Live Music Archive

Austin, Texas has a vibrant live music scene, and boasts more music Clubs per capita than any other city in the America. Austin’s music scene revolves mainly around the a lot of nightclub Clubs on 6th Street, but the pinnacle is arguably the annual music, film and multimedia festival called South By Southwest (South By Southwest).
South By Southwest officially began in 1987, originating as the Austin Battle of the Bands and is centered around the downtown Austin Convention Center. It has become one of the largest music festivals in the America, with more thousands of performers from all across the globe playing in over seventy Clubs across Austin over four days in March. Largely an industry-based event, South By Southwest has garnered a reputation for being the place for new, up-and-coming artists to break into the industry, and particularly British artists looking to break the America market. Acts who have gained mass notoriety following playing sessions at South By Southwest include The White Stripes in 2001, and British emo-punks Gallows who took the festival by storm in 2007.
2007 was South By Southwest’s biggest year yet, and saw more than 2000 artists take over Austin betwixt March 14th and 18th. Highlights included stand-out sessions from The Rapture, Cold War children and Kings of Leon. David Byrne, formerly of Talking Heads, and The Who’s Pete Townshend were among the event’s conference speakers (Townshend later made a guest appearance, joining The Fratellis onstage and showcasing his trademark windmill guitar moves). British punk legends The Buzzcocks furthermore played a raucous session, as did America punk icons Iggy & The Stooges. There was furthermore the emergence of a one-night-only supergroup, as Tom Morello of Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave was joined on his solo session by a mass of unannounced special attendees including Jane’s Addiction frontman Perry Farrell, MC5’s Wayne Kramer, Primus bass supremo Les Claypool and Slash of Guns ‘n Roses and Velvet Revolver fame.
South By Southwest is the single highest money -making public event for the Austin community, generating more re Club than even home games by Austin’s hugely popular college football team, the Texas Longhorns
South By Southwest is just one of Austin’s festivals – the city is furthermore host to the All Tomorrow’s events -esque Fun Fun Fun Festival, a two day event that final year saw performances across three stages from acts such as Cat Power and Diplo as well as sessions from Austin natives Okkervil River, Zykos, I Love You But I have Chosen Darkness and Explosions In The Sky, who headlined.
furthermore, the Austin City Limits festival has speedily become one of the most popular and well-attended festivals in the entire America, ranking alongside Coachella and Lollapalooza. The festival brings together over 130 artists across eight stages over three days. The festival works in conjunction with the popular Austin City Limits TV show, which showcases local/regional Austin acts as well as musicians playing the festival.