Metallica, GZA & Kanye At SXSW

The legendary music industry schmooze that is South By South West (SXSW) music and media conference came to a close yesterday with some special ‘surprise’ shows from Metallica, the Wu-Tang Clan’s GZA and Kanye West.

With the media spotlight firmly fixed on the four-day Texan-based festival, it seemed that virtually every musical star had ridden into town for a slice of the action.

Metallica let loose at Stubb’s with a ‘surprise’ 90-minute greatest hits set, including ‘Creeping Death’ and ‘Master Of Puppets’, in front of a giant Guitar Hero banner.

The Wu-Tang Clan’s GZA joined Black Lips yesterday (March 22nd) for another impromptu performance at Emo’s. The musicians came together for a rendition of GZA’s Wu Tang classic ‘Liquid Swords’ track and GZA dedicated a version of ‘Shimmy Shimmy Ya’ to his late band member Ol' Dirty Bastard. They also hinted at further collaborative efforts to come.

Never one to shy from any media attention, Kanye West took over two ‘surprise’ shows. One at the Fader Fort venue for the G.O.O.D Music record label he founded - rumours had spread so fast for this one, apparently, that by the time his show arrived at 9pm, fans were queuing down the street to get in.

Joined by rappers Consequence, Mr Hudson, GLC and Big Sean he played a series of songs from throughout his career as well as beefing up Kid Cudi.
Kanye then took to the stage again, for another surprise performance at celebrity blogger Perez Hilton’s party last night (March 22nd).

It seems the notorious loudmouth Perez Hilton’s Sunday night showdown was a closing highlight for many at the SXSW festivities. With other exclusive performances coming in from Ladyhawke, the Indigo Girls, Natalie Partman’s Shave Head, Solange and Little Boots - who was joined by rapper Kid Cudi for a rendition of ‘Day N Night’ - it was a pretty hot line-up.

Hilton slammed Lady Sovereign, though, who failed to turn up due to sickness.

Other hot closing performances came from the New York Dolls, Casio Kids, The Duke Spirit, NASA, and PJ Harvey and John Parish who, backed by a full backing band, previewed their forthcoming album, 'A Woman A Man Walked By'. They opened their set with ‘Black Hearted Love'.