Is this an airport or a “Battle of the Bands” competition? I have never seen so many people with musical instruments waiting to board the same flight. The plane I’m hopping on is leaving to Austin, Texas on the eve of the first day of the SXSW Music Conference, where seven Israeli bands have official showcases, joining the tens of thousands participating in the festival. It is amazing seeing so many music lovers roaming the streets, walking everywhere and nowhere in particular, everyone doing their best to look as different as they can. You get a lot of characters in SXSW – yet all are united by their boundless musical curiosity.
As the sun set on our first day in SXSW, we walked into the Central Presbyterian Church, to see the Turkish/Greek/Israeli ensemble, My Sweet Canary. Their passionate renditions of classic Greek songs by Rosa Ashkenazi transfixed the audience, as their passion and emotion reached out to everyone in the crowd.
After that, world music gave way to rock, as we headed to the musical double feature of “Acollective” and “I.U.D.M”. “Acollective” played first, going wild on stage with their catchy complex tunes and their intense grandstanding. They seemed joyfully possessed by the music they were creating. “I.U.D.M.”, who has been one of the most popular rock bands in Israel for the past two decades, came up next and united the audience who swayed together as one during their expressive ballads, the true emotion of the song carved on all of their singers’ faces. The crowd was equally united when jumping around during their upbeat energetic tracks.
The next big event will be later on Friday, as all the musicians will perform parts of their act in our Tel Aviv Beach Party. The aforementioned bands will be joined by Yael Kraus, J.Viewz and many others! To complete in bringing the Israel experience to Texas, everything from Yarden wines to Israeli food will be on hand. To see more of Israel at SXSW, check out this special Facebook page iMadeInIsrael.
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