The 7 Best Things We Saw at SXSW 2016 Tuesday: Jack Garratt, Oscar, DJ Jazzy Jeff & More

(Jack Garratt plays the Spotify House. Photo by Anna Webber/Getty Images)

Austin’s South by Southwest Music festival kicked off Tuesday, March 15. And while this was supposed to be SXSW’s “slow day” — i.e., the initiation day to help us gently ease into the week’s routine of beers/bands/BBQ/repeat — we somehow forgot to pace ourselves, and we ended up indulging in a Texas-sized portion of music anyway. It happens.

From an Argentinian Bowie tribute, to an Anglophilia fest, to an onstage electrical and emotional meltdown, these were the most memorable moments of SXSW Music day one.

Jack Garratt Hit the Spot at the Spotify House

Things are looking pretty rosy for this English indie-electro auteur, considering that he recently won the BRITs’ Critics’ Choice award — an honor in the past bestowed upon such U.K. up-and-comers as Adele, Sam Smith, James Bay, Ellie Goulding, Jessie J, and Emeli Sandé. Of course, it remains to seen if the Londoner’s moody mix of jungle, garage, drum ‘n’ bass, and neo-soul will connect with U.S. listeners the way those platinum-selling imports did. But his intense one-man show in the backyard of the Spotify house — his first of several hotly tipped SXSW gigs this week — no doubt earned him quite a few Spotify spins from the curious festivalgoers who lined up in 90-degree heat to see what all the fuss was about.

Only in Austin, the city pretty much singlehandedly keeping Texas weird, would a hipster actor and an old-skool hip-hop icon share a DJ bill. First Elijah Wood, at SXSW to promote his new film The Trust, spun some vinyl at Flood magazine’s daytime bEAT bash, as one half of the turntable duo Wooden Wisdom with Zach Cowie.

But the party really got started when DJ Jazzy Jeff — now an established music producer and creator of the web series Vinyl Destination - showed up. Parents would definitely understand Jeff’s set — he played classic after classic, from Stevie Wonder to Steve Winwood, Janet Jackson to Outkast’s “Ms. Jackson,” Soul II Soul to Survivor, Tears for Fears to Phil Collins — but the mostly millennial audience got into the groove as well. OK, here’s the situation: This party was pretty cool.

Sometimes the best moments at SXSW are the unexpected ones, the ones you stumble upon by chance as you make your way down 6th Street. Such was the case here. We showed up at Maggie Mae’s official SXSW Music Opening Party for Har Mar Superstar (more on that disaster later), CHVRCHES’ DJ set (not as cool as DJ Jazzy Jeff’s, unfortunately), and, of course, the open bar/free food setup. But we stayed for Argentinian garage-rockers Capsula, who in glam-slamming style covered David Bowie’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars in its entirety. (The group recorded their own version of the iconic album back in 2012.) For a badass bonus encore, Capsula even cranked out Diamond Dogs’ “Rebel Rebel,” with shaggy-haired, tambourine-rattling frontman Martin Guevara leaping into the audience. We’re not sure if Bowie producer Tony Visconti — who’ll deliver a keynote address Thursday at the Austin Convention Center — was in the audience. But he probably would have approved.

Har Mar Superstar’s Set Got Marred

Usually, there ain’t no party like a Har Mar Superstar party, because a Har Mar Superstar party don’t stop. But this party never got started. When the usually vivacious, caped-crusading, porn-pop provocateur/Ron Jeremy doppelganger finally hit the Maggie Mae’s rooftop stage — more than 20 minutes late, after stagehands tried to sort out some technical difficulties that seemed related to a malfunctioning power strip — he snarled in frustration, “This venue ruined our keyboards, so I can’t really play all the new s— I was gonna play for you guys. And it sucks a big fat d—. Now that $7,000 of keyboards have been destroyed, let’s try to make a semblance of something I care about. I’m f—ing pissed and I don’t want to be here.” This was a far cry from the jolly, smiling Har Mar spotted earlier in the day hanging around town with A$AP Ferg.

Har Mar then proceeded to howl just one furious noise-rock number before he and his band stormed offstage in a huff, with one stagehand shouting and even hurling a glass at them. It was all kind of punk-rock, and definitely unforgettable, but it was hardly the fun-filled set fans had expected from the flamboyant retro-soul showman behind such bangers as “EZ Pass,” “Power Lunch, and "DUI.” And while some audience members were sympathetic, others let their disappointment be known.

Great Britain’s Buzz Bands Were Truly Great

Tuesday ended as British-ly as it began… at the British Music Embassy, where Belfast post-punk quartet Girls Names first thrilled with an angsty set of slashing, jagged guitars, ominously chiming basslines, and doomy black-leather mystique. Remember their name(s).

A cheerier set came from adorably plucky bedroom troubadour Oscar (imagine if Roddy Frame and Jarvis Cocker had a baby), who showed up in appropriately attired in a natty Union Jack sweater (or, as they say in the U.K., “jumper”) and charmed the Embassy crowd with his beats-driven “gangsta melancholy” powerpop. “Is it all Brits in here, or are some of you from the U.S.?” Oscar joked. “Brits are everywhere!” yelled one spectator. The Brits’ presence was certainly felt at SXSW on day one.

SXSW Wednesday is when the festival really lurches into high gear, with big-deal, hot-ticket shows by Iggy Pop with Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme and Ryan Adams with the Avett Brothers, plus the return of Miike Snow, Erykah Badu, and Mercury Rev… and a keynote address by the one and only Michelle Obama, assisted by Missy Elliott, Queen Latifah, and Diane Warren.

Phew! Will we able to see and do it all? Watch this space …

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