gigi
03-28-2008, 02:09 PM
History of SXSW: part three
By Michael Corcoran | Tuesday, March 11, 2008, 07:01 PM
1999
Number of acts: 829
Keynote speaker: Lucinda Williams
Buzz, buzz, buzz: Trail of Dead, Lo-Fidelity Allstars, Built To Spill, Patty Griffin, Cibo Matto, the Hives
*
The magic is so quickly followed by mayhem. The night after Tom Waits plays the Paramount Theatre, one of the all-time highlights of SXSW, his friend and sometime-promoter Don Hyde is savagely beaten by bouncers at La Zona Rosa. The bouncers were trying to clear out the crowd after Alejandro Escovedo’s set, but when Hyde wants to go backstage to get his bag, there is some jostling, and push soon turns to punch, then to kicks in the side. Hyde suffers five broken ribs, a broken collarbone and a separated shoulder. Waits vows to never play Texas again and has stayed true to his word.
*
A major Thursday night thunderstorm forces cancellation of all outdoor events that night, including a Willie Nelson concert at Stubb’s. Emo’s is flooded with knee-high water, but most of it drains by showtime.
2000
Number of acts: 1,314
Keynote speaker: Steve Earle
Buzz, buzz, buzz: At the Drive In, Black Eyed Peas, Modest Mouse, Elliot Smith, Marah, Blackalicious, Jennyanykind, Backyard Babies, Morphine, Cibo Matto, Bright Eyes, Tenacious D
*
Friction sparks between SXSW and Revolver magazine after Revolver flies in Guided By Voices, not an official festival act, to play a private party. Revolver charges SXSW with threatening to call in the fire marshals (a charge denied), but the jam-packed party goes off without a stumble. Good food, too.
*
Neil Young, in town to hawk his new concert film ‘Silver and Gold’ locks himself out of his suite at the Driskill and conducts a news conference, with a handful of critics, in the hallway.
*
Los Super Seven is born at a party at Las Manitas when members of Los Lobos jam with Raul Malo and Austin’s Joe Ely, Ruben Ramos and Rick Trevino.
*
A grouchy soundman cuts the magic at Momo’s, just as Jerry Harrison of Talking Heads joins Bernie Worrell onstage for an encore of music from ‘Remain In Light.’ A cooler dude would’ve let the show go past 2 a.m.
2001
Number of acts: 1,159
Keynote speaker: Ray Davies
Buzz, buzz, buzz: White Stripes, the Strokes, Death Cab For Cutie, Aterciopelados, Kasey Chambers, Bellrays, Coldplay, My Morning Jacket, Mogwai, the Shins, New Pornographers
*
During that small window in which he’s a star, Pete Yorn pulls a star trip, refusing to leave the La Zona Rosa stage after his allotted time. Even after the houselights go up, Yorn continues to play and eventually does leave the stage, ‘not by our own choice.’ The following act, North Mississippi Allstars, finally starts at 2 a.m.
*
Revolver magazine tries to stick it to SXSW again, flying in the Cult for a private party, but when staffers show up to register, they discover that their badges have been revoked. ‘The roadrunner would be nothing without the coyote,’ Revolver’s Brad Tolinski says, relishing the controversy.
*
Ike Turner plays to a crowd lousy with musicians and a few protesters who’d seen ‘What’s Love Got To Do With It.’ By the end of the incredible set, the crowd chants, ‘We like Ike!’
2002
Number of acts: 1,011
Keynote speaker: Robbie Robertson
Buzz, buzz, buzz: Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Los Lonely Boys, Clinic, Mastodon, Norah Jones, Eels, Drive-By Truckers, Polyphonic Spree, KaitO, Tift Merritt, Mooney Suzuki
*
The worst SXSW booking of all time puts Norah Jones, who has the No. 1 album in the country, in the upstairs banquet room of the Clay Pit Indian restaurant. Forget, for a moment, that it’s a little rude to put the daughter of Ravi Shankar in an Indian restaurant, but what is the woman about to win six Grammys doing playing any restaurant?
*
Courtney Love draws the biggest crowd ever for a non-keynote, and her rambling, self-indulgent, ‘one on none’ interview doesn’t disappoint rubberneckers. Love complains of a tequila hangover, but they don’t serve tequila in the men’s room of the Hole In the Wall, where she had locked herself with a couple of unsavory locals for an hour the night before.
*
Los Angeles rockers the Icarus Line make national news when the singer smashes a display case at the Hard Rock Cafe and tries to play a guitar that once belonged to Stevie Ray Vaughan. Bouncers chase the singer four blocks before he gets away.
2003
Number of acts: 1,079
Keynote speaker: Daniel Lanois
Buzz, buzz, buzz: Raveonettes, the Rapture, Junior Senior, Granddaddy, the Darkness, Eisley, Petty Booka, the Locust, Tegan & Sara, D4
*
With the invasion of Iraq imminent, war becomes a big topic in President Bush’s former backyard. First you had the flap over Natalie Maines’ expressed embarrassment that the president was from Texas, which hit the news just as SXSW was starting. Then, 7,000 anti-war protesters flooded the already packed streets near the Capitol.
*
Several hundred counterfeit wristbands are confiscated on the last night of the fest. The pirate bracelets are traced to a print shop near the UT campus. Four men are charged and plead guilty.
*
A mini-riot of about 600 disappointed Molotov fans breaks out outside the sold-out show by the Mexican hard rockers. Police on horseback break up the melee.
*
The Saturday afterhours Spin party, long the hippest invite at SXSW, goes daytime Friday at Stubb’s. The previous year, the bash was halted by TABC officers who claimed it did not fit the guidelines for a private party after hours because names of invitees were not kept on a list. (Apparently, ‘Sia Michel plus 220’ isn’t good enough.)
2004
Number of acts: 1,260
Keynote speaker: Little Richard
Buzz, buzz, buzz: Mindy Smith, Hold Steady, Franz Ferdinand, Dizzie Rascal, Decemberists, Broken Social Scene, N.E.R.D., the Thrills, Scissor Sisters
*
The year of the Ozomatli bust. Austin police look silly arresting two members of the Latin rock band after a conga line on Sixth Street turns into some roughhousing and a cop claims percussionist Jiro Yamaguchi hit him with a drum. The charges are eventually dropped.
*
Local breakout band Los Lonely Boys break all attendance records with their free show at Auditorium Shores. If the Town Lake venue holds 10,000 comfortably, there are 25,000 on hand. But the trio also plays in the back of Las Manitas at a party celebrating the making of Alejandro Escovedo tribute album ‘Por Vida.’
2005
Number of acts: 1,326
Keynote speaker: Robert Plant
Buzz, buzz, buzz: M.I.A., the Go! Team, Bloc Party, Giant Drag, Kaiser Chiefs, Futureheads, We Are Scientists, Nine Black Alps, Aqualung, Dogs Die In Hot Cars
* SXSW comes to East Austin, the new daytime party hub. But even with so many festgoers venturing on ‘the other side’ of the freeway, downtown is clogged beyond belief and waits outside Sixth Street clubs are the longest ever.
*Those clueless kids from MTV’s ‘Real World: Austin’ drag themselves out of the Dizzy Rooster long enough to film a documentary about SXSW, following around those white-hot buzz bands Halifax and Enon.
*The weather is brutally cold the first day of SXSW, but heats up nicely by the next day. Not so at the huge aircraft hangar Charles Attal rents out for its annual after-hours party. Jessica Simpson is among the freezing guests who come out for Queens of the Stone Age.
*Who knew Robert Plant is so funny and charming? The former Led Zep singer’s ‘keynote conversation’ with Bill Flanagan is the best SXSW opener ever.
2006
Keynote speaker: Neil Young
Number of acts: 1,400
Buzz, buzz, buzz: Arctic Monkeys, the Like, KT Tunstall, Chamillionaire, Dresden Dolls, Subways, Magic Numbers, the Sword
*
The year of the stowaway. Chicago fashion designer Catherine “Cat” Chow is so intent on getting to SXSW that she stows away in the bathroom on a sold-out flight from St. Louis. Chow is arrested upon arrival in Austin.
*
Arctic Monkeys play SXSW the week after appearing on “Saturday Night Live,” hitting town with incredible synergy. But there’s not much of a line outside their showcase at La Zona Rosa because everyone figured (a la Tony Bennett) that there’d be no chance of getting in.
*
In a rare case of SXSW unselfishness, the Invincible Czars invite fellow Austin band Opposite Day, who did not make the SXSW cut, to play a song during the Czars’ showcase at Latitude 30.
2007
Keynote speaker: Pete Townshend
Number of acts: 1,400 Buzz, buzz, buzz: Amy Winehouse, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, Peter, Bjorn & John, Lily Allen, the Pipettes
*
Things seemed to have gone swimmingly, but when word gets out that SXSW organizers provided fire marshals with a list of private parties, resulting in three big bashes being shut down, Internet comments sections exploded in rage. In one of his many defensive posts, SXSW co-founder Louis Black uses a truly bizarre analogy concerning an abacus.
*
Gossip queen Perez Hilton is spotted all over town, christening SXSW as a celebfest.
* Some chucklehead newspaper critic accuses the Stooges of using a bass loop on one song and Iggy Pop fires off a letter to the editor saying they would never even consider such a thing.
2008
Keynote speaker: Lou Reed
Number of acts: 1,700
Buzz, buzz, buzz: Vampire Weekend, Duffy, Sons and Daughters, Vampire Weekend, Yeasayer, Vampire Weekend
* SXSW has apparently forgiven “disrespectful” Reed for the sin of playing on the same night as the Austin Music Awards.
By Michael Corcoran | Tuesday, March 11, 2008, 07:01 PM
1999
Number of acts: 829
Keynote speaker: Lucinda Williams
Buzz, buzz, buzz: Trail of Dead, Lo-Fidelity Allstars, Built To Spill, Patty Griffin, Cibo Matto, the Hives
*
The magic is so quickly followed by mayhem. The night after Tom Waits plays the Paramount Theatre, one of the all-time highlights of SXSW, his friend and sometime-promoter Don Hyde is savagely beaten by bouncers at La Zona Rosa. The bouncers were trying to clear out the crowd after Alejandro Escovedo’s set, but when Hyde wants to go backstage to get his bag, there is some jostling, and push soon turns to punch, then to kicks in the side. Hyde suffers five broken ribs, a broken collarbone and a separated shoulder. Waits vows to never play Texas again and has stayed true to his word.
*
A major Thursday night thunderstorm forces cancellation of all outdoor events that night, including a Willie Nelson concert at Stubb’s. Emo’s is flooded with knee-high water, but most of it drains by showtime.
2000
Number of acts: 1,314
Keynote speaker: Steve Earle
Buzz, buzz, buzz: At the Drive In, Black Eyed Peas, Modest Mouse, Elliot Smith, Marah, Blackalicious, Jennyanykind, Backyard Babies, Morphine, Cibo Matto, Bright Eyes, Tenacious D
*
Friction sparks between SXSW and Revolver magazine after Revolver flies in Guided By Voices, not an official festival act, to play a private party. Revolver charges SXSW with threatening to call in the fire marshals (a charge denied), but the jam-packed party goes off without a stumble. Good food, too.
*
Neil Young, in town to hawk his new concert film ‘Silver and Gold’ locks himself out of his suite at the Driskill and conducts a news conference, with a handful of critics, in the hallway.
*
Los Super Seven is born at a party at Las Manitas when members of Los Lobos jam with Raul Malo and Austin’s Joe Ely, Ruben Ramos and Rick Trevino.
*
A grouchy soundman cuts the magic at Momo’s, just as Jerry Harrison of Talking Heads joins Bernie Worrell onstage for an encore of music from ‘Remain In Light.’ A cooler dude would’ve let the show go past 2 a.m.
2001
Number of acts: 1,159
Keynote speaker: Ray Davies
Buzz, buzz, buzz: White Stripes, the Strokes, Death Cab For Cutie, Aterciopelados, Kasey Chambers, Bellrays, Coldplay, My Morning Jacket, Mogwai, the Shins, New Pornographers
*
During that small window in which he’s a star, Pete Yorn pulls a star trip, refusing to leave the La Zona Rosa stage after his allotted time. Even after the houselights go up, Yorn continues to play and eventually does leave the stage, ‘not by our own choice.’ The following act, North Mississippi Allstars, finally starts at 2 a.m.
*
Revolver magazine tries to stick it to SXSW again, flying in the Cult for a private party, but when staffers show up to register, they discover that their badges have been revoked. ‘The roadrunner would be nothing without the coyote,’ Revolver’s Brad Tolinski says, relishing the controversy.
*
Ike Turner plays to a crowd lousy with musicians and a few protesters who’d seen ‘What’s Love Got To Do With It.’ By the end of the incredible set, the crowd chants, ‘We like Ike!’
2002
Number of acts: 1,011
Keynote speaker: Robbie Robertson
Buzz, buzz, buzz: Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Los Lonely Boys, Clinic, Mastodon, Norah Jones, Eels, Drive-By Truckers, Polyphonic Spree, KaitO, Tift Merritt, Mooney Suzuki
*
The worst SXSW booking of all time puts Norah Jones, who has the No. 1 album in the country, in the upstairs banquet room of the Clay Pit Indian restaurant. Forget, for a moment, that it’s a little rude to put the daughter of Ravi Shankar in an Indian restaurant, but what is the woman about to win six Grammys doing playing any restaurant?
*
Courtney Love draws the biggest crowd ever for a non-keynote, and her rambling, self-indulgent, ‘one on none’ interview doesn’t disappoint rubberneckers. Love complains of a tequila hangover, but they don’t serve tequila in the men’s room of the Hole In the Wall, where she had locked herself with a couple of unsavory locals for an hour the night before.
*
Los Angeles rockers the Icarus Line make national news when the singer smashes a display case at the Hard Rock Cafe and tries to play a guitar that once belonged to Stevie Ray Vaughan. Bouncers chase the singer four blocks before he gets away.
2003
Number of acts: 1,079
Keynote speaker: Daniel Lanois
Buzz, buzz, buzz: Raveonettes, the Rapture, Junior Senior, Granddaddy, the Darkness, Eisley, Petty Booka, the Locust, Tegan & Sara, D4
*
With the invasion of Iraq imminent, war becomes a big topic in President Bush’s former backyard. First you had the flap over Natalie Maines’ expressed embarrassment that the president was from Texas, which hit the news just as SXSW was starting. Then, 7,000 anti-war protesters flooded the already packed streets near the Capitol.
*
Several hundred counterfeit wristbands are confiscated on the last night of the fest. The pirate bracelets are traced to a print shop near the UT campus. Four men are charged and plead guilty.
*
A mini-riot of about 600 disappointed Molotov fans breaks out outside the sold-out show by the Mexican hard rockers. Police on horseback break up the melee.
*
The Saturday afterhours Spin party, long the hippest invite at SXSW, goes daytime Friday at Stubb’s. The previous year, the bash was halted by TABC officers who claimed it did not fit the guidelines for a private party after hours because names of invitees were not kept on a list. (Apparently, ‘Sia Michel plus 220’ isn’t good enough.)
2004
Number of acts: 1,260
Keynote speaker: Little Richard
Buzz, buzz, buzz: Mindy Smith, Hold Steady, Franz Ferdinand, Dizzie Rascal, Decemberists, Broken Social Scene, N.E.R.D., the Thrills, Scissor Sisters
*
The year of the Ozomatli bust. Austin police look silly arresting two members of the Latin rock band after a conga line on Sixth Street turns into some roughhousing and a cop claims percussionist Jiro Yamaguchi hit him with a drum. The charges are eventually dropped.
*
Local breakout band Los Lonely Boys break all attendance records with their free show at Auditorium Shores. If the Town Lake venue holds 10,000 comfortably, there are 25,000 on hand. But the trio also plays in the back of Las Manitas at a party celebrating the making of Alejandro Escovedo tribute album ‘Por Vida.’
2005
Number of acts: 1,326
Keynote speaker: Robert Plant
Buzz, buzz, buzz: M.I.A., the Go! Team, Bloc Party, Giant Drag, Kaiser Chiefs, Futureheads, We Are Scientists, Nine Black Alps, Aqualung, Dogs Die In Hot Cars
* SXSW comes to East Austin, the new daytime party hub. But even with so many festgoers venturing on ‘the other side’ of the freeway, downtown is clogged beyond belief and waits outside Sixth Street clubs are the longest ever.
*Those clueless kids from MTV’s ‘Real World: Austin’ drag themselves out of the Dizzy Rooster long enough to film a documentary about SXSW, following around those white-hot buzz bands Halifax and Enon.
*The weather is brutally cold the first day of SXSW, but heats up nicely by the next day. Not so at the huge aircraft hangar Charles Attal rents out for its annual after-hours party. Jessica Simpson is among the freezing guests who come out for Queens of the Stone Age.
*Who knew Robert Plant is so funny and charming? The former Led Zep singer’s ‘keynote conversation’ with Bill Flanagan is the best SXSW opener ever.
2006
Keynote speaker: Neil Young
Number of acts: 1,400
Buzz, buzz, buzz: Arctic Monkeys, the Like, KT Tunstall, Chamillionaire, Dresden Dolls, Subways, Magic Numbers, the Sword
*
The year of the stowaway. Chicago fashion designer Catherine “Cat” Chow is so intent on getting to SXSW that she stows away in the bathroom on a sold-out flight from St. Louis. Chow is arrested upon arrival in Austin.
*
Arctic Monkeys play SXSW the week after appearing on “Saturday Night Live,” hitting town with incredible synergy. But there’s not much of a line outside their showcase at La Zona Rosa because everyone figured (a la Tony Bennett) that there’d be no chance of getting in.
*
In a rare case of SXSW unselfishness, the Invincible Czars invite fellow Austin band Opposite Day, who did not make the SXSW cut, to play a song during the Czars’ showcase at Latitude 30.
2007
Keynote speaker: Pete Townshend
Number of acts: 1,400 Buzz, buzz, buzz: Amy Winehouse, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, Peter, Bjorn & John, Lily Allen, the Pipettes
*
Things seemed to have gone swimmingly, but when word gets out that SXSW organizers provided fire marshals with a list of private parties, resulting in three big bashes being shut down, Internet comments sections exploded in rage. In one of his many defensive posts, SXSW co-founder Louis Black uses a truly bizarre analogy concerning an abacus.
*
Gossip queen Perez Hilton is spotted all over town, christening SXSW as a celebfest.
* Some chucklehead newspaper critic accuses the Stooges of using a bass loop on one song and Iggy Pop fires off a letter to the editor saying they would never even consider such a thing.
2008
Keynote speaker: Lou Reed
Number of acts: 1,700
Buzz, buzz, buzz: Vampire Weekend, Duffy, Sons and Daughters, Vampire Weekend, Yeasayer, Vampire Weekend
* SXSW has apparently forgiven “disrespectful” Reed for the sin of playing on the same night as the Austin Music Awards.