The biggest rumor surrounding this year's South by Southwest Music Conference -- kicking off Wednesday in Austin, Texas -- was more or less confirmed over the weekend with the posting of this Kanye West video. At the end of the clip, the words "Seaholm Power Plant, March 19, 11:59 p.m." scroll across the scene, which is the planned location of the big party being put on by music-video website Vevo. It really is happening in an old power plant, too, which has been sitting empty for decades and been up for tear-down/remodeling debate over the past decade. As is the case with every structure near downtown Austin that has a roof and is sitting empty this week, it's naturally being turned into a performance space. But oh, imagine the headlines Kanye is pretty well guaranteed to get off performing there: "Kanye's electrifying set," "Feel the power of Kanye," "Kanye stays grounded," etc. (OK, the latter headline seems very unlikely). West did another semi-suprise appearance at SXSW in 2009, but it should be nothing compared to this one.
Be sure to check out all our SXSW coverage this week at www.startribune.com/sxsw. Also, I'm joining Mary Lucia and Melanie Walker from the Current 89. 3 FM on the air today a little after 5 p.m. to discuss our respective game plans as we head to Austin tomorrow.
