SXSW Overflow Fest Kicks Off Tonight, With The Escatones, Darwin’s Finches, & Free Pretzels

Hey, all — apologies for the quiet these past couple of months; yours truly got swallowed up by work and home stuff and had to set SCR to the side somewhat, unfortunately. Sometimes that’s just how it goes, y’know? I’m going to try to post more frequently in the coming days, however (although they might be a bit more brief than what I’ve posted in the past), so check on back for more…

Happily, tonight marks the start of one of my absolute-favorite music-related things that goes on in this city: SXSW Overflow Fest over at Super Happy Fun Land. See, people regularly skip Houston on their way to Austin, Dallas, & Denton (not as regularly as they used to, mind you, which is good), and that goes double when venerable music/etc. explosion SXSW is unfolding over in our neighbor to the northwest.

A decade or so ago (more?), though, the cool folks at quirky, DIY-friendly hangout Super Happy Fun Land starting gathering together out-of-town bands and musicians who happened to be meandering their way through Texas to try their luck at SXSW and putting ’em all on one stage. The result is a truly varied mishmash of music, with bands of all genres & styles from all over the world popping up to play, and all for a measly $24 for a 2-week pass, which lets you see as many shows as you feel like from tonight, Friday, March 8th, through Thursday, March 21st.

I’ll be out of town for a large chunk of this year’s festival, sadly, and I’m bummed about that, because Overflow Fest is seriously fun. It’s like getting a blind-bag of music, where you never know what the hell you’re going to get; some of it isn’t great, some of it is downright cringeworthy, but some of it is pretty damn awesome. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by a lot of Overflow Fest bands over the years, and walked away a diehard fan of some of ’em.

I don’t recognize a lot of the names on the schedule this year, but that’s nothing new. That said, next Thursday’s lineup (March 14th) includes David Liebe Hart, an oddball artist, musician, puppeteer, & actor who’s known for his work on Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! I have zero clue what his set will be like, but it’s bound to be weird as shit and entertaining as hell.

The Fest starts tonight with a rare all-locals bill that includes excellent surf-punk-noise rockers The Escatones and quirky, experimental-ish psych-pop band Darwin’s Finches, both of whom I like quite a bit, among others.

And as an added bonus, there’s a cool-sounding thing called Wiesn in a Box up at SHFL tonight, too, which bills itself as a “mobile beergarden” and will be offering free German beer and pretzels. Get on up there and grab yourself a lanyard, alright?