Hungry for new opportunities, these bands took on the insane challenge of playing a dozen shows in four days at SXSW. Here's what they learned about how and why to cram a massive amount of work into a short time.
No one defies the stereotype of the slacker rock band more than the cohort of emerging acts that book preposterous numbers of shows during the SXSW Music Festival and Conference in Austin every March. As routes to promotion and exposure get ever more confusing in the digital music age, more and more bands are using the annual industry extravaganza to take a shotgun approach to marketing--scheduling up to a dozen concerts over four days at the event's official and unofficial showcases and parties.