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Home > Atlanta Music Scene > Archives > 2008 > March > 16
Sunday, March 16, 2008
South by Southwest wraps up
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Melissa Young at the Victorian Room at the Driskill in Austin on Saturday night.
On the final night of the South by Southwest music conference and festival, Atlanta’s Melissa Young took the stage in the Victorian Room at the Driskill just past midnight. “This is my first time in Austin. I like it,” she told the audience. “I’m coming back. “The vibe and the energy are amazing.”
She’s right. For a gathering that includes so many music professionals and music geeks, there’s a remarkable lack of cynicism in the air. Most folks seem to leave that grumbling at home and just enjoy the work of the thousands of musicians that converge on the city. It’s a refreshing atmosphere that reaffirms the jaded listener’s faith in music.
The music part of the multimedia festival began Wednesday, when R.E.M. enthralled the throng at Stubb’s Bar-B-Q. The legends seemed reinvigorated, but they aren’t the real story here. That lies in the 1500-plus artists that are here to get their music in front of a wider audience. Among them is Dead Confederate, an Athens quintet on the verge that preceded R.E.M. on the Stubb’s stage Wednesday.
Dead Confederate’s Southern-fried blend of slashing Nirvana-like rock and Pink Floydian atmospherics made for a raging, riveting set. Word got around through the week, and if you mentioned that show to anyone over the next few days, you were likely to hear “I heard Dead Confederate was great” or, from the fans that were there, “they were awesome.” Yes, they were.
They weren’t the only fine band from Atlanta and Athens to impress listeners here in Austin. The Zac Brown Band’s rock, country and reggae blend won over the crowd with a delayed and truncated show on Thursday night at Club de Ville. It seemed that few in the audience had seen the band before, but by set’s end, they were begging for an encore that the stage managers wouldn’t allow.
Over the course of four days, many more Georgia acts did their state proud. Morning State, Anna Kramer and the Lost Cause, Trances Arc, the Whigs, the Pendletons, Atlas Sound, Modern Skirts, Elf Power, We Versus the Shark and Dark Meat are just the ones I managed to catch. There were easily 30 more that made their way from Georgia to the Texas capital last week.
Most of the whirlwind of live music wrapped up late Saturday (or, more accurately, very early Sunday morning), and Melissa Young’s performance was among the fest’s last official showcases.
The Atlanta resident and South Carolina native tells the crowd, in introducing her single “Just a Girl,” that she’s not interested in being what someone else wants her to be. If someone wants to change you, she says, “you tell them you can’t be anybody but you.”
She digs down deep for some heavy emotion on the wrenching ballad “Stay” and funks things up on “Mr. Shownuff.” She’s at her best with the sweet, sexy soulfulness of a tune such as “Rock With Me,” which just makes you want to cuddle with the one you love.
It seemed like a fitting end to this four-day valentine to the power of live music.
