Austin

Are festivals good for Austin music? Take two: Graham Williams

Graham Williams of Fun Fun Fun Fest and his Transmission company book 800 shows a year, with less than half of them touring shows. For part two of our second installment of LAMF (Live Austin Music Forum) we asked Williams if the town’s new identity as a Music Festival Mecca was hurting the local music scene. This is a complaint I’ve been hearing since the second year of ACL Fest, but now we’ve got Fun Fun Fun, X Games, Levitation, Old Settlers, Pachanga!, Reggae Fest, Fan Fest etc. etc. The majority of acts booked are national and just seeing the names makes a lot of music fans salivate. As a Statesman writer for 18 years I can tell you that media coverage has shifted focus from local acts to touring acts- and that’s not just in the mainstream press. All this attention has got to distract from what’s going on in the clubs 365 days a year.

Graham Williams. Photo by Chad Chadsworth.

Graham Williams. Photo by Chad Wadsworth.

Here was the starter question:

You’re born and raised here, so you remember when there was as much of a focus on local acts as touring national acts. You’re maybe too young for memories of Aquafest, which went under in 1996, but it was THE annual music fest at Auditorium Shores that booked mostly local acts until they got big-headed and lost their asses paying big money for the likes of Dolly Parton and Chaka Khan. But since ACL Fest started in 2002, we’ve seen a proliferation of festivals in Austin. And I’m not counting SXSW because that’s a different beast. Do you think the local music scene has been overshadowed by festivals, that there’s not as much heat as before the massive invasion of national talent?

 

GRAHAM WILLIAMS:

Well…it’s a complicated question, so I’ll give a long and complicated response. I do remember a time when the big shows were usually whatever the hot local act was at the time, almost as much as who the big touring act was. There were just as many big locals filling a venue on a weekend as the roadshows, but i don’t know that the number of bands or size of bands or the local scene itself has really shrunk. I just think there’s much more in the way of bigger touring talent than there was before, so the pool is smaller and maybe more competitive. But let’s not put aside the fact that our population has nearly doubled in the last 20 years, since I started putting on shows in the early 90s, and recognize the amount of people going to see live music is massive compared to the way it once was. So it should mean more options, but more audience too.

ACL Fest 2014. Photo by Otis Ike.

ACL Fest 2014. Photo by Otis Ike.

I guess my short answer is “No, I don’t think music festivals are hurting the local music scene.” I mean, the question was emailed to me in the MIDDLE of “Free Week,” an all-independent, almost entirely LOCAL event with lines around the block to get into the venues on some nights.  I think the Mohawk hit capacity almost every night that week and many of the other rooms in town (ones we book and ones we don’t) were slammed, too.  These were local acts with tons of fans (new and old) packing the venues to see them. Yes, you could argue that, in addition to no cover, that it’s because it’s a slow time of the year without as many tours and that Austin, being a music-centric city, had hungry fans looking for bands to see.  Those music fans came out for the locals since there were no touring options…but the point would still be that it has little to do with fests and more to do with Austin being a touring hot spot now.  I don’t necessarily think that is a bad thing.

With the internet and the ability to hear bands from all over the globe at the push of a button, as well as things like SXSW, blogs and more, Austin has become a destination that it wasn’t for a lot of touring bands so many years ago.  Keep in mind, it was really expensive and hard to piece together enough dates in the south to even make it to Austin a couple of decades back.  As our city grew, so did other scenes in towns surrounding Austin, making touring down here more viable.

Touring, in general, has also changed and the idea of a DIY tour isn’t as far-fetched as it was then for so many bands.  I mean, not every band needs a manager, label support, an agent and a bus to hit the road (and maybe never really did).  So as more and more touring acts come through big ol’ Texas, there are more and more options, which means the only bands to see aren’t just local acts, but a mix of acts from different genres- touring, locals, big acts, small acts, you name it.  There used to be a handful of year round rooms and then the big venues like Liberty Lunch/Opera House and REALLY big venues like Erwin Center/City Coliseum.  Now there are literally dozens smaller and medium sized rooms that host 200-500 person shows every night of the week, not to mention all the big venue options that weren’t around.

2013 lineup.

2013 lineup.

Maybe there are a few less BIG locals (though that’s very debatable, as i can name 20 locals that can sell more than 1000 tix in Austin without really having to think about it) at the top, but there are probably 100s more smaller and medium sized bands that are killing it in Austin right now and many getting a name for themselves outside of town, as well.  I think the fests feed down to the locals and they feed up to them.  Locals get to play the festivals and open for the touring bands, usually, as well as see great acts and influences and tour with bands that come through.  I don’t think our music scene is perfect, by any means, but I don’t think something like a festival in the market has effected it negatively.  Most bands would probably say they’d like to be involved more with big events, which is understandable, but few would say they wish that festivals didn’t exist.

In the end, I see your point about press not covering locals as much as they once did, but I also think it all ties back into the idea that Austin has become a touring destination and therefore there are more and more bands to write about.  It’s rare to write about a touring act that comes through every few years, so they jump on that. I still see great bands on the cover of the Austin Chronicle, as well as read reviews online and in print of lots of locals bands records. There are plenty of bands that don’t get enough press and while that could be better, no offense to you journalists, but does that really matter?  I mean, it was amazing for Fun Fun Fun Fest to get the cover of the Chronicle, since I was born and raised here and I read it every week growing up in Austin. But we were a festival for NINE years before that even happened.  Yet we grew every year without it. Local bands keep filling venues and putting out records and writing great music with or without someone writing about them.  Not saying we can’t do better, but it’d be like saying that if a label won’t sign your band, you might need to call it quits, which is a crazy concept to me.  There are lots of options in Austin to play and build your band and your scene and no amount of press or festivals or whatever should stop anyone. We make our own fun.

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rogerwallace

Here’s a column by Austin musician Roger Wallace, answering the same question about whether big festivals are hurting local music.