As I first Tweeted, Fort Worth roots-rockers The Orbans will be playing a sanctioned SWSW showcase this year, bringing the grand total of Fort Worth/817 artists slated to play sanctioned showcases at the annual Austin-located music festival to eight, probably the most ever to be officially part of the festival in its 24 years. (Of course, lots of 817 bands play non-sanctioned showcases every year.) Some of the SXSW-sanctioned 817 bands, including Telegraph Canyon, The Burning Hotels, and Analog Rebellion, should be going. They’ve paid their dues and are more than worthy. The selection of most of the others, including The World Famous Tony Williams, Snow Tha Product, and Mind Spiders, is totally unexpected. Williams and Snow aren’t necessarily club-going scenesters, and Mind Spiders are pretty young. And then there’s Complete, a novelty band of sorts that’s played the showcase every year for the past couple of years. Is Complete just that awesome? Eh, not really. But the band’s “hit,” “Hoogie Boogie Land,” is a 4:20 classic. Is the 817 scene on the verge of some sort of national breakout? Absolutely not, but I can’t help but be a little pleased.
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