'What is happening.' boygenius surprises Austin airport travelers with two SXSW 2023 shows

Suitcases rolled against rumble strips at the bottom of escalators. A baggage claim alarm blared. Travelers stood, necks bent at phones, waiting for the baggage carousel to grumble awake.

And there, feet away from baggage carousel four at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport on Tuesday, was group-of-the-moment boygenius. They appeared casually around 3:16 p.m., dressed in black, and began to perform to a crowd of maybe 50 or so people.

"It's pheebs!" a person in the crowd said.

"Like, Phoebe Bridgers is right there," another said.

The band — Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus — played "Ketchum, ID," "True Blue" and "Emily I'm Sorry" first. The songs are ethereal, slow-paced and a bit quiet. Escalators into the baggage claim area dropped off travelers at the feet of the performance. Some waved it off with nonchalance.

"Oh, it's a South by thing," one said.

"They have boygenius," another said, before stepping off the escalator and exiting the airport.

But the ones who knew that a group of uber famouses were right there were aplenty.

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Kalyn Riggs, 33, saw the band from the escalator, screeched, and ran over in her neon pink sweatshirt. Riggs had just landed back in Austin after being away on a business trip in California. As she descended on the escalator, she first noticed Bridgers.

"Is that ... is that Phoebe Bridgers," she thought to herself.

Justin Barney, 33, is visiting Austin for South by Southwest and landed from Tennessee shortly before the band took their stage in the airport thruway.

"Is boygenius playing at this airport? What is going on here," Barney said.

Barney was bewildered, and we're sure he wasn't alone, as to why a band that will be playing to thousands on tour this summer booked a show in an airport. Boygenius does not need this gig, he said.

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The band wanted to do some pop-up performances during SXSW, said Michael Pennock, the airport's music coordinator. Through SXSW, the band got connected with the airport, which set up the shows. Oh right, yes, boygenius played two shows at the airport. The second kicked off around 5 p.m. in the terminal at the airport's Asleep at the Wheel stage.

When Romy Vanalmen, 19, landed in Austin from Ohio, she had tons of messages from friends telling her about boygenius' baggage claim set. After she got off the plane, Vanalmen was going to walk to baggage claim but thought she maybe heard the band. She stepped off to the stage, which is next to Gate 19, just to look.

"It was them. I started crying," she said.

Another girl also appeared to be crying. "What is happening," she mouthed before putting her hands over her mouth. Another was videochatting a friend, and the friend was holding up a lighter on the other side. One girl walked up closer to the stage with her mouth agape.

"My flight is boarding," a person said.

"Thank you to the airport for having us," Dacus said.

Vanalmen stood in the crowd, mouthing the words to songs and texting all her friends. It was not what she expected when she landed in Austin.

"My flight got canceled and delayed and I was in such a bad mood all day," Vanalmen said. "I guess it all worked out."

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Even the Austin airport is doing SXSW: boygenius gives surprise shows