I started off my Tuesday at SXSW at the Convention Center for a panel featuring The Indigo Girls. In town to promote It’s Only Life After All, Alexandria Bombach’s documentary on the iconic folk-rock duo, Amy Ray and Emily Sallers spoke on the subject of mixing music and activism and using your platform as an artist to speak out.
Amongst other things, they mentioned need to take in the wisdom of our elders but also the wisdom of youth and why the older generations need to engage with the youth. The panel ended off with a comment on the importance of growing hope for the future with the younger generation. It was an ispiring talk and that idea of the younger generation speaking out and using their music as a platform for activism was on my mind as I took in some musical performances later that day.
Sometimes activism can be as simple as speaking out when you see something wrong going on or just voicing your support for others. I saw this in action during be your own PET’s mid-afternoon performance at The Mohawk. The recently reunited band played a great set full of classics like “Becky” and “The Kelly Affair” as well as a bracing cover of The Misfit’s “Attitude.” Between songs, singer Jemina Pearl took a moment to speak out against the restrictive legislation recently passed in their home state, referring to it as “pure hatred” and also making it clear that they stood with their LGBTQ fans: “We love you. We see you. We stand with you. We support you. And fuck Bill Lee.”
Nashville singer-songwriter Molly Martin may not necessarily be overtly political in her music but as the old saying goes, the personal is the political and after hearing songs like “Love Me/Hate Me” and “Someone That I Used To Hate” off of Martin’s debut album Mary, one can certainly see evidence of the personal and the political intersecting as well as that theme of hopefulness that the Indigo Girls brought up earlier in the day. Overall, Martin’s solid songwriting and sense of humour made for a memorable performance.
Martin not only let us know that she had merch for sale (she made a pitch encouraging folks to buy her t-shirts “… so we cam eat! Jokes … but not really.”) but also took the time to hype up her debut album, adding that you only get one chance at a debut album and that she was pretty proud of this one. And with good reason too.