Pete Townshend, girlfriend bring Attic Jam to South By Southwest

Pete Townshend dipped into the Who songbook Thursday night (March 15th) as he and girlfriend Rachel Fuller brought their Attic Jam concert series to the South By Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. Jokingly complaining about the opening the two-hour and 15-minute show, Townshend launched the evening with a rendition of "Drowned" from the Quadrophenia album. He later closed the show with "In The Ether" from the Who's latest album, Endless Wire, and "I Can't Reach You," a Who chestnut from the '60s that he told the crowd at La Zona Rosa "not only have I never played in public, nobody I know has played this song in public."

Townshend also served as a sideman for the night's other performers -- Martha Wainwright, Massachusetts troubadour Willy Mason, new British sensation Mika, British singer-songwriter Alexi Murdoch, and Joe Purdy, a Los Angeles artist with whom Townshend performed a duet version of his solo hit "Let My Love Open The Door."

The guitarist is also rumored to be joining the Scottish band the Fratellis for a song at a party sponsored by Spin magazine on Friday, March 16th, at South By Southwest.

Fuller has teamed with iTunes to release some previous Attic Jam performances through the Internet music service.
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