SXSW 2025: A Music Festival In Flux

In the extremely early days of the pandemic, the cancellation of the annual South By Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas served as a portentous harbinger of the days to come. While the live music industry has started to return to normal, five years later, SXSW has yet to regain its footing.

A decade ago, 2,000 artists from all over the world would make their way to Austin each March to play multiple sets on actual and makeshift stages at showcases curated by nearly every notable indie label, booking agency, touring group, management company, music magazine and blog. The festival was notable not only for its focus on emerging artists, new music and eclectic genres but for its overwhelming sprawl and occasional overindulgence.

Since its true return in 2022, SXSW has struggled to recapture its spirit. With half the pre-pandemic number of artists traveling to Austin in 2025, South-By featured significantly fewer showcases, both official and unofficial, and far fewer venues and stages. Sixth Street, whose bars and stages once simultaneously hosted dozens of daily showcases, causing it to literally teem with people, had a mere handful of SXSW venues and no Bourbon Street-like calamity.

Uncharacteristically, the dwindling number of options did not have a corresponding uptick in demand. To the contrary, the daunting lines outside of many noteworthy showcases that often thwarted adventurous discovery were nowhere to be seen.

There are still vestiges of the old SXSW. Side Bar, a wonderful Austin hangout, continues to host the Hipster Robots, Stuporfriends and THEMM!’s JumpStart showcases. Those unofficial day parties, along with Brooklyn Vegan’s Lost Weekend, remain vital vehicles for discovering new artists like The Courettes, Perennial and Good Looks and revisiting old favorites like Jon Langford (The Mekons/The Waco Brothers), Five Eight and Austin legends Jad Fair & The Placebos.

From an official standpoint, Rolling Stone still hosts showcases at ACL Live at The Moody Theater spotlighting the future of music and there will always be a British Music Embassy featuring artists from the United Kingdom.

As for the performancez, hindsight often plays a role in what will be considered truly memorable. In years past, when Fleet Foxes' former drummer dealt with technical difficulties at Peckerheads by sitting cross-legged on a speaker to play unamplified songs from Fear Fun, Josh Tillman's soon-to-be-released debut as Father John Misty, before a gradually enraptured crowd, it wasn’t immediately recognized as a special moment. An exhilarating late-night Billy Strings showcase in a conference room atop the Hilton Hotel could not have been regarded as momentous by the couple dozen people in attendance until his later success made its size and scope simply ludicrous. It wasn’t until Lizzo hosted Saturday Night Live and sold out stadiums that her noon time set on a parking lot stage from five years earlier became a story to be oft-repeated.

This year, Grace Bowers & The Hodge Podge's set as part of a JBL tech display may grow in stature for the sizable number of people who were previously unaware of the 18-year-old phenom. Mixing in Stevie Wonder and Parliament covers with “Tell Me Why You Do That” and “Get On Now” from Wine On Venus, their wonderful debut album, Bowers showed off the preternatural guitar prowess that earned her a spot on The Beacon Theater stage, trading licks with Peter Frampton and Trey Anastasio on a blistering version of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”

As at the Beacon, Bowers tore through her interpretation of Santana's “Soul Sacrifice” to close the set. However, it’s not her ability to hit all the right notes that makes Bowers special. Rather, it’s her feel for what she’s playing and her innate ability to interact with other musicians at a level that should be unattainable for a teenager.

Hindsight and context will not be necessary to appreciate John Fogerty‘s set at Stubb’s Amphitheater. Arguably the most notable name to play the festival, Fogerty celebrated his recent reacquisition of his catalog by playing selections from it. Flanked by his sons, Fogerty tore through a set that included crisp versions CCR classics like “Bad Moon Rising,” “Green River” and “Fortunate Son” as well as lengthy jams on “Keep On Chooglin'” and his own “Old Man Down The Road.”

Fogerty’s voice has remained remarkably strong and there really is no way to misattribute his signature guitar tone. For the encore, Tom Morello added a little rage to the choogle, joining in for raucous versions of “Travelin’ Band” and, of course, “Proud Mary.”

While typically a young person’s game, Fogerty wasn’t the only legacy act to grace the SXSW stages. The Preservation Hall Jazz Band headlined the FLOODfest day party at Mohawk with 93-year-old Charlie Gabriel becoming one of the oldest musicians to ever play SXSW. Steve Wynn of The Dream Syndicate donned a suit at the august St. David’s Cathedral and offered up a musically annotated version of the opening chapters of his recently released autobiography. Finishing the set at a high point of his narrative, Wynn wittily noted that this abridged version makes it seem like he owns the greatest success story in rock ‘n’ roll.

Denton, Texas post-punk legends The Marked Men blazed through a blistering set to cap off the Smartpunk Records showcase at Empire Garage and Memphis stalwarts Lucero dished out a lengthy, two-hour whiskey-influenced set as the centerpiece of their home city’s showcase at Mohawk.

From a fan perspective, discovery still remains the focus of SXSW. Nick Llobet, the leader of Youbet, a nifty lo-fi outfit from Brooklyn, may have captured the feeling the best when he asked the crowd at Cheer Up Charlies “did anyone come see us on purpose?” With nearly every genre of music represented at SXSW, it requires just a little bit of foresight and motivation to broaden one’s proverbial musical horizons.

For those who enjoy their rock fully psychedelic, Population II has prime seats on the bus. In contrast to their sun-drenched set on the Hotel Vegas Patio, the Quebecois trio transported the crowd at the Swan Dive patio to a headier era of live music with visuals that owed a debt of gratitude to the Joshua Light Show. The interaction between the unconventional keyboard chord progressions and reverb-laden guitar riffs featured prominently on Electrons Libre Du Quebec, are more impressive on stage as they both originate with Tristan Lacombe.

In the absence of that overlap, Sebastian Provencal’s compelling lead bass riffs come to the forefront when Lacombe takes to the keys, generating a captivating and heady atmosphere. A wonderful throwback, Population II’s nice mix of adrenalized acid rock and trippy garage rock had many people returning the next night for one more ride.

For those who want their rock to smack them in the face, University, a hard-driving bunch of young lads from England, will mightily deliver the blow. Over the course of the week, there were dozens of bands that bashed out three-chord songs at a breakneck pace, many of them indistinguishable from the next. Despite the relatively simple formula, certain bands simply have the spark and when you hear it, you get it.

A bit like a mischievous and more ragged version of Japandroids, albeit with more bass, University stood out from their raucous brethren not just musically but artistically. At the JumpStart day party, the band’s masked ringleader apathetically sat center stage playing a game on his phone, silently rising between songs to display their titles on sheets of notebook paper. They also cheekily acknowledged their Texas surroundings, anachronistically incorporating the unmistakable riff from ZZ Top‘s “La Grange” into the introduction of their final song.

For those who like a band to make sure they are engaged, Densil McFarlane, the extraordinarily charismatic and affable frontman of The OBGMs, will not let your attention wander. Testing the structural integrity of Chess Club, the dreadlocked McFarlane had the young late-night ground moshing, jumping and swaying in unison to the Canadian band’s hard-driving post-hardcore riffs a la the Stain era of Living Colour.

Taking note of the “poetry slam” age of the Stuporfriends crowd at Side Bar, McFarlane still managed to get the crowd jumping and even crouching (no easy feat). The infectiousness of the band and their compelling aura make them the one band that will make you forget your phone for 40 minutes.

For those who like a band that can play with the power off, Palmyra are your kind of folk. The Virginia-based trio, who were formally signed to John Prine‘s label on the Harbor Stage at last summer’s Newport Folk Festival, matched the regal surroundings of the Driskill Bar & Grill with a delightful set of acoustic indie-folk. Sasha Landon added some immediacy to the assuring refrain of “It’s Fine” by confessing their extreme embarrassment over spilling coffee on a woman’s white blouse on the plane ride and feeling even guiltier at her kindness and understanding.

In that same vein, Spitzer Space Telescope, the alter ego of midwestern artist Dan McDonald, offered an extraordinary set of traditional Irish folk songs at the Velveeta Room. Even more admirable was his patience and concentration in the face of an extremely disrespectful and unhelpful crowd. Finally, at The Line of Best Fit showcase at Swan Dive, John Francis Flynn played a transfixing set that meshed mystic Irish folk with deep backwoods ambience.

For those who want a band that has a grandiose amount of showmanship, Daniel Fried of TV’s Daniel cuts the best promo in rock ‘n’ roll. With a bravado to match the heft of the performance, Fried prowled the backyard of the Side Bar as part of the Hipster Robots showcase giving the crowd the opportunity to bask in his glory. Keeping TV’s Daniel from being a one-note gimmick, the band anchored by the rhythm section of Lisa Alley and Chris Prorock, match Fried’s intensity, with the closing outro of their set being one of the greatest finishers of the week.

While wonderful from a “fan perspective,” downward trending numbers never bode well and SXSW 2025 ended on an ominous note, one not of the D minor variety. Casting a dark cloud over an otherwise bright and sunny week, the traditional dates for the festival-closing music weekend were notably absent from the SXSW 2026 calendar, giving rise to unfounded rumors over the music festival’s demise.

Addressing the mounting concerns, an official spokesperson announced that SXSW Music would remain an integral part of the event. Instead of its traditional concentration during the second half of SXSW’s 10-day sprint, the official showcases will be spread throughout the entirety of the “reimagined” eight-day festival, running simultaneously with the film and technology events.

While the music portion of SXSW will not be going away, it certainly seems that SXSW 2026 will bear little resemblance to any of its predecessors.