Billy Woods, Jack’s Mannequin, Billianne

IA great performance at SXSW can happen anywhere: An official showcase at a downtown venue, an unofficial get-together at an East Side bar, a shindig thrown by a third-party political group, or all of the above. Here are the best things we saw on Wednesday, March 12, at SXSW 2025.

Jack’s Mannequin Keep the Spark Alive

Not long into his reunited band’s set at Stubb’s, Andrew McMahon noted that he launched Jack’s Mannequin by playing SXSW 20 years ago. The group has been on hiatus for a decade, and it’s been even longer since they released a new collection of songs. After releasing People and Things in 2011, McMahon hit pause on the group to launch his solo career, reconvening the band for a tenth anniversary run a decade ago. Now armed with his new book Three Pianos: A Memoir, he’s eager to reconvene the lineup he had at the end of the band’s run — drummer Jay McMillan joins original members guitarist Bobby Anderson and bassist Mikey Wagner — to go “digging through some old records,” as McMahon put it introducing “Amy, I,” on a tour that will continue through 2025. Maybe the songs are a bit dusty, but Jack’s Mannequin weren’t content to treat them as vehicles for mere nostalgia. Throughout their SXSW set, the band played McMahon’s sturdy melodic constructions with vigor, dragging the old songs into today, a process that added a palpable emotional undercurrent to the show. Jack’s Mannequin weren’t indulging in a backwards glance at the past, they were reconnecting with their initial creative spark. —S.T.E.

Megan Moroney Takes a Victory Lap

By the time Megan Moroney sang the words, “Oh my God, am I OK?” at Rolling Stone’s third-annual Future of Music showcase at SXSW on Wednesday night, it was clear the Georgia country star already had her answer. Moroney was far better than just “OK,” and the fans assembled at Austin’s ACL Live at the Moody Theater let her know it. They cheered, and on occasion shrieked, when the singer launched into emo-country hits like her breakthrough “Tennessee Orange,” the reflective “I’m Not Pretty,” and a set-closing “Am I Okay?” “It’s the juxtaposition of my vulnerable, emotional songs with someone that looks very put-^­together and over-the-top,” Moroney said of her appeal in a new Rolling Stone cover story that described her aesthetic as “Southern-belle Barbie.” “This is who I am. And if that’s the barrier that makes you not want to listen to my music, then …” She shrugged to drive home her point. But there was little for Moroney to shrug off at the Moody Theater. —J.H.

Editor’s picks

The Molotovs Are About to Blow Up

London duo the Molotovs haven’t even released their debut single yet — “More More More” drops March 21 — but the Britpop-punk band commanded the Mohawk stage at 2 in the afternoon as if they were opening the Oasis reunion tour. Led by singer-guitarist Matthew Cartlidge and his bass-playing sister Issey Cartlidge, both in their teens, plus drummer Noah Riley, the group made their U.S. debut at SXSW, tearing through punchy originals that would have been right at home on BBC Radio 1 in the Nineties. A cover of Bowie’s “Suffragette City” was particularly inspired, with Matthew, in a red polo and white shorts, goading on the fans and Issey shouting the “wham, bam, thank you, ma’am” breakdown. The set ended with Matthew blowing a coach’s whistle and eliciting skronky feedback from his Rickenbacker, signaling that — God save the queen — bombastic British rock is back. —J.H.

Billy Woods’ Revolutionary Rhymes

When billy woods talks, you listen. The wise man of underground rap, who announced a new album on Wednesday morning, took the stage at Cheer Up Charlie’s a little after 11 p.m. that night and faced a crowd of revelers. The evening’s festivities were sponsored by the Working Families Party, and moments earlier we’d all been dancing to Dua Lipa with a glittery and gorgeous crew of Texas drag queens including Brigitte Bandit, Eddie Divas, Kristi Waters, and Austin’s own Sinful Purchase. That’s one kind of liberation with a political dimension — Bandit gave a stirring speech about trans rights — and woods came to offer another. “Since you’re all having fun, we’re going to switch it up,” he said, scowling. “You know what you’re getting when you invite me to do a show, and it ain’t fun.” With that, he launched into a raw and emphatic performance, spitting multi-layered bars over dusty beats that he cued from a laptop. His lyrics commanded attention as he navigated through tracks from 2019’s Hiding Places (“Spongebob,” “A Day in a Week in a Year,” “Spider Hole”), 2022’s Aethiopes (“Wharves,” “No Hard Feelings”), and more in a stern, level tone. This was instruction more than entertainment, and there was no question we were in the presence of greatness. —S.V.L.

Related Content

Billianne’s Unforgettable Vocals

Milton, Ontario singer-songwriter Billianne took the inside stage at High Noon with a modest setup — just guitar, piano, and her voice. There were other bands playing loudly a few yards to either side of her on the East Austin bar’s outside stages, and the inside room was maybe half-full of hobnobbing festival people. But they all paid attention once she started singing. Billianne has the kind of voice that makes you stop and listen, with a resplendent tone and effortless range. She sounded a little like a young Adele, singing pop songs about love and frustration with a twinge of neo-soul in her phrasing. Hearing songs like “Crush” (a radio hit in Canada) and “Enough” (which she recently performed on The Kelly Clarkson Show) performed live is enough to convince you that she’s a star. And when she held a high note, the room was packed and cheering. —S.V.L.

Man/Woman/Chainsaw Put on a Ripping Good Show

London’s Man/Woman/Chainsaw make noisy, wild, unpredictable art-rock that’s earned them comparisons to bands like Black Country, New Road. Outside at High Noon in the mid-afternoon, the six-member lineup just sounded like themselves — a young band in the process of inventing something ecstatically new. They played emotive rock music with a surprisingly hard edge: one guy shredding on a Flying V guitar, another member sawing away at an electric violin, and everyone teetering on the edge of chaos. Delicate vocals and instrumental textures kept colliding into heavy riff explosions that felt equally aligned with Black Sabbath and post-rock. You can hear all of this on their 2024 EP Eazy Peazy, and there’s no doubt more to come on their forthcoming debut, but witnessing it live is something else entirely. —S.V.L.

Five Eight Stay True to Themselves

“We’re gonna do the set list backwards tonight — we’re gonna start with the encore,” declared Mike Mantione, the leader of Five Eight, at the start of their set at High Noon on the second day of SXSW. The long-running Athens, Georgia band then kicked into “Weirdo,” a jagged rocker that also happens to be the name of the feature-length documentary by Marc Pilvinsky that’s playing SXSW this year. Weirdo: The Story of Five Eight is the second recent project to boost the band’s profile, following swiftly on the heels of the Bad Ends, Mantione’s side project which featured R.E.M. drummer Bill Berry returning from retirement. Even if the movie converts a number of listeners who’ve never heard of them, Five Eight have spent too long carving out their place on the fringe to be anything other than who they are: an unkempt and urgent band that gains power from their own mess. They quickly drew most of the crowd at the east side bar by playing high octane, off-kilter rock & roll, retaining the volume even when they descended into a grinding churn; when the tempo slowed, the songs got pulled into focus by galvanizing shards of guitar noise. The band has been at this for so long — they self-released their first album in 1989 — that they’re comfortable being loose on stage. At one point, Manitone held his phone to talk with his mom, asking her if she had the money she owes him, which inspired warm laughter from his parent. It was a funny moment that also speaks to the humanity at the core of Five Eight. They make music familiar but vibrant and exciting, the kind of rock you play when you’ve decided that you’re committed to the game for life. —S.T.E.

Dilettante Have Some Fun

Dilettante took the stage at the British Music Embassy showcase at Palm Door on Sixth on a hot Wednesday afternoon, bringing together saxophone, fiddle, guitar, bass, drums, an array of syncopated grooves, deftly dissonant harmonies, spiky little hooks, and other art-pop moves. It all worked together splendidly, because leader Francesca Pidgeon’s songs work as, you know, songs — tuneful and emotionally direct even when the music has a lot going on. “This one is called ‘Fun,’” she said on stage. “It’s about not having any fun.” It was pretty fun, sonically at least — featuring lovely harmonies on the phrase “I’m just having a breakdown, don’t worry,” and ending with a jam heavy on overlapping “I’m not having any fun” vocals and Pidgeon’s honking saxophone, all of it cresting then falling off a cliff, cheekily. —C.H.

Stephen Wilson Jr.’s “Death Cab for Country”

Singer, songwriter, and guitarist Stephen Wilson Jr has been steadily building an audience for the last two years with his 2023 album Son of Dad. The former boxer kicked off his set at the Rolling Stone showcase with the one-two punch of “Billy” and “Cuckoo,” a pair of brooding ,rock-focused tracks. “You can call me Billy/but the hills come with me,” he sang defiantly in the former, celebrating his hardscrabble roots growing up in rural southern Indiana. Wilson also comes from an indie-rock background. He played lead guitar in the Nashville band AutoVaughn, and he’s described the music he makes now as “Death Cab for Country.” “I write country songs, and sonically I approach country music probably more as an indie artist,” Wilson told Rolling Stone before taking the stage. “Most of my history as a musician and performer is playing in indie bands and that’s why I have a pretty long history here at SXSW… But then I branched off and really got into learning the craft of country songwriting.” —J.H.

Brutus VIII’s Screaming Satire

Brutus VIII are not messing around — unless, maybe, they are. Lead vocalist Jackson Katz, dressed like a businessman at the end of a very long night, stood on the stage at Valhalla, screaming and punching a sampler (“L-l-l-l-l-let’s go!”) while a power trio behind him played fiendishly danceable industrial beats and dancer Alena Henke flung her body around the stage in a leotard. On songs like “Building a Bomb,” from last year’s delightfully strange Pure Gluttony album, Katz seemed like a stand-up comic with a menacing edge. (He’s cited postmodern masters Don DeLillo and Paul Auster as key influences, which tells you something about the kind of band this is.) “This next one’s about L.A.,” said Katz, who is based there. “Not a fan.” And the band kept thrashing on in style. —S.V.L.

Mary in the Junkyard Weave a U.K. Rock Dream

“We’re still a bit jet-lagged,” Clari Freeman-Taylor explained as she stood onstage at Palm Door on Sixth, the cavernous, warehouse-style downtown space where the British Music Embassy has set up shop for the week. Freeman-Taylor is the singer in Mary in the Junkyard, a hotly hyped London trio who make a spectral kind of rock. Lightly strumming a hollow-body Gretsch guitar, she held the audience’s attention easily, without raising her voice. She introduced one song as being about a dream in which she was best friends with a mouse, and the music did feel something like a half-remembered dream. On the last song in their set, they picked up the tempo and morphed into something catchier. —S.V.L.

The Thing Keep the Energy High

The Thing is a fitting name for this shape-shifting New York City band. Splitting the difference between classic garage skronk and a metallic murk that eschews doom for grime, the Thing can sometimes seem at war with their own desires: They’re as eager to play heavy riffs as they are to deliver a clean melodic punch. Wearing a T-shirt sporting the Who in their mod prime at Elysium on Wednesday night, bassist/singer Zane Acord emphasized the Thing’s debt to an art-pop past, singing with a disaffection that recalls the peak of indie-sleaze. Despite all the retro influences, the Thing isn’t living in the past. They’re so much in the moment, so jacked up by their own noise, that they occasionally sacrifice impact for melody, a tendency underscored by drummer Lucas Ebeling taking an extended solo in the middle of the set. The high-octane virtuosity pushed the group far away from the realms of garage-punk, yet it kept the energy level high, letting the band lurch and screech like a B-movie monster on a rampage. —S.T.E.

Surely Shirley’s Sunshine Pop 

Surely Shirely is the dreamy duo of Jenaya and Anisha Okpalanze, twin sisters who hail from the South Coast of Australia. The group stays true to a hallowed Australian pop tradition of creating their own ecosystem, one that feels separate from (but informed by) the sounds emanating from America and the U.K. It’s possible to trace the influences of Surely Shirley —the band makes it easy by delivering a cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Say You Love Me” that is almost a bit too on the nose — but the duo’s blend of classic soft-pop sounds from the ’60s and ’70s doesn’t feel tethered to the past, even when they’re playing with girl-group tropes, such as playacting a phone call about boy troubles. Surely Shirley reside in a breezy fantasy, one unsullied by grit or grime, one that wears its sweet disposition as a point of pride. When the group clicks, as they do on their debut single “Honeymoon Island” and the recent “Lavender Blues,” they conure a daydream in pastels. —S.T.E.

Trending Stories

A Word of Appreciation for Canada

As Donald Trump continues issuing outrageous threats toward Canada, it’s worth remembering how much extraordinary music has always come from our neighbors to the north — and how much still does. Twenty-four hours after a thrilling night of edgy, experimental noise at Swan Dive hosted by three Canadian arts organizations, another group of acts from that country played the same space, courtesy of the M Pour Montréal and Pop Montreal festivals. Inside, Billianne repeated the vocal performance that was so impressive earlier in the day; outside on the patio, Toronto punks the OBGMs got an energetic mosh pit going; back inside, Montreal alt-rock act Ribbon Skirt (led by Anishinaabe singer-guitarist Tashiina Buswa) conjured waves of shoegaze-y sound. It feels absurd to say that having a bunch of cool Canadian bands perform on one bill is a political statement, but that’s where we are. —S.V.L.

(Full disclosure: In 2021, Rolling Stone’s parent company, P-MRC, acquired a 50 percent stake in the SXSW festival.)