AUSTIN, TX – SXSW has now come and gone in its first year back as an in-person festival since the pandemic began.
The festival did not let down any day that passed from the opening to the last day. More and more guests were excited that the festival was back and that there were events and music showcases happening all around the city at any given time.
With the music portion officially closing out SXSW, we visited some special music showcases and made a stop at Rolling Loud among others.
Rolling Loud makes big splash at SXSW
Rolling Loud, the giant touring festival had its second in-person showcase at SXSW. Rolling Loud had its set built at Stubbs and the lines to get in prior to kick-off were wrapped all around the building on to the street.
The large hip-hop festival tours nationally at various locations including Miami, Los Angeles, New York, and now with a large showcase at SXSW.
“I always love SXSW. I’m happy to see it back,” said cofounder Tariq Cherif when asked about the impact. “SXSW has always been a place for new talent, specifically for my scene in hip-hop to break. I remember I would watch from the sidelines on the internet and then eventually I started coming here, break out some acts here, and I signed some of my first record deals here. Rolling Loud is a place to break talent out as well. We saw it as an opportunity to come together and put on a free show for the wristband holders and be here for the panel.”
Rolling Loud featured artists including DJ Five Venoms, Trae Tha Truth, Yung Kayo, Peech, DJ Scheme, Jasiah, and others with Don Toliver closing out the second night.
Official DJ of Rolling Loud, DJ Five Venoms spoke with us on playing at SXSW and what it means to him.
“South by for me is really dope. It’s where I get to find new talent as an artist and expose myself as an artist. It’s a great place to build relationships with people I already have relationships with. A lot of times you connect with people online and you never really meet them in person, but everyone is here at SXSW. Then you find out they know another homie of yours and another and then you’re putting collabs together, it’s always a fun experience,” DJ Five Venoms said.
House of Minor Figures special event highlights SXSW music
A SXSW highlight was the House of Minor Figures, a special showcase on the East Side at Try Hard Coffee Roasters.
Minor figures, a plant-based coffee product company, hosted a three-day music showcase which highlighted and spanned multiple genres including hip-hop, indies, shoegaze, rap, and more.
Artists including Tallies, Goya, Yaya Bey, Mick Jenkins, Martin Courtney of Real Estate, Yung Morpheus, and others performed at the showcase and were in attendance.
Toronto-based shoegaze band Tallies on performing at SXSW, “It’s refreshing, it’s nice to be back on the road especially. We weren’t sure how the turnout was going to be this year. It’s quite nice to see it. It almost feels back to normal.” Find Tallies music on available platforms and Spotify.
Rapper Mick Jen kins closed out the House of Minor Figures special showcase with a surprise guest appearance to a large crowd reaction.
More Texas artists show up during official SXSW music showcases
SXSW music would not be complete without the presence of Texas artists. Corpus Christi-based DJ and Producer El Dusty had several showcases across the city during SXSW.
A standout performance was when El Dusty performed at the Peligrosa House and had everyone dancing all evening.
“It’s good to be back. We had a couple years off due to covid. The whole week we had multiple gigs with Chicha Summit earlier. Now here we are at Peligrosa, it’s the last one. A lot of people from Corpus have been coming up to me at my shows and saying that they have someone out here doing it,” El Dusty on playing at SXSW.
Most recently, El Dusty released an EP with artist Lil Ro called Product of the Streets. You can stream the EP here…
One of the best things about SXSW is the many showcases that span multiple genres. Progressive jazz group Atlas Major are Austin based and have been a standout highlight.
Joshua Thompson of Atlas Major on being back, “Our showcase in 2020 was canceled due to the pandemic. This has been our reclamation at SXSW. We had a great run of shows, we had four shows with this one being our last one at Whislers.”
Atlas Major is gearing up to release their new album which is ins post-production. Find more of Atlas Major here…
To say that we had a blast at SXSW would be an understatement. SXSW 2022 was one for the books and we cannot wait until it returns next year.
Enjoy SXSW tweets and more here: twitter.com/jamiebarriento
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This story was originally published for CBS Austin, click here to view the original story.
Jamie Barrientos | Music, Art, and Entertainment 