Lou Reed & Moby & friends @ SXSW (pics, video)

Lou Reed & Moby @ FADER Fort, SXSW 2008 (Nathan Malone)

SXSW’s keynote speaker wasn’t scheduled to play this week, save in spirit at a multi-artist Lou Reed tribute on Thursday at the Levis/Fader Fort. Among the many highlights was a set from singer-songwriter Joseph Arthur, who did a slow, woozy ”Pale Blue Eyes” (while wearing a pale blue suit) and turned ”Venus in Furs” into a bluesy Dust Bowl ballad. Thurston Moore tore through the recently-rediscovered Velvet Underground song ”I’m Not a Young Man Anymore” with the New Wave Bandits, a kick-ass, co-ed band which was not Sonic Youth. The tribute seemed headed for an anticlimactic finale with Moby’s anemic ”Femme Fatale” — but then Reed himself turned up out of thin air, guitar in hand. (Of all sets to guest on!) Together, he, Moby, and crew rolled through a soft, gorgeous, strummy/droney rework of ”Take a Walk on the Wild Side.” Before leaving the stage, Reed shared some parting wisdom with the crowd: ”I love punk rock. And I was the first one!” At least, that’s what it sounded like he was saying over the house’s ecstatic roar. [EW]