The Best of SXSW Day Five: Charley Crockett, Wifigawd, Fantasy of a Broken Heart

And then it was Saturday. SXSW 2025’s week-long music festivities closed out with another night of great shows from up-and-comers, established stars, and veteran acts writing new chapters. Join us for one more recap before we say goodbye ’til next year, won’t you? Here are the best things we saw at SXSW on March 15.

Charley Crockett Drifts Back Into Town

When Charley Crockett was just starting out, he used to stop by record shops in his home state of Texas and try to get them to sell his music. More often than not, they’d tell him they couldn’t take his self-released CDs on consignment. He told this story on Saturday afternoon at an in-store performance at Austin’s End of an Ear, where hundreds of fans had lined up outside for a chance to see the street busker turned critically acclaimed singer-songwriter turned actual country star. Many of them were carrying vinyl copies of Crockett’s latest album, Lonesome Drifter, released the day before on Island Records — his first major-label LP after 14 independent releases, putting him on the same roster as A-list pop acts like Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter. 

Crockett pulled up to the store around 4 p.m. in an 18-wheeler with the album’s promotional art printed on it, came in the door, and walked through the crowd of about 250 people to a tiny stage in the corner by the DVD section. Wearing a brown leather jacket, big-frame glasses, and a cowboy hat and playing an acoustic guitar, he opened with “The Death of Bill Bailey,” a murder ballad from the new LP whose finely shaded details kept the crowd hanging on every word. “Someone asked if that’s an old folk song,” he said. “No, it’s not. I wrote it myself.” His high-wattage presence was evident as he charmed the room, telling mythic stories about his slow climb to fame and singing new and old songs. He introduced a cover of the Flying Burrito Brothers’ “Juanita,” which appeared on his first self-released album a decade ago, as being something a juice-bar employee in New York taught him. Some of what he performed was even newer than the new album — songs he’s only just written, like the wryly self-deprecating “Ain’t That Right” or “Santa Fe Ring,” which tells a story about a man on the wrong side of the law.  

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Fans were only expecting three or four songs, but Crockett was having so much fun in that record store that he ended up performing for nearly an hour. “I’ll do one more,” he said toward the end. “I know I keep saying that.” He closed with “Crucified Son,” another new one full of references to the city where he lived for a time: “Bluebonnets line the highway side, let me know it’s spring,” he sang. “From Austin, Texas to kingdom come, I’ll be a crucified son.” —S.V.L.

Lady Apple Tree in the Sunshine

There are worse ways to spend the last afternoon of SXSW than listening to some folk music in a sunny backyard. That’s what greeted anyone who stopped by All the Sudden, a DIY arts space a few miles outside downtown, for the showcase put on by the esteemed Philly/North Carolina indie label Dear Life Records. Little kids and several dogs were wandering around as music fans sat in small groups in the dry grass. Around 2 p.m, SXSW breakout Lily Seabird performed another quietly stunning set previewing her upcoming album Trash Mountain, holding the audience in rapt attention with her words. Lady Apple Tree, a.k.a. California singer-songwriter Haylie Hostetter, had the unenviable job of playing next, but she rose to the occasion with her gently hued Laurel Canyon folk-pop songs. Singing solo acoustic, the better to show off her radiant voice, Hostetter played her 2023 “title song” (“Lady Apple Tree, why you doing this to me?/I’m only but a wanderer”) and a few others intended for her upcoming debut LP, and ended with a tender cover of Patsy Cline’s “Sweet Dreams.” —S.V.L.

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Wifigawd’s Heady D.C. Bars

Wifigawd has been making subtly innovative rap music from his Washington, D.C. hometown for years, and if you tune into his underground frequency you’ll find a whole world to get lost in. Around 10:45 p.m. at the Creek and the Cave, he cued an aqueous beat from his laptop and began talking to the venue’s sound tech — somehow on beat in an effortless flow, even though he hadn’t technically started rapping yet. Once he did, his verbally dexterous rhymes just kept going. He has endless inventive cadences, making party music that’s also art music. Casually chic in a Balenciaga T-shirt, a beanie, and a glittering pendant, he asked repeatedly for the crowd to come closer and dapped the audience members up front. “Make some noise if you love your mom,” he said. “Make some noise if you love your friends… Make some noise if you’re happy to be

alive.” The cheers that followed showed that the room was full of people who were happy to be at a Wifigawd show. —S.V.L.

Fantasy of a Broken Heart‘s Off-Kilter Pop

Playing the patio at the Creek and the Cave late on Saturday night, Fantasy of a Broken Heart benefitted from playing a closing-night set. The excitement — or maybe the relief — of reaching the SXSW finish line added a kinetic kick and flinty edge to the group’s sweet melodies. The core Fantasy duo of Al Nardo and Bailey Wollowitz, who are also part of the live lineups of buzzy New York art-rock acts This Is Lorelei and Water From Your Eyes, were joined onstage by three more musicians, fleshing out the band’s eccentric studio sound in dynamic ways. An insistent backbeat kept Fantasy of a Broken Heart lively and muscular, but the off-center guitars provided an appealingly sour counterpoint that lent a sense of surprise to this group’s version of pop. —S.T.E.

YHWH Nailgun Stay Unpredictable

After a long week of live music, it can be difficult to be surprised by a band, but YHWH Nailgun accepted that challenge. Throughout their combustible half-hour set at the main stage at the Creek and The Cave, it was difficult to discern precisely where the NYC quartet (who played 13 shows this SXSW) was headed. They’d glide through atmospheric instrumentals, stumble into power chords, and suggest the hint of a melody, only to pull back at the last second. The great unifier in the set was a hyperkinetic drum and bass rhythm, ratcheting up the tension so tightly that the band needed the outlet they found in the screams of vocalist Zack Borzone. Even with that cathartic release, YHWH Nailgun feels relentless, but their aggression is exhilarating, not alienating. —S.T.E.

Rialto‘s Melancholy Sweetness

The “International Night” stage at the SXSW pop-up Rivian Park might not seem to be the ideal setting for the resurrection of Rialto, a lush, Britpop-adjacent outfit that has been in hibernation since the early 2000s. Louis Eliot writes evocative sketches of urban life graced with lovely melodies that suggest a collaboration between the Beatles and Burt Bacharach — songs better suited for such luxe indoor settings as the Seven Grand, the whiskey bar he sang at the night before. Playing an outdoor stage wasn’t the only way the madhouse of SXSW forced Rialto to adapt. Eliot ws here on his own, “representing the invisible band,” a stark sonic shift from the high-end gloss of the group’s self-titled 1998 debut and the crisp singles released in advance of their forthcoming comeback album, Neon and Ghost Signs. Rialto records are pleasingly polished, but hearing Eliot sing these pretty sculpted melodies on his own, it’s easy to direct focus on his impeccable songwriting. The solo setting also blurred the distinctions between the years, letting the newer tunes blend with the old, and making it easy to appreciate a collection of bruised songs that feel consoling in their sweet melancholy. —S.T.E.

The Courettes Throw a Garage-Rock Party

Flipping the White Stripes script on its head, the Courettes are fronted by guitarist Flávia Couri and anchored by drummer Martin Thorsen. The married pair each hail from a different country — Couri is from Brazil, Thorsen from Denmark — but they’ve found a common language in the raucous rock and pop America generated in the 1960s. The Courettes make no apologies for their throwback vibes, peppering their garage rock with girl-group and psychedelic accents. They can sound bigger than a duo; at times, it felt as if a ghost of a Farfisa organ was floating through the mix at Empire Control Room on Saturday. The band’s retro affectations have made them a favorite of Little Steven’s Underground Garage, but the Courettes represent the best of that particular niche: They’re tuneful, and they rock with flair. —S.T.E.

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Jad Fair & the Placebos Keep It Weird

Playing the cramped stage at Valhalla, a dingy dive smack dab in the middle of Red River St., Jad Fair seemed like the last surviving connection to SXSW’s indie-rock origins. The onetime leader of the pioneering lo-fi band Half Japanese is now in his 70s, supported by a band that represents all the different strands of counter-culture he’s experienced over the years. There’s a greasy biker banging bongos, an immaculately styled post-punk guitarist, a ’90s alt-rock drummer, a bassist in overalls, and, in front of them all, there’s Fair, a ringleader who now seems more like a hippie than a punk. Time has eroded some of Fair’s quirks, turning him into a preservationist weirdo who still believes in the eternal truth of three chords and a backbeat. To that end, Fair balanced originals with covers, singing a couple of songs by Daniel Johnston and playing the Velvet Underground’s “Foggy Notion” in a fashion that made the Placebos almost seem like the world’s strangest bar band. —S.T.E.

(Full disclosure: In 2021, Rolling Stone’s parent company, P-MRC, acquired a 50 percent stake in the SXSW festival.)