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Home > Atlanta Music Scene > Archives > 2008 > March > 14 > Entry
Friday at South by Southwest in Austin
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Whigs rip it up at Paste’s afternoon party Friday at Volume.
Los Campesinos at Filter magazine’s Showdown at Cedar Stret Courtyard Friday afternoon.
Friday was a gorgeous day in Austin, but the bounty of live music on offer at the South by Southwest Music Festival was enough to draw even the most diehard sun-worshipper into dark bars.
A pair of magazines offered some of the best reasons to see some live music in the afternoon.
First, the Filter magazine party at Cedar Street Courtyard hosted Swedish combo the Shout Out Louds. Lucky for the outdoor lovers, this show took place outside, giving listeners a choice between sun and shade.
Take the gloom and doom out of the Cure and amp up the pop catchiness and you’d have the Shout Out Louds. If “Friday, I’m in Love” and “Just Like Heaven” are on heavy rotation in your playlist, you should check this band out pronto. The chaotic playground punk of Wales’ Los Campesinos followed, after many equipment-related delays. The joyous cacophony was worth the wait. “It’s never, ever, ever this hot,” said keyboardist Aleksandra - the band members all go by the first names followed by “Campesinos” - after bandmate Gareth told the crowd the group was from Cardiff in South Wales. Gareth removed his shirt in response. “This is to distract from our gear not working,” he said.
About eight blocks away, Decatur-based Paste magazine was co-sponsoring another winning line-up. Atlanta native Kaki King, Canada’s the Weakerthans, New Zealander Liam Finn and Athens’ the Whigs all took the stage Friday afternoon at Volume. The Whigs, with a demanding schedule that included a white-hot set at the Austin Music Hall on Thursday night, ripped the place apart again. Incredible performances just seem to come naturally to these guys. Thursday it was the cavernous Music Hall, Friday the more intimate Volume club. It doesn’t matter how big or small the venue, this band seems to deliver a ferocious set of ear-catching, no-frills rock every time.
On the patio out back at Volume, I ran into Lenny Kuff, 23, a fairly new Austin resident who was experiencing his second South by Southwest music week. The town’s music scene was one of the things that made him want to move to the Texas capital. When he got a job offer after graduating from the University of Wisconsin, he jumped at the chance to come to Austin and moved here last June.
Kuff was making his way from day party to day party, most of them free. Earlier in the afternoon at J. Black’s Feel Good Lounge, just up 6th Street from Volume, he’d spotted Ludacris. “He was chillin’ out with his entourage, drinking Mexican Martinis,” Kuff says. “I thought that people would be harassing him, but they were all pretty chill.”
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