The best and worst of SXSW, in one show

Post Author: Jenz

Dam Funk’s set at the Fader Fort opened with him passionately singing about how he came to turn this motherfucker out or something to that effect. When his sound was not perfect he berated the soundman to get it perfect because according to him, it was “his week.”

The man earned it the right to say it. He may not have done DD/MM/YYYY numbers in terms of volume, but if you missed a Dam Funk set at SXSW this year, well, what the deuce were you even doing in Austin? The man gets my vote as the best artist I saw perform, who wasn’t booked for the Imposition. My only regret is that I did not catch a Dam Funk set with a full band. That said, no one has ever stood alone on stage with a keytar and looked so super duper fly – unless someone can produce documentation of Bootsie Collins doing that shit.

Sleigh Bells sucks. Whoever pushed for this group to perform before Bone Thugs should be fired from Fader and blackballed from music journalism entirely. Standing nuts to butts, waiting for Bone Thugs (what the fug) is a strange way to end the week. A 30-minute set by a no-talent howler monkey in American Apparel attire doing the The Kills thing, but somehow worse, is how you rev The Fort up for Bone Thugs? And get some tights that fit, no one wants to watch you adjust your sloppy crotch.

Dam Funk definitely has the funk, but Flesh and Wish are missing. And then Misha Barton showed up.