Culture
30 Mar 09

Big south strikes again

Each March hundreds of indie rock hopefuls from around the globe descend on Austin, Texas for the South By South West rock festival. And each year, the event throws up a new batch of buzzy contenders. Vampire Weekend, MGMT and The Virgins are among the recent newcomers to have cemented their reputation with storming SXSW turns. A few weeks ago, some of the Irish music scene’s hottest debutantes made the long trek to Texas for SXSW ‘09, among them fancied old-school rockers Dirty Epics. Frontwoman Sarah Jane Wai O'Flynn brings us a frontline report.

Our SXSW experience was so thrilling, eye-opening and fun-filled!

We flew in from a chilly New York with just two hours sleep after two great gigs there in the Mercury Lounge and Pianos – so it was quite a shock to the senses arriving into balmy Austin.
Everything was crazy from the get-go; our host family, the Gaults, who have been a huge support to us here, collected us from the airport in three trucks and brought us straight into town for our Paddy’s Day shows. Mark Gault was even profiled in the New York Times this week, as he’s renowned as an awesome SXSW host!
First we played in the Soho Lounge with our friends Bipolar Empire, who’d taken up residence on 5th St. in their very impressive RV; then at 7pm we played in BD Riley’s. The show was a great insight into how the Texans, regardless of age, like to rock out. The crowd really dug our songs and especially our cover of ‘Jailbreak’, which we played for the day that was in it (i.e. Paddy's Day).
Over the five days we tried to check out as many bands as possible. There were so many amazing acts to take in. My favourites were Gallows – Frank Carter is one of the best performers I’ve seen in years. I also loved the Juliette and the New Romantics gig, which was totally inspiring. But then, watching female-fronted bands is always special for me. Juliette Lewis – for it was she – has an awesome stage presence and is not afraid to really throw herself into the music.
Edinburgh based Come On Gang were awesome too, and we caught a super exciting new punk group from Korea called The Geeks!
On Friday we headed out to East Austin to a converted church to do a Nokia Music Store special SXSW session. It was great to see another Austin suburb and to record the acoustic session, which will see us featured alongside lots of other great artists from SXSW.
And then came our showcase gig in the Soho Lounge on Saturday night! First, it was a real pleasure to be playing the Music From Ireland stage with acts like We Should Be Dead – they have a bright American sound that went down big time.
I was really happy with our set. There’s definitely extra pressure to perform well at a festival like this but it was a real joy to be up there. We were thrilled with the turnout. There was a great mix of what Austin locals refer to as “The Badgers!” – industry folk with their access all areas badges – and local music lovers.
It’s really quite special to experience a festival like SXSW. The people, the vibe, the enthusiasm and the support have been inspirational. It’s given us a serious incentive to work our butts off and return next year in an even stronger position.