Should have stayed for sxsw music?

What's happening to the music portion of the South by Southwest festival? If I would have stayed for music, I know I would have been at the Ozomatli show. They're one of the best live bands I've seen. But it sounds like things got out of control at the end of the night. Taking the music out to 6th street after the bar closes isn't anything new. Brave Combo took their encore to the street in 2000 when the bar said stop, and it rocked. They played for 20 minutes or so with no amps, and there was no riot gear required. Maybe Austin is cracking down now, but arresting band members and spraying the audience with pepper spray seems excessive.

There are eyewitness accounts and some conversation about what this says about the character of Austin at the Ozomatli discussion board. There's video of the event at News 8 Austin: SXSW band's arrest raises questions about noise ordinance.

– posted March 22nd, 2004 at 4:09 pm

Comments

To give you an idea how ridiculous it was that they got hassled...I was at that show and I spilled out onto the street with everyone else (Ozo included) afterwards, milled around, chatted, etc.

I didn't know they had played, gotten arrested or anything until the next day -- and I was right there. Now, I'd had a few drinks, but come on! If it was that loud I'd have noticed.....

As far as the show, it was good, but I've seen them play much better (really all I mean is longer) than that. As you know they're one of the best around.

by Keith on March 25th, 2004 at 4:37 pm

Luckily you didn't get pepper-sprayed!

And yeah, sometimes that's frustrating about sxsw music--you only get 45 minutes to an hour of each band.

by pb on March 26th, 2004 at 10:28 am