South By Southwest: it’s the holy grail of music festivals for both hopeful up-and-comers and established bands around the globe.
Every year in March, a legion of Aussies make the trip to Texas in search of a big break and an even bigger party. Now, Melbourne rockersPretty Cityshare with us their tour diary, plus a few tips for SXSW success, because what happens in Austin doesn’t always stay in Austin.
Words: Hugh Matthews (vocals/guitar)
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Before the trip: how to pack for SXSW
Packing for SXSW 2016 presented some interesting dilemmas for Pretty City inc. You want to look like a perfectly effortless bohemian dream whilst at the festival, and yet you get anxious about taking your most beautiful instruments and possessions on tour. Sure it’s a risk, but Pretty City inc. HAD to take all our most beautiful things on tour to SXSW because 1. They deserve the trip; and 2. Things only hold value when they are making people happy. They’re doing nothing hiding in the sock drawer at home.
Like Cyndi Lauper says: “Some boys take a beautiful girl and hide her away from the rest of the world / I want to be the one to walk in the sun / Oh girls, they want to have fun“.
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What to do when a celebrity shows up to watch you play
On day one of SXSW 2016, Seth Rogen showed up to see us at Clive Bar. It was cool, but he wasn’t nearly chubby or stoned enough and we all felt cheated by life.
At SXSW, opportunity is everywhere; the atmosphere is light and positive. We got offered this extra show the day we arrived, and it was mad fun jamming on a honky, cowboy-themed stage (that wasn’t The Retreat). You can see corporate Austin looming over the dusty little Clive Bar in this photo, showing how SXSW is an interesting collision of the city’s deep music roots and ambitious music industry peeps.
Wow, my year ten English teacher would be impressed by my analysis of mise en scènethere.
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Finding the right place to stay
Don’t be fooled by the sedate surrounds, Pretty City inc. rented the number one party shack in outer suburban Austin. If anyone else had have made it out this far, they would have rocked the shit out.
We lived off gas station food a la Reality Bites and met many super cool Uber drivers. Our favourite would have to be driver Chris who said, “Oasis and The Strokes had a baby called Pretty City.” Not satisfied with heaping such glowing praise, Chris then made us a highly produced music video using an indoor drone and six cameras whilst attending three of our SXSW shows.
If this is standard Uber service then they (and Chris) are doing it right. Not bad for $43 USD.
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OK, so you’ve pulled a big crowd. Now what?
Three-piece bands tend to be tight or nothing, so it had to be full-on fuzzy psych rock till you drop. Crowds were responding, and we filled our official SXSW Shoegaze-Rock Showcase to capacity at Tellers Bar. People were being turned away from the packed club, and we knew this would get seriously rowdy once it started.
It surely did – every piece of gear we had died and came back to life at least once, and it built an incredible energy and mania on stage and through the crowd. The place thronged and teemed in time with us – it was really cranking through the back half of the set. After our set, we caught LA babes Nightmare Air, who picked up the vibe and kept it rolling big time! They have lush stereo guitars and pumping Garbage/Black Rebel grooves – what a cool band full of beautiful, soulful people.
Next up was the Aussie BBQ day at SXSW 2016. It was inspiring to run into the Oz rock’n’roll community on neutral ground and try to melt each other’s faces. Harts, DMA’s, Gooch Palms, Pretty City and Stonefield offered a ’90s/rock ambience in which we felt understandably comfortable. We opened the show, playing a 25-minute medley of our most BBQ-friendly/pumping tracks.
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And don’t forget, free food isn’t always what it seems
I Heart Radio Austin had been spinning our track ‘Melt’ throughout 2016 and thus invited us to play on their SXSW Showcase stage on Festival Saturday. Chris and Hannah at I Heart are really lovely people and have rad taste in venues, choosing the glitzy Gibson Room at Maggie Mae’s on 6th St.
The backstage area contained 17 types of free pizza, which we took as a reference to ‘Melt’. 17 types of free pizza seems like a heavenly concept (and a most excellent stoner-rock band name) however crippling pizza FOMO/agony of choice ensued. Johnny ate too much of one pizza and thus missed out on several other excellent flavour combinations, disaster!
Luckily our inner turmoil soon turned to outer rocking the fuck out. This show was packed, loud and loose, and we followed it up with probably our most energetic show of the festival at Darwin’s Bar early Saturday evening. NY punk rockers Killing Floor set a mighty scene before us, and we just had an amazing time onstage running, jumping, tackling each other, howling our tunes and riding a giant, rolling sea of glorious fuzzy melody.
It was just what it needed to be, a fun and frenetic end to our run of shows at SXSW 2016.
