SXSW, 2010 : Day 4

By Staff • March 25, 2010

SXSW 2010
by Brianne Turner, Photography by Nick Chaivarlis

Saturday brought us to the Stereogum Range Life party, featuring music from The Morning Benders, Wye Oak and Ben Gibbard. The Morning Benders and Wye Oak opened their sets with Big Star covers in honor of the late Alex Chilton, while Ben Gibbard played an acoustic set which included a gorgeous cover of Magnetic Fields’ “I Don’t Want To Get Over You” and ended with an equally-pretty version of “Recycled Air.”

Leave it to Stereogum to put on the chillest and classiest party of the festival. Good job, guys. (Free vodka helps, too.)

We later found our way over to the other side of town where Pitchfork was holding the official final SXSW showcase at The Scoot Inn (a tiny dive bar equipped with the only skeeball league in Austin, Texas!).

The stage was outside and the temperature had dropped considerably, but we managed to venture outside just long enough to catch great performances by Titus Andronicus, Here We Go Magic, Pictureplane, The Very Best and Sleigh Bells.

Here We Go Magic put on an energetic set and gave the crowd a taste of their upcoming album Pigeons by way of the track “Collector.” The Very Best orchestrated yet another fantastic dance party, and Sleigh Bells secured, then defended their title as the must-see act of the festival, despite the fact that they have yet to even release an album. Though their set was cut short due to last call, Derek Miller and Alexis Krauss represented the epitome of SXSW: the place we all go to have our asses kicked by all of the loud and (hopefully) great music our New York friends have been telling us about for months.

As it turns out, New York was not wrong about Sleigh Bells. As one of the strongest bands of the festival, it was absolutely appropriate that they would be one of the bands to shut SXSW down (figuratively, literally) for 2010. Follow them everywhere.

Thanks for having us, SXSW. See you next year!

xoxo,
Audioholic Media