We're now settled in our Super 8 hotel room, alongside the humidity and mosquitoes, and finally have a few shows under our belt. Last night marked the debut for Cincinnati bands at this year's South By Southwest, featured at the Midwest by Southwest showcase. The event was put together by The All Night Party folks at the Soho Lounge downtown.
Among the bands that played, The Sundresses is one of the most experienced when it comes to SXSW. This year marks their fifth time playing the festival and from what these veterans say, it seems doubtful it will be their last.
Check out what the band (Brad Schnittger: drums, guitar, vocals; Mackenzie Place: trombone, bass; Jeremy Springer: drums, guitar, vocals) had to say about the experience below.
CityBeat: What do you think of the festival overall?
Mackenzie: It's just awesome. It's on a regional, national and international level. It's a bunch of awesome musicians that come to an awesome town and enjoy it. It's great and I'm happy to be here.
CB: Has SXSW made an impact on your band's success?
Jeremy: It's hard to tell, you know, it's hard to say because you don't know what would happen if you didn't play. It's a nice feather in your cap, but still.
Mackenzie: As far as making friends, though, and connections, it's done that — it's definitely worked. You meet people you wouldn't meet in Cincinnati. You're in the middle of all these great musicians and if they love you, they'll say "Hey, come to my town."
Brad: One time we gave a CD to the guy from Everclear, in 2006, but, nothing every happened. We saw him on the corner down here and were like, 'Hey, we should give totally give him one of our CDs,' so we did.
Jeremy: Yeah, that's when we were young and dumb
Brad: Yeah, like the guy from Everclear was going to help us out. It didn't do anything.
Jeremy: If we saw him now, we'd probably throw an empty coffee cup or beer bottle at him.
CB: What kind of bands benefit from playing at SXSW?
Mackenzie: It's the big and little.
Jeremy: The flavor of the month definitely … It's funny because everyone here is famous in their own town so they get here and everyone thinks (they're the best), and rightfully so because to get here, period, is a difficult thing. You have to be of a certain amount of quality to play this festival. So all the musicians are walking around with their best clothes on and it's a big fashion show and party. But, you're not going to get signed at SXSW. It's just random and lucky, really.
CB: What's the worst/best part of the festival?
Mackenzie: The best part is the food, the worst is traffic — the food is so good here.
Brad: The best part is the food — I agree with Mackenzie, the traffic is the worst.
Jeremy: Traffic is the worst. Girls are the best.
