas of instrumental bliss that WARP has represented in recent years, it set up for the originations of WARP; the electronic artists. Starting with Hudson Mohawke, the crowd enjoyed a mix of “wonked” beats in between lucid synth samples and MC Olivier Daysoul (who is prevalent on HudMo’s Butter release), and as much as the music was great, the crowd was mediocre in terms of performance. Soon thereafter, San Francisco-based dubstep mastermind Eskmo came on-stage to perform a live set of his own material that ranged from hard wobbles to dark dub techno waves of fury. Performing “live” on a MIDI keyboard and MIDI pad of samples, Eskmo provided a necessary human element that’s often missing from live electronic events. The crowd understood this and absolutely went wild. People were just jumping on couches and losing their minds collectively, standing by one another huddled in bass-fueled joy. After almost an hour, Eskmo handed the stage off to the living legend and WARP’s 21st-century hero, Flying Lotus.
Lotus came on-stage representing fellow WARP label-mate Gonjasufi on his chest and seem poised, relaxed, talking to the crowd about “that good shit.” He let the crowd know that they were in for a treat, as this was a premiere debut live set in America with incorporated visual backdrops going with each pattern in his tunes. People were already excited, but when he dropped the first beat, they knew they weren’t just in for any old live set from the beloved FlyLo.
Providing a visual canvas of ’50s-era film reel, space-film from olden times and overall a sense of foreboding futuristic fantasy worlds, Lotus let us into his head and his heart. Dropping his Lil Wayne remix of “I Feel Like Dying”, he launched into his audio/visual assault in full-force with a powerful set of all his music from the past, present and future. Dropping bits off the space-opera that is Cosmogramma (out on May 4th), the crowd were stunned, shocked and awe-stricken at the music and Lotus’s acceptance towards it. With his huge smile confusing patrons as “enjoyable” to “maniacal”, the directions he went were off the road completely. With those directions, he got the entire place lost in his world. Dropping tunes late in his set from Burial and Radiohead, FlyLo gave a sense of musical appreciation and admiration back to his crowd. Acknowledging the legion of fans in the front, he was all smiles. He knew he played a fantastic set, but what he didn’t know was the amount of smiles he created by the end.
Let’s just say, this was the perfect way to start Day One of SXSW. A warm welcome to Austin, it was.
For more amazing SXSW photos, check out the URB Photo Gallery HERE
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