Chris Robinson of The Black Crowes - more photos... photo by Jeff Barringer - staff photographer
As we reported here, first, The Black Crowes have canceled their SXSW appearance. As confirmed by Austin American Statesman writer Joe Gross. According to the article posted by Gross the bands publicist confirmed “There has been a change of schedule and the group will not be performing there this year�.
What an unfortunate turn of events as the Saturday show at Stubb's was bound to be Saturday's A Ticket event. I know I was looking forward to that particular showcase.
In other SXSW rumor news, Les Claypool's chance for an appearance has dropped to nil, as he has announced remaining dates on his current tour that would conflict. He still has 1 day open on his schedule
so it is possible he might do a walk on, but the chance appears remote. I will be scratching him from the rumored list. Good news on the Beastie Boys rumor, maybe. The band has announced a second gig, this one in Mexico, on March 8th, the day after their set at Langerado. That indicates 2 things, the band is moving west, and they are booking more gigs in that time period. Maybe they will step into the Crowes boots over at Stubb's.
I spent a little bit of time updating the SXSW 2008 band list today and we now have over 670 bands and artists listed as confirmed so far. I will continue to update the list until SXSW publishes the official list/schedule, then I will hand the reins over to them and focus on doing SXSW artist spotlight interviews. Last year we interviewed a whole bunch of neat SXSW performers like Hugh Cornwell, The Zico Chain, Dirty Wormz, Paul Collins, Peter Case, Blacklist and more. This year we have already done a podcast spotlight with Broken Teeth and next on the list is an interview with The Hymns out of New York. If you are or represent a SXSW 2008 performer and would like to see your artist included in our coverage with an interview, drop me an email. I'm booking interviews up until March 9th.
Velvet Revolver at Stubb's - more photos... photo by Jeff Barringer - staff photographer
Velvet Revolver brought their tour buses to town and parked them at Stubb's last night for a smoking hot set, or was it? Raoul Hernandez over at The Chronicle is doing more than suggesting that Velvet Revolver frontman Scott Weiland had a little help from performance enhancing electronics to get through the set. I was there and can attest to a very variable sound, to the man with the laptop offstage, and to some interesting pre-show happenings with the mics, but the crowd for the most part seemed to enjoy the show. I was there to check out Slash's performance and dig for SXSW rumors so I wasn't paying that much attention to Scott. I am just glad he didn't sound like a bag o' cats like one of Slash's previous frontmen. Slash's performance, as well as Duff's and the rest of the bands, seemed to be 100% au natural and Slash sounded good.
On to SXSW 2008 news...
Ok now it's getting weird.
One of my sources has been hired to cover Roky Erickson's Ice Cream Social specifically to cover the purported R.E.M. set, yet when I talk to Roky's management they are insistent that they have no clue what I am talking about and insist they have not booked R.E.M. for a slot. My sources employers are just as adamant that it is happening to the point that they are ready to write him a check to be there.
Another source has reported to me that the Black Crowes have pulled out of their Saturday gig at Stubb's, reportedly not wanting to be second billed to R.E.M. Checking with a number of my contacts at Stubb's they are unaware of any schedule changes and are still planning on a Crowes gig that night. Pollstar still has the Crowes listed on Saturday as well.
I don't know if any of this is true, but my sources are usually pretty good, and SXSW tends to get strange as we get down to the wire.
I do know that every day that passes more bands are confirming SXSW gigs, and we will probably see the "official" list posted sometime next week. Some of the more interesting confirmations include The Hymns from New York (Watch for a podcast interview next week), The Presidents Of The United States Of America, Bowling For Soup, and Zebrahead to name a few.