Cancellation of SXSW

I just read that SXSW canceled their event this year. A massive decision that involves a lot of money. 355.9 million dollars to be exact. It’s hard to predict how this will affect the whole festival. At the same time how it will affect other events. Here in Sweden, they are thinking of closing concerts that are above a certain capacity. I don’t know the capacity, but rumors say over 5000 people.

These things can disrupt a lot of things also the consuming pattern. People will change their plans and make others and do other discoveries. I guess I have written it before that every ten years it is a big change. And all the time I couldn’t guess what it would be. This time its globalization. The environment question and that we are so globalized going everywhere is creating a new pattern.

How it will look like is also impossible to tell. The effects usually go in very strange ways.

Like now all the people that would have been on SXSW, might need a new meeting point. Or will the virus keep hanging in so long that everything will be pushed to next year?

A professional guess is that the money will talk. Right now, they can do this but canceling big events the whole spring and summer would kill so many businesses that it would create a global financial depression. They come up with some crappy fast produced vaccine and suddenly it’s business as usual. The question is if the recession happens can we stop it.

For music usually, financial depressions are good for business. Yes, I look onto this very cynical. Music is thriving in a bad political climate and during hardship. That brings out good songs with meaning and passion. You just hope it doesn’t kill anyone just to get good music.

Maybe also this could run to smaller events. I skipped SXSW this year to go to a smaller conference. Much because I would do more business at a small conference. It’s part of the new plan I have for my festival touring. In this case, it was a good decision, but I feel for my friends at SXSW. This is not a good situation for them. The thing is that smaller seems to be better in this new global economy.

Showcase Tip-off part 3, Use your stage time.

I do this every year for Live at Heart (2 of September to 8 of September). A couple of posts to prepare for Live at Heart. So if you have followed my blog you probably have read it before. Still, there are changes from the past editions. And as usual, these tip-off works for any showcase festival.

Use your stage time.

A showcase festival will give you 40 minutes to play 20 minutes to change over. Prepare a set that really is 40 minutes, not 30, not 45. If you play longer, of course, you eat someone else playing time and that is not fair. Things like that can fuck up the schedule for the whole evening. So clock your performance.

Playing to short is equally bad. Okay, only you are affected by it. A showcase festival is several artists playing at the same time, during Live at Heart it can be up to 25 artists at the same time on different venues. And yes some people want to see artists at the same time. what you do is that you see a couple of songs from one band, goes to the next one. But if you end your show to early there might be people coming in that wanted to see your performance missing it, even if it was just the last song.

The 20 minutes change over. Practice this, I don't know how many times I see artists do change over and run around like chickens and it takes longer than it really should. Practice it so it goes faster. And another thing as a professional I actually look as much on the changeover as I do on the performance, you want to see how the artist solves problems.

And in all cases, it is line check. And when it comes to line check it won't be that perfect. Don't waste time to find the perfect sound on your snare. Don't try to squeeze in a full sound check into these 20 minutes it won't work. Also, everybody that is professional knows that the first song in the set usually sounds a bit strange since some of the sound checks are done there. We know it is your time to shine, still, we are also interested to see how an artist handles these situations, that is why I love showcases you can sort out the professionals from the beginners just by see the changeover.

Whatever you do don't go over these 20 minutes. It's horrible when you get into a show where you want to see the first two songs and they are still doing the changeover. In severe cases, we have left before it starts. If something is going wrong try to go around it instead of changing the fuse of the amp. One time it was a blackout in the mixer during a showcase with the band Like Swimming. All instruments except for the mics without effects went silent. It was during their last song. They could just have stopped and got off. But they were professional and played their 40 minutes by picking up the gear and started to play the last song totally acoustic, it was marvelous. See the clip at the bottom.

If you have some asshole artist that has gone over the 20 minutes and leaves you with only 10 minutes change over. It's critical to do it all in 10 minutes instead and rather start in time, here the practice comes in handy. If it's so bad that it even has taken off time of your set. Shorten the set to help the festival get the schedule on track. Don't think that you should have your time worth of show that you only contribute to the problem the rest of the evening.

Here is a live clip of the Like Swimming song where they played "Go Buffalo" acoustic on SXSW. Also alesson how even in an acoustic gig go out with a bang.

Update sxsw 2018

And I wait for my Uber to take me to the airport. It has been a good SXSW. A lot of business and good stuff. Of course some of the usual problems with backline and visa but nothing that was not solved.

My reflection tough is that SXSW this year was a bit calmer. In my mind it's better you get more chance for networking and don't have to wait in ridiculous lines. Still, I can see that the competition from many new festivals takes its toll.

Also how the festival has spread out. 6th street has become a giant hip hop scene where the rappers stand on the street rapping the same song for 4 days. Don't get me wrong it's not that it sounds the same, they do the same song since it's so many people passing.

The rap scene has then taken over the east side of 6th. The export people and brands have moved to Reiny street and are in the shadows of the new skyscrapers.

South Congress has spread out and far far away is the folk and country.

The hard rock is nowhere to be found. I managed to find a stoner fest in the north far away from it all where old guys with no hair but a lot of beards were doing "Iron Man " in different versions.

Still, it is the largest one and you do things here. They have to change to keep that momentum.

Failed projects

Since I'm on SXSW this week I see a lot of hopeless projects showing off in the Texas sun.

One of my favorite things is to be at the booth where companies are showcasing new ideas. I usually go around and collect t-shirts from companies that have a 99% fail rate. I usually come from there with quite many T-shirts. My favorite one the past years is Gloumper. An app that was quite the same as Instagram but had a few more filters. Or the company that built an app that you can hum your tune to the app and the publishes it online.

First, you can use the recorder. Second, why would I want other people to hear my humming? I can understand you want to have it to remember something to write on, but not give it to the rest of the world. Third, what was this company business model? Of course, they didn't know. I took my t-shirt and just added to my collection.