SXSW

One of the world's biggest music festivals has been going on all week long a three hour's drive from here, south to Austin. SXSW - or South by Southwest - takes over downtown Austin as every club is booked with big names and (more often) no-names trying to break out. But the venues aren't the only places to hear new music; the sidewalks and parks are often strewn with impromptu gigs and jam sessions. Since I hit that age in my teenage years where music becomes more than just words and sounds, I have wanted to go to this panoply of bands and experience the "festival of festivals."

I still haven't been able to go myself, bu today on a local public music station (KXT 91.7) I was able to hear at least a part of it. KXT has a show on Fridays called the Texas Mix, which showcases artists from this state, old and new. Today, instead of playing their usual variety of Texas music, they played a concert from SXSW by Spoon, a great band from Austin.
Spoon is one of my favorite bands, playing a kind of starkly minimal pop rock. I've been listening to them since my senior year of high school, but have never been to one of their shows. Since my incarceration, I've really missed their music, and, while KXT plays their songs now and then, I wish I could just pop in one of their albums and listen straight through.

Luckily, that is just what it sounded like when KXT played Spoon's show. Most of the songs were from their newest album released this year, but a few older songs made it, too. I was bobbing my head to the tunes when a friend came in to tell me it was time to go back to work. Too bad. I was enjoying a festival I've never been to and a band I wanted to listen to and had to leave them both. I guess I'll get another chance later.