Back in March of 2020, one of the first big things to cancel was Austin’s massive new music showcase, South-by-Southwest. 2021 rolled around, and still no in-person. But for 2022, the party was back, all across the Live Music Capitol of the World, Monday-Saturday, March 14th-19th.

Click here for QRO’s recap of Friday of South-by-Southwest 2022

Mojo Nixon party @ Continental Club

Every South-by-Southwest, psychobilly great Mojo Nixon knows that the place could use a fixin’, and holds his own party at the Continental Club. This year included Jesse Dayton, Rosie Flore, and X’s John Doe (possessor of the greatest musical assumed name ever).

John Doe

Rosie Flore

Jesse Dayton

Brooklyn Bowl showcase @ Empire

Neal Francis

It was actually kind of reassuring to see a massive line at this first-after-COVID SXSW – especially when you were a badge-holder who could skip that line. Empire was packed for the showcase thrown by New York’s own Brooklyn Bowl (QRO venue review) – kind of a problem when trying to see the usually seated Neal Francis, but he thankfully would stand up to use the whammy bar above his piano, because that’s the kind of seventies revival musician he is. But too packed to even see Austin’s own White Denim.

International Day Stage @ Brush Square Park (Registrants Lounge)

While South-by-Southwest was largely winding down, it was great to still see some action at the International Day Stage, located inside the Registrants Lounge in Brush Square Park. There was the standing-still post-punk of a/lpaca and the easy listening vibes of Brazil’s Tagua Tagua.

a/lpaca

Tagua Tagua

The Blind Suns

And special mention must be made of Stage closer The Blind Suns, whose sweet, expansive indie-pop went into more. The expressive French duo had actually come to America in early March ’20 to play SXSW that year, only for it all to get shut down (and they only just making the last flight home), so it was particularly great to see this much energy from them on the final day of ’22.

SXSW showcase @ ACL Live at The Moody Theater

Beck

Going into South-by-Southwest 2022, it was known that it would not be as massive as prior years, coming after a two-year COVID break. So, the few big names were of particular note, such as the one-and-only Dolly Parton – and the one-and-only Beck. Your favorite musical iconoclast gave the event’s closing speech, and thankfully stuck around for a special, intimate show.

One might have worried about a massive line, but between it being the final day and just being 2022, it was easy enough to walk in – and it was admittedly nice to sit down for an acoustic show to close out the week. For it was just Beck Hansen and Jesse Ebaugh, who had only met the prior night. This was not the weird rapper of “Loser” or the funky white boy of “Sexx Laws”, but the folk singer of “Lost Cause”. “Let’s have some fun,” Beck opened with, before correcting himself, “Actually, let me check that – I’m gonna play some really sad songs.”

The set list naturally leaned towards his sad-folk, from opener “Golden Age” on. But that meant some special songs on this special night. He did “Sissyneck” for this first time since 2017, “Dead Melodies” for the first time since 2014 (well, tried – forgot the lyrics and aborted the attempt), and “Canceled Check” for the first time since 2005. For very early song “Hollow Log” (as heard on his infamous debut self-recorded cassette, Beck, Like the Beer), he forgot the lyrics and made up new ones. There were acoustic folk renditions of classics such as “Pay No Mind (Snoozer)” and “Debra” to go with expected greats such as “Golden Age”, “Nobody’s Fault But My Own”, “Bottle of Blues”, and “One Foot In the Grave”. And in true country fashion, there were some songs by other people, from Hank Williams’ “(I Heard That) Lonesome Whistle” to finishing the night (in his second encore, post-house lights) with late Austin native Daniel Johnston’s “True Love Will Find You in the End”.

And the show had the secret weapon of any intimate near-solo show: between-song stories & banter. Beck had an absolutely awesome tale of his first time playing Austin, for SXSW, where he played the old Emo’s (yes, there were cheers) after none other than Johnny Cash (even more cheers), hitting a guy in the head with a falling mikestand, and Gibby Haynes of Austin’s iconic wild Butthole Surfers telling him it was the best set ever. Oh, and later on Beck wrote a song for Cash, that he did, “Rowboat”. Beck also pointed out the difficulty of writing protest songs in the nineties, where there wasn’t a lot to protest, “Shopping malls, and musicians who sold too many records” made up “Pay No Mind”. He tipped his hat to that stage’s prior night’s performer, Dolly Parton, and more.

Obviously, hopefully those who bought tickets knew “that you were going to a folk show?”, as Beck asked early on, and he has done a few others of these since COVID. But it was a special night with a special performer to close out a special South-by-Southwest.