While most of the South by Southwest contingency say their goodbyes on the Saturday evening, I decided to stay on board for an extra night – primarily to get to be a tourist for once (checking out the capital building, etc), but also to engage in another South by Southwest tradition shared by many.
Stubb’s is best known for housing some of the biggest and best events of not only the SX calendar, but consistently throughout the year too. One feature of the venue that isn’t so widely known by SX attendees, however, is that it’s a BBQ restaurant as well – and every year, on the last day of SXSW, they hold a Gospel brunch. An all-you-can-eat buffet of incredible local cuisine, accompanied by live Gospel music on the indoor stage.
Often this is graced by a local church group (in fact I was slightly disappointed that this wasn’t the case today), however today we had the pleasure of enjoying Eli “Paperboy” Reed and his band The True Loves, who we’ll soon be seeing in Australia for Bluesfest.
While Gospel flair was thrown in, it definitely was far from being the traditional nature of the genre. Eli played a few standards alongside a run of tracks off his new album. The band was in fine form and Eli showed himself to be a comfortable and impressive entertainer – he will no doubt be a highlight for many at this years impressive Byron Bay Blues and Roots Festival. “You Don’t Leave” was a highlight of the set, with its precise yet elaborate instrumentation, and catchy lyrics. “Help Me” was another track where Eli got the crowd singing along. All in all, it was a joy to experience such quality music as we ate our weight in meat and eggs. Nom nom nom, indeed.
As we walked off the massive feast we enjoyed with Eli, we Emo’s was the home of the SXSW closing party, and we headed along to catch heroes of Big Day Out, London’s The Jim Jones Revue. This is one damn cool band, selling us their fusion of blues, rock and roll and a little bit of 80s punk. It’s a little bit rockabilly, too, but a little too heavy to nail it down to such a specific classification. “Killing Spree” was a highlight of the set, and just about all I have left to say on this band is that you have to check ‘em out. Hopefully you got the chance to do so at BDO, but if not, we’ll no doubt see them down under again soon.
And with that, Jim Jones had played their final SXSW showcase, and we had seen our final performance of the 25th annual South by Southwest. The last 6 or so days of live music have been nothing short of extraordinary. While there were certainly some duds in the mix, there were just as many surprises, and the lineup of talent shows just how brilliant (albeit overloaded) the international marketplace is at the moment.
Between the networking and the live music, between the open bars and the BBQs and all the people we met along the way, there is definitely nothing on planet earth quite as exciting as SXSW. Will we be back again next year? We’re already counting down the days…
