Yahoo Autos Rolling Stone Future of Music Showcase Broke All The Boundaries at SXSW
ROLLING STONE’s Future of Music showcase rocked Austin’s ACL Moody Theater with over 12,000 attendees over four consecutive nights last week. Featuring a whopping 24-artist roster, the event presented a diverse slate of musical acts, spanning all genres, from several different countries. Fans gathered around to listen to their favorite musicians and discover rising talent, all hand-picked by Rolling Stone.
The theater, which is a state-of-the-art 2,750-person space for performances, witnessed an astounding turnout over the four nights. Each and every night, the venue was packed to the brim for both the headlining and opening acts, filling all three floors of the space with bobbing heads and wide smiles. DJs Mediopicky, Rosegold, Hella Yella and The Dare held down the fort, in between performances, amping up the crowd for headlining artists JID, Jay Wheeler, Remi Wolf, and Koffee. Fans also saw incredible performances from co-headlining acts Mariah The Scientist, SABA, Chloe Bailey, Coco Jones and Cuco, all leading up to a surprise performance by Macklemore, presented by Dolby Atmos.
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Throughout the showcase, fans sipped cocktails and hydrated on Splash Blast Flavored Water and Splash Fizz. Splash, who was a sponsor of the event, held a pop-up photo-op on the balcony of the venue. The pop-up was a dynamic installation inspired by Splash’s T-Pain commercial, where guests could take fun GIFs with friends in front of a colorful backdrop. Guests also received complimentary bandanas, hats and t-shirts, which were airbrushed on-site by an artist. A second Doordash photo-op was also present at the event, for guests to take printed photo strip images with friends during the intermission between acts.
In terms of genre, the acts truly could not have been any more different in sound and style. Given that the theme of the festival was bending genres and breaking boundaries within the music industry, it’s safe to say Rolling Stone achieved this with great success. Japanese punk group, Otoboke Beaver, opened up the mosh pit with the heaviest set on the bill, while the audience calmly enjoyed smooth R&B tracks from Baby Rose. “Shoutout to all the women producers,” Baby Rose said, as she played her self-produced song, “In Your Arms.” The crowd grooved and sang along to the soulful track, making her debut SXSW experience one to remember.
Baby Rose wasn’t the only artist to be performing at SXSW for the very first time. Midwxst, a nineteen-year-old hyperpop rapper from Indiana, and headlining act Remi Wolf also expressed gratitude for their first SXSW experiences. “This is my first show ever at SXSW!” Remi Wolf graciously admitted in between her energetic set, complete with instrument swapping, playful bandmate banter and quite a bit of dancing. Some artists, like Macklemore, are veterans to the SXSW scene. When speaking about his past SXSW experiences, he told the story of once playing seven shows in a day, adorably thanking his wife for her support from the very beginning. “She was like the getaway driver for the seven shows in one day,” Macklemore recalled, “We’d pull up to the venue late, we’d hop out, we’d do like a twelve-minute set, get back in the car, she’d be like, ‘Go, go, go, we’re late!’ ”
