While the music portion of SXSW formally gets underway on the Monday, the first day of programming always seems a bit lighter. It’s usually not until Tuesday that the music programming seems to start in earnest, with the whole day filled with acts playing from mid-day to the wee hours of the night. And since SXSW at its best is about pure discovery, I took the opportunity to use much of that first day to take in something new and leave things up to chance a bit.
One of the first acts I caught on this quest for something new and random was indeed a unique one – Seoul based electronic-hip hop duo Hypnosis Therapy, who on this occasion would be a solo act as producer Jflow couldn’t make it, leaving his partner JJANGYOU to do it all on his own.
What followed was an interesting and entertaining performance, with JJANGYOU going all out as he rapped over some jungle/drum and bass-inspired beats. Interspersed with his aggressive demeanor onstage was his relatively subdued and somewhat amusing stage banter, with the absolute best bit coming in his deadpan response to some boos when he announced that he was about to play his last song:
“Fuck you, I’m tired.”
I get it. SXSW can take a lot out of you.