SXSW live review: Music festival wrapped up with seven great acts

Austin’s South by Southwest finished things up with countless showcases that made the last two days of the music festival a pick-and-choose affair that didn’t let up until the crack of 2 a.m. on Saturday night. For most festival goers, energy can run slim on these last two days, and seeing what you can before the festival’s end is essential to closing the book on yet another March festival edition. Here’s seven great acts we closed out our SXSW with on the final two days of our festival experience. 

Daikaiju – The Coral Snake – March 14

Okay, we’re breaking our own rule here by including a band that played Thursday, but this Cosmic Clash reporter’s first Daikaiju experience had to be documented. Huntsville, Alabama’s Daikaiju are rock and roll fire starters – literally. Each performance features fast-paced instrumental fury, with performance antics that leave audiences in total awe. For this occasion, the masked rockers appeared outside the East Side, former Stay Gold spot, The Coral Snake, showcasing their talents after the remnants of a SXSW day party. When Daikaiju takes the stage, the ensemble appears wearing Kabuki masks and bears secret pseudonyms. The Alabama act’s set featured no banter, just cut after cut of their shreddy, instrumental madness. The long-running collective is also known for its stage antics, which included setting several instruments on fire and playing them while the flames persisted. The floored audience appeared to have gone through the wringer upon the set’s conclusion. Naturally we wanted more. 

Spoon Benders – Hotel Vegas – March 15

For Friday’s Hotel Vegas programming, Space Agency Booking and local promoter The Nothing Song served up a psychedelic extravaganza for a packed crowd to head into the final weekend of SXSW. Portland’s Spoon Benders have psychedelic overtones, but their heavy, downtuned guitar attack shows their ferocity as one of the most exciting acts in neo-psychedelia. Since last performing in an opening slot for prog-psych rockers Frankie & The Witch Fingers last Fall at Parish, music fans in Austin have been eagerly awaiting their return. Frontwoman Katy Black’s sinister vocal delivery pairs with the band’s down-tuned, abrasive onslaught without flaw, allowing for a deafening gauntlet of tunes that showcase Soundgarden-strummed guitars with an incendiary ensemble that allows for song-to-song intensity. 

Walkabouts – Hotel Vegas – March 15

Sam Shaffer is a seasoned songwriter with roots in Ohio and Chicago. Since relocating to Austin in 2021, he has assembled Walkabouts with new tunes and collaborators new and old. With a lineup rounded out by bassist Kyle Douglas, drummer Drew Dederer, and guitarist Ryan Girard, Walkabouts has maintained a steady rise in the Austin scene while forming friendships with bands like Geranium Drive in their tenure as a band. Walkabouts took over the Hotel Vegas Grandstand on Friday, March 15 and music fans squeezed in to witness the not-so-new Austin band’s SXSW debut. The Shaffer-fronted act pens tunes that veer on singer/songwriter expertise, but the backing ensemble’s technical mastery sculpts song structures that can make for both anthemic savoriness and psychedelic rock shred sessions. Having just released their debut LP, Bloomin’ Ocotillo, the tunes have kept coming in the band’s live sets, and Walkabouts has only just begun. 

BALTHVS – Parish – March 15

On the final day of the Marshall Funhouse showcases, Columbian world-psychedelic trio, BALTHVS returned to Austin for yet another SXSW appearance, even after returning for last Fall’s Levitation kickoff show. For the group’s live performances, the band veers on sounds of indie-jam stylings similar to acts like Khurangbin and Los Bitchos, with touches of world music and Cumbia that result in cathartic shows that captivate entire rooms into a dance party. The South American band’s instrumental chops are not to be understated, and their confident stage presence carries audiences into its eccentric trance. 

Exotic Fruitica – The Lost Well – March 16

Exotic Fruitica’s triumphant rise in the Austin music scene has been unfuckwithable. Frontman Jon French and his longtime friend Aaron Gilligan formed what would become Exotic Fruitica in 2022 and have been hard at work writing tracks that hit like a ton of bricks. French’s manic, yelled drawl mixes well with the complete ensemble of deep-fried instrumentals that still manage to be as dynamic as they are top-down mass chaos. The Austin metal staple The Lost Well was a perfect avenue for the day party performance, hosted by The Cosmic Clash and Play To The Plants for their annual Webberville Block Party. The noise band cycled through tune after tune, not stopping for a sip of water or anything resembling a breath. Eventually, the set fizzled into a loud session of droning guitars and pummeling drums as French departed the stage, leaving the band to their own devices as the performance drew to a close, an epic kickoff to the last day of music showcases.

Fading Yellow – Webberville Block Party – March 16

Hometown heroes, Austin’s Fading Yellow, played for a packed backyard crowd at the 2nd annual Webberville Block Party. Fading Yellow’s sound touches on hints of art rock and psych rock, but the singer-songwriter charisma from bandleader, Ed Gonzalez sculpts a unique delivery that shines through blissfully every time the up and coming act takes the stage. For the daytime performance, the Fading Yellow crew set up a stage in a backyard residence, creating no barrier between the audience and the performing band, allowing for Gonzalez’s strummed chords from his lovely electric nylon string guitar to take shape that created an ethereal vibe to the cloudy skies on the final afternoon of SXSW.

Blank Hellscape – The Ballroom – March 16

Andrew Nogay, Ethan Billips, and Max Deems make the beloved Austin noise collective Blank Hellscape. The trio has proved to be a prolific force. The local maniacs appeared at a surprise show, headlined by Nashville egg punkers Snooper with their fellow Indianapolis tour mates, Skull Cult. The local noise outfit performs with two electronics boards and a passionate, bellowing Nogay performing on the ground below the stage, engaging audience members with unchecked fury. Deems and Billips dial the noise in with the intent of air traffic controllers, never taking their eye off their stage contraptions and allowing all of the magic to come together in an air-tight, unforgiving fashion. After seeing Blank Hellscape open for Xiu Xiu at Elysium last spring, no noise band in Austin sounds this triumphant, making this an ideal last stand for SXSW 2024.

Featured photo by Case Cockrell