Bloomington bands perform in Austin for SXSW Music Festival

Two Bloomington rock bands packed up their equipment and headed to Austin, Texas, last week to perform multiple shows at the city’s annual South by Southwest festival, widely known as one of the world’s key events for generating exposure for aspiring creative minds.

On Wednesday, garage-rockers Apache Dropout played a late afternoon set on the front patio of Beerland to hundreds of passersby at the crowded intersection of Seventh and Red River streets.

“We always bring our PA with us, so we have this reputation as a band who plays wherever the fuck they want,” singer and guitarist Sonny Blood said afterward.

It was the first of five shows the band performed in Austin during the music week of SXSW. They also performed again at about midnight the same day at the official SXSW showcase of Family Vineyard, the band’s record label, at the Whiskey Room.

This was the first SXSW experience for Blood and bassist Nathan Warrick, though not for drummer Seth Mahern, who has performed there in the past with his other Bloomington projects, John Wilkes Booze and Lord Frye.

On Friday, former winner of Best of Bloomington’s “Best Local Band” Hotfox opened the Sonicbids Official SXSW Party at Maggie Mae’s with an 11:30 a.m. set, plugging and performing multiple cuts from its latest album, July’s “You, Me, and the Monster.” It was Hotfox’s first show of two on the day and three on the week, and the first SXSW experience for all the members.

“It’s like if you multiply all the festivals we’ve seen before by 1,000,” guitarist Duncan Kissinger said when comparing SXSW to other big stages his band has seen.

The band of IU students, one of whom sported a Mother Bear’s shirt onstage, earned that slot and had its trip paid for as a prize for winning JanSport’s annual Battle of the Bands contest. The band members discovered the competition when another Bloomington band, the Broderick, won it in 2009.

Both groups will be in Bloomington this week before going back on the road again this spring.

Bloomington-based indie band Tammar also performed at the festival.