see the slide show of more pictures from the show here.
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca
by: Joshua Ostroff
SXSW 2014 will forever be marked by tragedy — the senseless deaths of two festival goers and 23 injured by a drunk driver now facing the death penalty won’t soon be forgotten, nor will Tyler the Creator’s arrest for inciting a riot.
But the silver lining surrounding that dark cloud was that so much astounding music was still there to be found throughout the 28th annual music festival in Austin, Texas.
South by Southwest may have been occupied by crass corporate brands and drunken spring breakers — a couple hundred thousand people descend on Austin, though only 20,000 are SXSW delegates — but there were also about 2,300 musical acts from every conceivable genre playing at every conceivable space.
And what other festival could be highlighted by local legend Willie Nelson, transgender punk Laura Jane Grace’s group Against Me!, a Gorillaz reunion, and Blondie covering the Beastie Boys?
Nelson’s impressive performance Saturday night was hardly surprising — there’s a reason that the ACL Live at the Moody Theatre venue, where iTunes was staging its side-festival during SXSW, is on Willie Nelson Blvd and boasts a statue of the country icon.
But never having seen him live before, Nelson’s incorporation of blues and jazz into his old-world country proved inspiring, as was his inclusion of my favourite song “Me and Paul” since he has hundreds of potential tracks to choose from. He even played “Crazy” (which he wrote but is most famous for the Patsy Cline version) and then solo’d his popular Toby Keith duet “Beer for my Horses.”
His only official special guest was Lily Meola, a young woman with an old voice, who lent her smoky croon to their duet “Will You Remember Mine.” The 80-year-old also let his son Lukas take lead on the Stevie Ray Vaughn tune, “Texas Flood.” The younger Nelson ably proved his father’s selection was no act of nepotism, delivering blistering electric blues guitar work and solidly-gruff vocals that brought the crowd to its feet in the middle of the song.
Nelson the elder then introduced a “new gospel tune” called, “Roll Me Up And Smoke Me When I Die,” which inspired the festival’s most amusing sing-along.
That is, not counting when Blondie diverged from their own classics — and pretty great new songs — to play the Beastie Boys’ “Fight For Your Right (To Party)” which saw the crowd at Rachael Ray’s insanely popular Feedback party (people began lining up at 3 a.m.) pumping their fists, while rapping along with Debbie Harry.