大象传媒

It seems that for the past few years the yearly pilgimage to Austin, Texas for the great industry gig-a-thon that is South By Southwest has been rather rudely hijacked by hallions from Northern Ireland, eager to thrust their wares on unsuspecting label bosses and jaded hacks. This year has been no exception.

Local heroes ranging from General Fiasco, Fighting With Wire, the Lost Brothers, Ben Glover and our chums from the Beat Poets who kindly found time in between gigs and general party mayhem to blog a little and bring you a flavour of what South by Southwest is all about. One of NI's finest snappers, Graham Smith was also on hand to capture some of the highlights.

Tues 17th - St. Patrick's Day
Arrived with place completely buzzing and everyone and everything in Green, The band did it's first show on Friday in New York in the Delancey with Nancy from Brazil who are also doing SXSW and worked on some new tunes at a studio beside Madison Square Garden on sunday. Met the General Fiasco lads in Newark Airport and headed to Austin. First show in Austin was today at Mother the 17th. Went really well and we were invited back to kick off their SXSW on Thursday at 12 noon - we now have 3 shows on the 19th and 2 on the 20th at SXSW.

18th March
Hit the conference centre with Graham Smith and Poets tracks got well received at the A&R and mentoring sessions... met the booker for the Grammys and had a long chat about U2 and Paul McCartney's performances. Also bumped into Jarvis Cocker who gave a fantastic talk at SXSW!

19th March
Poets did 3 shows today in blistering heat, Jamie from FWW agreed us Irish lads need acclimatising to these outdoor stage shows in 30 degrees. The highlight was a Jam Packed Latitude 30 with a queue down the street for the Music From N.Ireland Party, with all acts putting on top-notch shows! Also saw Primal Scream and The Black Lips tear up Cedars Court Yard!

20th March
2 Shows today including a rooftop appearance at the Sonicbids Official Party at Maggie Mae's and our official showcase at Lamberts. Again it was great to see a queue down the street for another Party especially so early in the morning... madness as the first gigs kick off at 6am! As well as this Metallica turn up for an unannouced show at the legendary stubbs.

21st March
Saw girl band who were performing an Amazing 27 shows at SXSW this year a new record! Everything seems to have wound down by the Saturday, but the conference centre was buzzing with Echo and The Bunnymen performing. All the Northern Irish acts did our home patch proud!

Words: The Beat Poets
Pics: Graham Smith