Live music review: SXSW 2025 music week began with a wide range of musical styles

The 2025 South By Southwest music festival kicked off on Monday and Tuesday this week, featuring artists from around the Austin music scene and worldwide. Each day of music starts at noon and usually continues until the 2 a.m. closing time for each day of programming. For the first two days of the SXSW music showcases, we rounded up some of our favorite acts that started off our music festival coverage with stops at Hotel Vegas, 13th Floor and Stubb’s BBQ to see bands with a wide range of musical styles from the hardcore noise punk of Exotic Fruitica to experimental act Skloss to legendary songwriter John Fogerty and back to the heavy psych rock of Frankie and the Witch Fingers. SXSW runs the musical genre gamut as our coverage attests.

Monday, March 10

Hotel Vegas began their annual “Spring Break Boogie” showcase to begin their venue-curated SX programming, bringing official artists along with local talent that have long been staples at the East Austin venue. Noise punk quintet Exotic Fruitica kicked off their long music week on the indoor Volstead stage, setting up mostly on the floor to fit their whole cast while frontman Jon French employed both vantage points to keep the audience engaged to bring their brand of noisy madness to early afternoon festival goers.

Brooklyn’s TVOD took the outdoor patio stage to commemorate the hot Central Texas Sun’s last stand, coming with frontman Tyler Wright joining the crowd in moshing while the backing members held things down on the stand during the early evening festival slot. Austin hardcore champions Mugger took the stage next, their lone SX show for 2025. Since releasing debut LP Luck Forever, the ATX group brings nothing but brute force to the stage. Vocalist Anna Troxell possesses a “Listen The Fuck Up” tone, donning wrestler masks to further their image as one of the toughest torchbearers making their way across the scene in 2025. Rounding out Mugger features members of TV’s Daniel and The Well, who will also make appearances at SXSW later in the week. 

Austin coldwave collective Holy Wire took the reins on the Volstead stage, featuring matching stage wear to support chief songwriter Alain Paradis’ vision of introspective electro-pop. The emotional tone of his lyricism has you hanging on his every word, encouraging focus on both the instrumentals and spoken stanzas as the thought-provoking vibes simmer with ease for their live performances, which take the best form in these intimate settings.

Melodic post-hardcore four-piece Porcelain tore through their patio set, crafting the tell-all insanity that they have become known for since the release of their self-titled debut full-length. Singer and guitarist Steve Pike’s foreboding approach is an enthralling highlight but allows the backing players to shine in their own regard. The hypnotic showing from drummer Eli Deitz keeps the unnerving layer at the forefront, while guitarist and backing vocalist Ryan Fitzgibbon posts ethereal harmonies that make for a looking-inward onslaught.

Experimental duo Skloss took the indoor Hotel Vegas Grandstand for the second day in a row, showing yet again the unending creativity of drummer and singer Karen Skloss and guitarist and vocalist Sandy Carson. The pair released their debut album via Fuzz Club Records this past Friday, and the studio perfection takes shape with miraculous audio fusion. With a song flow that airs on the many sides of Shoegaze, post-metal, neo-psychedelia, and drone music, Skloss sculpts new ideas on the fly, with a taste for home-cooked experimentation and experience in film production that lends itself to dreamy visualization as their live sets unfold. 

Hometown grindcore trio Portrayal of Guilt took the next-to-last patio spot, taking no prisoners on a banterless, blistering approach that wasted no time. The independent label that PoG founded is also home to earlier performer Porcelain, a tight-knit camp of some of the city’s most abrasive offerings.

Dallas post-punk regulars Rosegarden Funeral Party wrapped up our first music festival day outing, a set that asserted the DFW vehicle to be one of utmost staying power. Performing as a guitarist and drummer duo in the absence of regular touring members, the live gig didn’t suffer in the slightest. Singer and guitarist Leah Lane has graced the stage at the Austin venue on many occasions, making the Rosegarden leader a repeat flyer on stages all over the city. Drummer Dean Adams backbones each cut with maximum precision, locking in perfect sync with the tracked instrumentals to make a case for creative resourcefulness.

Tuesday, March 11

The Cosmic Clash and Austin promoter Play To The Plants joined forces for a stacked bill at The 13th Floor on Red River, bringing locals and traveling artists to start things up for day two of SXSW music festivities. Weirdo outlaws Mulch Cult kicked things off in the afternoon, a last-minute add after The Cosmic Clash’s own Semihelix had to drop due to injury. The Grateful Dead and Ween-isms of the three-piece are both catchy and have a trippy edge, switching between Butthole Surfers-esque freakouts and twangy punk rock binges.

Austin Space Rock trio Holy Temple took the stage next, a brainchild of known all-star Levitation Festival staffer Garrett Anderson. This was when the visual stage projections from Cake Burger Light Show showed their engaging prowess, with colorful tessellations making the backdrop a focal point of the performed psychedelic revivalism. Bushwick’s My Son The Doctor came as a surprise highlight on their SXSW and Austin, Texas debut. Proclaimed as “Punk rock you can introduce your mom to,” the New York quartet brought 90s vibes and DIY expertise that made for a welcome addition for indie rock fans.

Montreal’s SXSW regulars Population II played an afternoon set at Hotel Vegas for the second day of Spring Break Boogie, for what feels like their fourth some-odd SXSW festival appearance in a row. Bringing their widespread brand of no-holds-barred adventurous psych that reaches uncharted territory and remains accessible while touching genres in the realm of jazz and funk, with the still-abrasive DNA of psychedelic punk.

Local doom wop power riffsmithers Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol took the stage to take the audience into the later evening, bringing their usual “big dumb riffs” to send the audience into a down-tuned frenzy that transcends both heavy metal and punk. The Les Claypool-esque delivery of frontman and guitarist Leo Lydon combined with the oddities of Mr. Bungle always rule, and out-of-towners were introduced to the mayhem while locals were given a fierce reminder that the Rickshaw murder machines are ever-so-worthy of their rising stardom in their now eight active years.

Creedence Clearwater Revival throneman John Fogerty graced Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheater for 80 minutes, a set filled with all the hits and nothing but. Following a brief introduction that contained a presentation of the 50-year legacy the Creedence leader has created, along with the information that Fogerty now owns his whole creative catalog, the seven-piece ensemble took the stage and proved that rock and roll knows no age. The 79-year-old swamp raconteur rolled the tunes out with alligator-tooth precision, including a saxophone player emulating the decades of Fogerty’s multi-generational legacy. “I just got all my songs back, and I’m going to play every one of them,” Fogerty said of the acquisition of his life’s work. The 18-song set’s encore included a special sit-in from none other than Rage Against The Machine’s Tom Morello, who had appeared with Fogerty for their keynote panel. Given that both of these guys are multi-platinum selling artists, the pairing felt like a collaboration for the ages. 

Making a late-night detour back to Hotel Vegas paid off in ear-shattering fashion. Austin psych and rollers Grocery Bag greeted an anticipatory crowd, all ready to expel their last energy of the day for heavy psych riffers, Frankie & The Witch Fingers. The West Coast road warriors delivered a set that was banger after banger. The California renegades announced their forthcoming LP on the day of their Austin SXSW kickoff, showing that throwing it into full overdrive for the week in Austin was a supremely planned endeavor.
World psychedelia Santa Barbara turned Austin outfit Killer Kaya closed things down inside on the Volstead stage, bringing their star-studded new material with a studio-perfect approach that shows them riding high after last week’s album release.

The 2025 SXSW Music Festival continues throughout the week. All programming details are available on the SXSW website and SXSW GO mobile application.

All photos by Troy Gonzales except where noted