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What kind of showing did Kansas City make at SXSW?

The sexy kind!

See this hot photo and more in our KC @ SXSW slideshow.

That's a resounding ...

...YES.

Amid band upon band of yanks who don't know a good rock performance from a beard trimmer, Brighton, England, band British Sea Power, shooting sparks behind its latest, Do You Like Rock Music, delivered the guitar-oriented goods Saturday night at 1 a.m.

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That's what it's all about, right? Rock the crowd, sweat like a stallion, get mobbed by the ladies afterward.

After driving all day from Kansas City on Friday, Mac Lethal was greeted by a small but enthusiastic crowd at Volume for one of SXSW's few hip-hop showcases -- and only showcase featuring mostly KC artists...

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You'd think Lou Reed would be a nearly impossible act to follow, but N.E.R.D. grabbed the crowd by the collar and gave 'em one hell of a sharp, loud and sexy throttling. Musically intelligent and lyrically adolescent, N.E.R.D. is the brainchild of star producers Chad Hugo and Pharrell Williams (aka the Neptunes), with their Virginia Beach childhood friend Shae Haley.

(More after the jump.)

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Some conference keynote speakers are lame. Others are Lou Reed. Currently working up a tour to revisit his misunderstood and gorgeously despondent masterpiece Berlin, Reed did a little Q&A at the Austin Convention Center yesterday. Later, he dazzled the crowd (many of whom, like me, didn't expect to see the man play at all this week) at the Levi's Fader Fort by appearing at his own tribute show. With Moby lending some vocals and guitar, Lou stepped up and did a slow, rapturous version of "Walk On the Wild Side." He must've been feelin' it, because he kissed Moby a couple of times. Moby will never get sick again.

(Hot, near-smooch action after the jump.)

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First of all, the changes to Austin since last year's SXSW: more fusion restaurants downtown.

Second of all, Van Morrison.

Like a god descending from the unquiet volcano in a symphony by Holst, Van the man came onto the stage at La Zona Rosa yesterday at 7, an earth-shaking, larger-than-life, trident-bearing, spark-huffing music legend playing in a festival that's characterized by giving stage time to more indie rock bands than anyone could possibly care to know about. Clad in shades and an outdoorsy fedora, Van led the dozen or so musicians in his backup band through just over an hour's worth of smooth rhythm and blues, occasionally blowing solos himself on his alto sax or strumming a ukulele. This being Texas, I expected Van to play more country cuts from his latest album, 2006's Pay the Devil, but he only did one, "There Stands the Glass" by Webb Pierce.

Not having paid close attention to what Van's been up to, oh, the past couple decades, I didn't recognize any of the other songs, many of which were probably off his upcoming one, Keep It Simple, due out in April. I did notice that Van chose not to throw out any crowd pleasers, nothing from his landmark albums like Moondance or Astral Weeks. Which was too bad, but you kind of expect that nowadays from the greats, especially at an hourlong show at a festival.

Instead, the set was cool and jammy, with tons of solos from the band and with Van not working his famous ululating-scatty-improv muscles until later in the program, by which time you had begun to notice how little the man had sung up to that point.The good news was his voice sounds perfectly preserved, like a honey-dipped saxophone reed. He ended the show by riffing around the phrase "behind the ritual lies the spiritual" (which rhymes when Van churdles it out) and backed off stage between the drummer and a backup singer. The band got really loud, pounding out the last few gospel choruses, a voice off stage shouted Van Morrison!! Van Morrison!! and that was it.

I grabbed a bratwurst and headed to an upstairs lounge on 6th where a horde of KC musicians had gathered, including members of the Architects and the Republic Tigers, plus some Kansas Citians representing the self-described West Bottoms Collective (they have a MySpace blog, but you'll have to befriend them to read it).

Tigers frontman Kenn Jankowski and his boss and savior, Chop Shop Records founder Alexandra Patsavas, better known as The Woman Who Did the Music for The OC, were there to support the second (after the Tigers) Chop Shop signee, an Asian-American songbird named Jade McNelis, who played keys while sitting on an instrument case and sang in a warble that sounded a lot like Emma Pollock from the Delgados.

Kenn 'n Alex.

The next act I caught was Cut Copy, a group of New Order-loving Aussies who make heavy use of backing tracks in dishing out their catchy electro-dance rock. The show, which was at dark, yuppie Karma Lounge, was a lot like the video for the band's new single, shitty T-shirt and all.

I'm a fan of the group's recordings -- they're a cut (wuh-huh) above the work of just about any synth-pop band out there in terms of songwriting and hooks, but, man, do they need to work on the stage show (i.e., get a live drummer).

I wandered around the streets for the last hour the bars were open and ran into Tech N9ne and his posse outside a hip-hop club that was at capacity and not letting anyone in, even if they were Kansas City's most famous rapper, and even if they were smiling real big while flashing a laminate.

Tech, along with sidekicks Cutt Calhoun and Big Krizz Kalico, plus Strange Music president Travis O'Guin and five or six other dudes, took it in stride and went to get pizza. No individdy slices for these hombres; Tech and Travis bought two entire pizzas. They mosied down the middle of 6th for a block then walked up to the front of a hotel, set their pizza boxes on the back of a car, and chowed like hungry bison. I was pretty loaded, so I stood there and took a bunch of pictures, refusing pizza when offered by Tech (my stomach was working on the second bratwurst of the evening). They probably thought I was a total fucking weirdo.

-- Jason Harper

Kansas City has ample representation at this year's SXSW. Here are the local acts going that we know of, so far, annotated. If you know of any that we missed, post the info in comments. For a complete list of SXSW bands, go here.

And of course, I will be blogging while I'm there, so check back here for updates and mad tales between March 12 and March 16.

Tech N9ne
The mad clown's SXSW debut! Is Austin ready?

The Wilders
New album coming out in early April.

Mac Lethal

Marva Whitney
This one's not confirmed; does anyone out there have the scoop on this gal? The former James Brown singer and "Soulsister No. 1" has a MySpace page that says she's in KC, but we've had no luck getting ahold of her.

Vedera
MySpace headline: "our new album [for Epic Records] is being mixed"

The Republic Tigers
Playing parties for PureVolume and Atlantic Records.

Dri
Thus, far, Range Life's sole representative.

The Architects
Doing the Anodyne showcase again, minus the Meat Puppets, who are on tour with Built to Spill.

Roman Numerals
Just found this one out!

Huzzah!