The 6 Best Things We Saw Friday at SXSW 2017: ‘Contrabanned: #MusicUnites,’ Lana Del Rey, Karen Elson & More

On Friday, South by Southwest’s marathon weekend of bands and barbecue continued in Austin, Texas, while celebrating music from around the globe. These were the international highlights.

‘Contrabanned’ artists from seven targeted Muslim nations sang their immigrant songs

Immigration tensions dominated South by Southwest news before the fest even began — first due to seemingly controversial (and now amended) wording in SXSW’s booking contract threatening the deportation of any international artists playing nonsanctioned SXSW events, and then when at least a dozen artists (including Italy’s Soviet Soviet, Belgium’s Coely, Chile’s Trementina, and Denmark’s Eloq) were denied entry to the U.S. when attempting to travel to SXSW.

However, Friday’s official “Contrabanned: #MusicUnites” showcase — organized by Tamizdat, a nonprofit that helps musicians with visa problems, and hosted by Chicago-based Muslim comedian Azhar Usman — put a positive and proactive spin on the touchy subject, as performers from each of the seven Muslim countries targeted by President Trump’s initial travel ban came together at Sixth Street’s Palm Door. “If we are going to give voice to global artists, especially artists from often misunderstood and misrepresented Muslim-majority countries, and strengthen diversity in our culture, then we need to make it our mission to use whatever power we have at our disposal — the power of media, the power of capital, and the power of music — to promote diversity, empathy, and understanding,” Tamizdat explained in a statement promoting the event.

Of the varied artists representing Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen, two of the standouts were Libyan-American rapper Kayem jamming with Syrian-American neo-soul band Bassel & the Supernaturals, and Emmanuel Jal of South Sudan, a child soldier turned recording artist/peace activist, who fired up the crowd with “My Power,” an anthem he recorded with Nile Rodgers and Chic in 2014. (Sample lyrics: “I tell you I will stand/Freedom fighter am on fire/Pen and paper my desire/Tell the truth, confuse the liar/I take my rights even higher. … The nation is being eaten by the greedy and the cowards.”

But the highlight of the emotional night was the performance by the Somali R&B duo Faarow, aka sisters Siham and Iman Hashi, who as young girls escaped civil war in their homeland and settled with their family in Toronto. Wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the words “Refu-She!” and “Extra Power,” the siblings — who serve as spokeswomen for the U.N. Refugee Agency — stunned with their original song “Never Forgotten (UNHCR for Famine Relief)” and well as a cover of the Fugees’ “Ready or Not.” (“Shoutout to the Fugees for making it OK to be a refugee, and for making it cool,” said Iman.)

“I think for us, we just love seeing people come together,” Siham told the supportive crowd. “I know everybody’s so obsessed with Trump, but I feel like his hatred really brought people together, and that’s what’s exciting for me. Community, and seeing everyone band together — that’s what creates change.”

Baskery kicked out the Monster banjopunk jams

Speaking of musical imports (and sister acts), earlier in the day at another socially conscious event, the Women’s Ultra Mixer at the Monster Energy Outbreak House, buzzy Stockholm trio Baskery really got the morning going with a traditional Swedish folk song, before lurching into a lively rendition of Neil Young’s “Old Man.” The self-described “three bitches from Sweden” (Greta, Stella, and Sunniva Bondesson) played “banjopunk,” or “Nordicana,” that sounded like nothing else going on right now, and they definitely will be ones to watch in 2017.

Lana Del Rey brought the ‘Love’

The enigmatic, thinkpiece-baiting indie chanteuse played her first live show of 2017 with a “surprise” last-minute booking at Apple Music’s intimate hangout space on Fourth Street. While fans might have been hoping to hear the public debut of material from her forthcoming fifth album, Del Rey only played one new tune, the recently released “Love,” otherwise sticking to familiar favorites like “Blue Jeans,” “Ride,” “Video Games,” and “Born to Die.” But the adoring audience hardly seemed to mind, especially when Del Rey approached the front rows a couple of times to sign autographs, or when she unexpectedly strapped on a flying-V guitar for a raw solo rendition of “Yayo.”

Royal Trux’s Jennifer Herrema was a rock ’n’ roll queen

Nineteen years after they last played SXSW, Royal Trux — the druggy Drag City duo of Neil Hagerty and Jennifer Herrema, who paved the way for co-ed scuzz-rockers like Sleigh Bells, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and the Kills — returned to Texas to keep Austin weirder than ever. The band split in 2001; reunited last year at Southern California’s much smaller Berserktown II festival; and just announced that their new album Platinum Tips and Ice Cream, a “Truxian collage” and “motherf***ing hairball of sound” recorded live over just two improvisational days, comes out this June. They were still their willfully shaggy, sloppy, skronky selves on the dirt floor of the Hotel Vegas patio. As Herrema, with a beer and/or cigarette in hand at all times, staggered, swaggered, and slurred, growled and glowered from beneath the pulled-low brim of her trucker hat and impenetrable curtain of overgrown bangs, one heckler continually hollered, “Sober up!” He apparently didn’t realize this was all part of her rawk ‘n’ roll mystique.

Karen Elson was coming up ‘Double Roses’

The famously flame-haired supermodel and ex-wife of Jack White is gearing up to release her new album Double Roses (her first full-length since her critically acclaimed, White-produced 2010 debut The Ghost Who Walks), featuring Father John Misty, the Black Keys’ Patrick Carney, Laura Marling, Benmont Tench, George Harrison offspring Dhani Harrison, and Wilco’s Pat Sansone. On Friday at Buffalo Billiards, she played the LP’s elegant Southern Gothic tracks, like the sprawling show-closer “Why Am I Waiting,” with a simple three-piece setup — but that was just fine, as the lack of bells, whistles, and special guests put her pleasingly reedy, emotive voice front and center. Clearly, Elson’s album has been worth the seven-year wait.

We experienced a major cute overload

Friday wasn’t just about political protest and indie it-girls. Former teen idols Hanson, celebrating their 25th year in showbiz (and the 23rd anniversary of being discovered at SXSW), sat down with Yahoo Music in a Sixth Street loft for an adorable and nostalgic interview (coming soon). And then, over at celebrity chef Rachael Ray’s Feedback House, partygoers cuddled up to some even more adorable four-legged friends in an actual puppy-kissing booth. Incidentally, on Saturday, SXSW’s final day, Ray will host her 10th annual Feedback BBQ at Stubb’s, while in other food-centric SXSW news, Hanson will perform on the roof of Austin’s flagship Whole Foods store.

Check out more highlights from South by Southwest 2017:

• The 7 Best Things We Saw Tuesday at SXSW 2017: Willie Nelson, Krist Novoselic, Spoon & More

• The 6 Best Things We Saw Wednesday at SXSW 2017: Solange, At the Drive-In, PWR BTTM, Lemon Twigs & More

• The 6 Best Things We Saw Thursday at SXSW 2017: Hanson’s Leon Russell Tribute, Grandmaster Flash, the Drums & More

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