Saturday, March 17, 2007

SXSW #3

With just a few hours of sleep we are off to San Antontio for a technology conference in the morning, and then back to Austin early in the evening for a session on China as an emerging market for Western music. After dinner, we saw the upcoming documentary Helvetica, on yes, the typeface of the same name. A fascinating, and often humourous film, we have been unable to view the world the same since. A must see.

The evening's music, was located primarily at Stubb's. Despite hearing a lot of hype and a few singles from Aqualung, there set was rather disappointing, coming off as a cross between James Blunt and Snow Patrol, though some may argue whether that amounts to a credible difference. The Apostles of Hustle came on next, and at times delivered a good show, but were a little too stylistically diverse, from their clothes to their sound, and were unable to show a degree of consistency. The problems of the Apostle of Hustle were shown more clearly as soon as The Dears took the stage and, along with Bloc Party, who were headlining and perhaps repaying SXSW for helping to launch last year's phenomenal North American tour, were perhaps one of the most successful one-two pop punches we've seen in awhile. It is arguable who pulled out deserving the No.1 spot more, a win-win for the audience.

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