Prince is set to play this year's SXSW.
How can you one-up Justin Timberlake playing an exclusive, small-capacity show on MySpace’s dime? If you’re Prince, you have Samsung rebuild the stage of the 1,100-capacity La Zona Rosa concert hall to accommodate a 22-piece band for a concert with Bruno Mars that, of course, will be all but impossible to get into. And that’s just Saturday night of this year’s South By Southwest.
Big names from throughout the music industry were flocking to Austin over the last week to take part in the annual fest that takes over clubs, theaters, concert halls and most spare parks and parking lots for five days and nights of music. Foo Fighter and former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl (the fest’s keynote speaker this year) was in town to promote his documentary “Sound City: Real To Reel” with the Sound City Players supergroup featuring John Fogerty, Stevie Nicks, Rick Nielsen, Rick Springfield and more. Elsewhere, Green Day, Nick Cave, Snoop Lion, Depeche Mode, Natalie Maines, and Iggy and The Stooges had either shows or appearances (in many cases both) scheduled against an invasion of bands from all over the world estimated to number more than 2,000.
Each conference also means lots of panels, and this year’s conference include sessions with Shaquille O'Neal and producer Clive Davis. On Thursday, Qcue CEO and Austin local Barry Kahn will lead a panel many INTIX members might recognize with speakers Larry Martin from ScoreBig, Mark Achler from Redbox and Jim McCarthy with Goldstar. Later that day at 5 p.m., organizers from North America’s largest festivals will come together for the panel “Music Festivals: The Real Deal From The Experts.”
“Healthy competition is good, but there are some markets that are oversaturated and that’s difficult,” said panelist Meelo Solis with Insomniac, which promotes the annual Electric Daisy Carnival concert. Solis is one of the panelists on the fest session. “The best festivals produced usually prevail.”
Charlie Jennings with AC Entertainment, which books the Bonnaroo festival in Manchester, Tenn., and the new Forecastle Festival in Louisville, Ky., said he’s seeing a shift in the way headliners are booked. Jam bands like Phish were the vogue booking 10 years ago, but now tastes are shifting toward folk and Americana with bands like The Lumineers, and Mumford and Sons coming to the forefront.
“And booking headliners has become a long process, taking one to five years to cultivate,” said Jennings. “Some of these acts don’t tour regularly, and we're finding competition with European festivals. There are a lot of things that go into whether a band will tour.”
The music portion of South by Southwest began Tuesday and overlaps with the last day of the festival’s popular interactive schedule (which drew more than 30,000 attendees, a nearly 25 percent increase). Lines began forming early for highly branded event spaces like Taco Bell’s Hype Hotel, the Viceland compound from Vice magazine (and a laundry list of corporate sponsors), the Spotify House and more. The first night gave a chance for younger acts like Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, Divine Fits, Japandroids, Local Natives, Icona Pop, and Wavves a chance to pack clubs before the bigger names rolled into town, with some of them playing multiple venues on the same night.
The demand from big-name brands like Dorito’s – which erected a giant six-story snack chip vending machine/stage for the second year for a concert with L.L. Cool J, Ice Cube, Public Enemy, and Doug E. Fresh – has led to another banner year for event planners and promoters in Austin. Transmission Events, which operates the popular Mohawk live music club, also arranged spaces and production for Vice, Hype Hotel and a dozen other spaces including its new 1100 Warehouse, a 1,000-plus capacity room in quickly growing east Austin.
While it’s hard to calculate an exact number of events, the Austin entertainment site Austin360.com had listings for more than 500 parties and concerts in addition to hundreds of official festival showcases. Also, the city’s music and events division reported a year-over increase of around five percent in permits for events with outdoor sound or extensive building needs.
Transmission founder James Moody said the large event business has been strong for his company, with big bands and brands chomping at the bit to play in front of fans, media and industry professionals who come from all over the world.
“It’s hard to tell what’s happening at the audience level right now, but from our perspective we’re growing events, people are using us and we’re seeing a lot of interest,” he said. “I had Iggy Pop in at the Mohawk soundchecking (Wednesday morning) and then later we’ll have Paul Bearer, and Trash Talk in there to pretty much destroy the place.”
While the festival’s continued growth means busy days for clubs and lots of nonmusic spaces looking to get in on the action, that business hasn’t sparked much in the way of new large-capacity spaces. The recently relaunched Austin Music Hall was booked all week, as was the ornate ACL Live theater, with the new Brazos Hall downtown large event space as the only new name, hosting an intimate Depeche Mode concert on Friday night.
It’s a smart move for the British band that’s about to release a new album, creating buzz in a time and place when the music industry’s power brokers have their attention fixed in one direction.
“You have to play it now to show you’re still in the game and that you’re serious about about your career,” said Michael Corcoran, the former music critic for the Austin American-Statesman who has covered SXSW since its launch in 1987. “It seems like acts are seeing it as a place to launch or do a sort of product rollout for a new record. When it was announced that Natalie Maines had a new record coming out in May you figure, of course she’s going to play South By.”
As has increasingly happened since arena-level acts like the Beastie Boys, Metallica and Kanye West began booking shows in small clubs and theaters years ago during SXSW as a way to grab headlines, the debate continues over whether the festival has transformed from its roots as a showcase opportunity for younger bands into a brand- and big-name-focused circus.
“I wouldn’t do it if I was in a smaller band, but the main draw is always going to be that everyone in the industry comes here,” Corcoran said. “They want someone like that one Swedish festival producer to see them and maybe do something with them, so stuff like that can help, especially when there’s so much media here and everyone comes away talking about a certain band.”
Interviewed for this article: Meelo Solis, (702) 737-3100; Charlie Jennings, (865) 523-2665; James Moody, (512) 480-5900