Geldof SXSW keynote highlights

THE FINE ART OF RESURFACING: Here are some highlights from Bob Geldof’s keynote speech at SXSW on the morning of St. Patrick’s Day, fittingly enough: The onetime Boomtown Rats frontman and Live Aid organizer bemoaned the lack of any wider relevance or social impact, as in the days of early rock & roll, Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones, reggae, first-gen punk and Nirvana, historical moments when “the bands prefigured a societal change… What an artist seems to do is to articulate what society is thinking before society knows what it is… The industry is only a function of the music, and the music is only successful because it’s relevant… The music I hear is continental navel-gazing. Don’t do it. Look up! Address the world with that confidence that is strictly the province of this country… We still need you. Still the noise of the American revolution must pound on.” Later on Thursday, Geldof performed with his band, focusing on material from How to Compose Popular songs That Will Sell, his first album in nearly a decade. Quotes copped from Jon Pareles’ SXSW blog at nytimes.com. (3/18a)