So you think SXSW is for the young and upcoming bands, you think it is all fresh and new? You cannot be more wrong, not every act go there to spread a buzz, make it and become famous. Some are already famous,… or were famous.
Lionel Richie (yeah him!) may be a thing of the past, a 80s R&B icon, but he performed at SXSW, and Rolling Stone magazine said he still got it.
‘Why has it taken me this long to make it to South By Southwest?’ He asked at the beginning of his show,… err may be because you have been kind of invisible for the longest time?
He performed a series of Commodore classics, then did a solo on piano after saying ‘I want the band to leave the stage,… Just me, just you’, and even improvised a Van Halen’s ‘Jump’ jam in the middle of ‘Dancing on the Ceiling’.
He invited Kenny Rodgers on stage, who is amazingly a good friend of his, and more amazingly, present at SXSW.
It was all about nostalgia, with no new songs (despite the fact he has a new album coming out this month) and a sort of warm-up for a future world tour as he announced it.
The best part of the show? Lionel saying to the young hipsters in the audience: ‘A lot of y’all don’t know who the f— I am, huh?’
Oh come on! You are a legend, these kids must have heard at least once in their life ‘All Night Long’ or ‘Hello! Still it must have been the most surreal and cheesy SXSW apparition… a must see between Cloud Nothings and Screaming Females…What the fuck?