Music Blog

SXSW 2011: Sight and Sound Pt.1

Jake Nussbaum on March 20, 2011 at 08:50 PM, last updated March 22, 2011 at 09:20 AM

No Age @ Red Seven Patio, 3/16 (Photo: Jake Nussbaum)

I think this is the first successful photograph I took at SXSW. While it may not be a good picture of No Age, it definitely captures the frenzied masculine energy their music created. Somewhere in that mess is a lead singer.

Jame Blake @ Stubb's, 3/17. (Photo: Jake Nussbaum)

A photograph can never capture a sound. For that matter, it can never fully represent an experience. What you can't see here is the massive bass tone rattling my bones. James Blake's music is haunting, an exercise in restraint, which was probably why he was so hard to photograph. This was my best shot, but even with a little help from the lighting designer, I was still unable to do justice to his performance.

TV On The Radio @ Stubb's, 3/18 (Photo By Jake Nussbaum)

A majestic show deserves a majestic setting. TV On The Radio played on the same stage as James Blake, but they had a bigger stage presence and a rowdier audience, so a close-up would never have worked.

Spoek Muthumbo @ Fader Fort, 3/19 (Photo By Jake Nussbaum)

Lines for the Fader Fort, 3/17 (Photo By Jake Nussbaum)

Braids @ Palm Door, 3/16 (Photo By Jake Nussbaum)

A camera will always produce a distorted image. Often, I try and use that distortion to my advantage. Braids' music is ethereal and shifting, with songs that fold over on themselves and follow their own unique sense of time.