After Vita.mn hosted a rooftop day-party last year during the South by Southwest Music Conference -- giving pale Minnesota attendees a jumpstart on their tans -- City Pages is jumping into the mix with its own newly announced SXSW shindig this year. The weekly tabloids/websites' competitiveness is good news for local bands looking for more gigs at the big Texas music fest -- and for those of us wanting to catch Jeremy Messersmith and Sims at least once when in Austin, since they're playing both parties.
Sims' Doomtree crew and Messersmith are among the top names at Vita.mn's MN Music bash at SXSW on Saturday, March 19, at the Beauty Bar. Also on the bill are Pink Mink, Haley Bonar, Ben Weaver, Caroline Smith & the Goodnight Sleeps, Phantom Tails, Hastings 3000, the Book of Right On and Mayda, who will all be spread between two stages. Three of these acts -- Messersmith, Weaver and Phantom Tails -- will also perform at Vita.mn's Are You Local? showcase in town this Friday at the Varsity Theater, along with three acts competing for a slot at the SXSW party in Austin (Pictures of Then, Longshot and the 4onthefloor).
City Pages' Gimme Noise shindig, co-promoted with First Avenue, takes place a day earlier on Friday, March 18, at a new Austin venue opening just before SXSW called Skinny's Ballroom, with Sims (solo), Messersmith, Tapes 'n Tapes, Solid Gold (last year's Vita.mn party headliner), Marijuana Deathsquads, Sick of Sarah, the Goondas and the Get Cryphy DJs.
Company ties aside (Vita.mn is a Star Tribune publication), I'd say the Vita.mn party has the better location -- a well-known venue just off Sixth Street vs. a possibly nicer club way off the beaten path. I'd say City Pages has the better day, though, since many folks are often winded and weary by Saturday -- although, you'd be surprised how much stamina Minnesotans can show when wearing T-shirts and sunscreen in mid-March.
As for the competing lineups, well... let's just say I'd stack either show up against a majority of the other day-party options on those days. To steal a line Mark Mallman told me several years ago at the fest, I think this is the year Minnesota will officially be declared the winner of SXSW.
