- Festival Reviews
We’ve waited a long time for our home town of Southampton to host a ‘one-dayer’ festival, so there was excited expectation for this event. Across three venues: the legendary Joiners, the slightly smaller Heartbreakers and larger 1865.
- Festival Reviews
Our second consecutive year at this excellent one-dayer featuring upcoming indie talent. Five stages across four venues, each one a minute walk apart. For the most part every band has a 30 minute slot and with timetable arranged so that the acts dovetail one another there was plenty of opportunity to take in a large number of acts and squeeze excellent value from the £26 ticket.
- Festival Reviews
Well...last night was a late one so today I am moving a little slow. Sleep in late, take our time and head out at noon to Cheer Up Charlie's to see Meagre Martin. Berlin based trio are a psychedelic folk rock band. They sound good and it's a comfortable little set of "Faux Country" (what the band considers themselves). It's a nice start to the day
- Festival Reviews
After a bit of a rest, and with clear weather expected, I made the decision that we should head to what is considered one of the big shows of the night. Noise Co is a record label/management/independent co-op that American rock/indie artist Ben Kweller started in 2007. This night features a selection of their artists, as it turns out, last year, just before Ben's son Dorian was to appear at SXSW 2023, he was involved in a tragic freak car crash and sadly passed away.
- Festival Reviews
Friday has us up early again to catch Lo Moon at the ACL radio show at Hotel Van Zandt. Just a couple of songs and a great little interview with the band (including them playing a new Song off the upcoming album) it's been worth the early morning visit to Rainey St in Austin.
- Festival Reviews
Today, after a fairly good sleep, we are on the move. Our first two nights in Austin we were staying a little out of the city centre. Today we were moving into our usual hotel, a lot closer to the showcases. We move our gear into our new room and then off to ACL Radio shows at the Hotel Van Zandt. ACL Radio (to benefit make a wish foundation) have artists perform for a large group of fans in an auditorium and they broadcast the performances and discussions on their station
- Festival Reviews
Starting off today I went to the Paste Magazine showcase. Three days of shows...4 stages, well set up where you could see alot in a very short period of time.
- Festival Reviews
- Festival Reviews
I would have to consider this year's SXSW a success. Despite early set backs and odd little mishaps..we got to see some absolutely spectacular shows.
- Festival Reviews
I shall make no apology for extolling the virtues of this festival in similar terms to previous years. Simply a great music weekend featuring many bands appearing on the radar for the first time, alongside a number of established names.
- Festival Reviews
Thursday
Beige Banquet – bangin’ tunes from this 5-piece guitar band. Varied approaches to each number, sometime bass-led; others driven by lead guitar and vocal in the style of Yard Act; in others the electro percussion/keyboard played the prominent role.
- Festival Reviews
The End Of The Road is on its way to becoming my favourite festival: Brimming over with interesting music, films, art, literary events, comedy and workshops, all in a wonderful setting. It is a fitting finale to the festival season, that leaves you feeling restored rather than worn out.
The festival site is exceptionally pretty and easy to get around. The absence of wifi and proper phone reception helps to restore the festival vibe of old, when you were cut off from the real world for a few days, just consuming as much of the program as you could fit in. I generally know only ten percent of the EOTR line-up, which is a great basis for new discoveries.
I went as a volunteer, but favourable shifts meant I did not miss that much. Even so, I had a bad case of FOMO on Thursday night. With just over eight hours between shifts I had to try and sleep. The cinema tent were showing ‘The Last Waltz’ at 23:00, which I have never seen. It was a rainy night and as I was lying in my tent I could hear the crowd in the cinema tent singing along to ‘The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down’. Oh to have been there…