On top of the fact that the last day of SXSW always feels like a bit of a comedown of sorts, this year the last day felt even more so than usual and almost had me wondering if I was somehow accidentally transported to the wrong festival all of a sudden. After all, it was wet and rainy, I was kind of exhausted and I was watching a Brit play acoustic guitar. Was this SouthBy or Glasto? All I needed was some mud caked wellies to complete the illusion.
As Frank Turner took to the stage at Red 7 for his last show of SXSW (the above pic was taken at his very first show of the week), he admitted to feeling the effects of a week’s worth of shows and partying. “I am officially SouthBy’d out. Played too many shows, drank too many shit beers, got tattooed … ” he said, later adding that his voice was beginning to get a little rough (“I’m starting to sound like Chuck Ragan”) and that if the crowd knew the words they should sing along. Despite this caveat, Turner still put on a great performance and even decided to open it up to requests from the floor, so as to make it a little more unique than any of his other sets earlier in the week.
Fittingly, he started off with “The Next Storm,” it’s lyrics of wanting to step out and face the sunshine giving us all some hope that the weather might get less miserable as the day went on. The weather never really got that much better, but still, it’s nice to have hope.