The Bryan-College Station music scene will greet spring break with a Pre-SXSW showcase Saturday to feature home-grown bands such as Electric Astronaut and Sol Cat for the evening before they head to Austin.
Revolution Café and Bar will host these bands, whose music is influenced by indie pop, rock and psychedelic music.
Johnny Fisher, guitarist of Sol Cat, said he and his bandmates are pumped to show the artists touring alongside them in the local area.
“It is definitely more familiar in Bryan, weird fact is that we were looking back through our dates from 2014 and we actually played Bryan more than we played any other place in the U.S., we played it six times last year,” Fisher said. “I’m really pretty excited — a couple of bands from Nashville are coming with us that we’re big fans of, we love their music, so we wanted to show them Bryan and show Bryan their music because the town doesn’t really get to see shows like this all the time.”
Along with Sol Cat and Electric Astronaut, The Docs, The Jag and Chrome Pony will make appearances at the show.
“I’m happy to get out of town; I’m just ready to party at here and at South By, the winter’s over and spring is coming and that means a lot of shows and it’s kind of just a kickoff for the year, I feel like,” said Gant O’Brien, a member of The Jag.
Despite the grandeur of SXSW and the reputation Austin has as the “Live Music Capital of the World,” not all the bands are convinced the crowds will be better there than those found in Bryan, said Tyler Davis, a member of Chrome Pony.
“Austin is just so jam-packed and overwhelmed during South By,” Davis said. “I’d say it’s a little difficult to get people to get hyped up, so I think Bryan will be more excited just because it’s not South by Southwest.”
Although Davis said he thinks Bryan is home to a better crowd, Fisher said his experiences at SXSW last year are hard to beat.
“The shows are great, there is a lot of people,” Fisher said. “My favorite story is when we were hanging at a show of one of our friends and Pharrell and Usher showed up and they were just there hanging out and we thought that was just the craziest thing and a bunch of people went up and handed them their EPs.”
All the bands performing at Revolution Café and Bar will also be at SXSW in Austin next week. With this as a stop along the way for the bands, most of them were focused on getting to SXSW, but Fisher said nothing beats coming back to a hometown and seeing family at performances.
“I’m coming home and I get to play outside at Revolutions, so that’ll be nice and just get to kick back,” Fisher said.
The bands will perform at 8 p.m. Saturday at Revolution Cafe and Bar.