Interactive/Film SXSW 2011 geeks and Austin music enthusiasts alike were treated to a surprise set from 6 time Grammy-award winning recording artist Big Boi, along with Indie darlings The Sounds and Locksley. Pepsi Max and Foursquare made their viral presence at the Seaholm Power Plant set to a roaring crowd of fans whose tickets came from no other than a Facebook scavenger hunt. Such marketing = “welcome to SXSW 2011”.

The free booze were flowing as Madison, Wisconsin’s Locksley took the stage. Ever think of what it would sound like if Weezer rocked with The Kooks? Add slick early American style punk, some jangly-strat with up-beat vibes, and meet Lockley.

Early aughts indie-pop stars The Sounds took stage next. Brandishing seriously lethal legs, Swedish rock icon Maja Ivarsson leads a band whose sound always seems to (at least partly) encompass nearly every indie rock cliche from the last 15 years. Between smoking cigarettes and frequent spitting of luggies (btw sexy and impressive even by frat party standards), she and the band rolled through their attitude-pop friendly catalogue. New material from their forthcoming Something To Die For sounded promising. The band closed the set with their latest single “Better Off Dead”. Check it out below:

Big Boi hit the stage with big energy and the Outkast classic “Rosa Parks”. And that was to be the mode of the set as the classic Outkast shit came fast and furious, “So Fresh So Clean”, “Ms. Jackson”, “Bombs Over Baghdad”. Big Boi brought Vonnegutt onstage to spit his feature from “Follow Us” and the crowd went bananas. To describe the set, the bass was heavy… especially during “Shutterbugg” as was the set’s strong Atlanta/Southern Rap sound that Outkast helped pioneer to the mainstream. For “The Way You Move” Big Boi brought what looked like a hand picked collection of females from the audience to get down with him on stage. Totally entertaining, and definitely helps sum up the good party time vibe of the event.