'It felt like being punched. It was a real culture shock." This was the reaction of Eimear O'Grady, of One Day International, to the first time she walked down Sixth Street in Austin, Texas during last week's South by Southwest music festival (SXSW).

Her band, along with 21 others from the island of Ireland, are in the live music capital of the world" for the music industry's annual mardi gras and palm-pressing BBQ schmooze social. For four days in March every year, thousands of ambitious bands descend on the downtown metropolis of Austin, clamouring for a slim slice of an ever-dwindling music industry pie. And they will play anywhere to get it.

Sixth Street is the festival's main battleground and the most amplified example of such can-do, rootin' tootin' attitude. This cordoned-off street and its tributaries house the majority of the festival's official venues, which take the form of grubby bars, dark clubs, concrete courtyards, grotty lounges. back alleys, garages, shacks and commandeered pavement. A walk down the street during rush-hour gig-going is an aural attack, with at least three or four bands trying their darndest to attract the heaving mass away from the hot dogs, pizza slices and free beer.

This year the Irish contingent includes Fight Like Apes, Lisa Hannigan, We Should Be Dead, The Urges, Sickboy, Fighting With Wire, The Lost Brothers, The Mighty Stef, and The Brothers Movement. All were selected by SXSW to represent Ireland and Music From Ireland are charged with the task of helping them with three showcases in the Lone Star State. For most, it's their first visit, but Dublin's rock'n'roll boy The Mighty Stef is an old hand.

"I've been here twice before on my own and it's felt like I've been thrown into the lion's den", he says sitting, relieved, in BD Reilly's Irish Bar after his Full Irish Breakfast showcase set. "With the band here we don't have any other agenda other than to play the best gigs that we can and hope that the few people who have taken an interest in us industry-wise show up and we can do ourselves justice."

The band's lunchtime set was so well-received that three six-year-old kids cut loose and began to flail their arms ferally to the music. But it's more than children these bands are hoping to impress. While the bands acknowledge that SXSW is no magical bunny hop onto the road of success, they are still optimistic that someone with industry clout will see them and make something happen.

"Everyone is hoping for that one person to come along and change their career but that's hard," Stef grimaces before admitting: "I've been doing this shit a long time and I'm still dreaming about that happening."

Stef recently got a little closer to the dream when he went for a session with the one and only Bono, in New York. "He was an amazingly nice person. I couldn't have hoped for a more positive experience for someone so elevated in musical royalty," he grins. "He said he liked our music, he liked my voice and he said he thinks Bobby Gillespie [of Primal Scream] should produce our next record. Bobby's here at SXSW, so I'll be looking out for him. If Bono says so, it has to happen."

Limerick pop-punk outfit We Should Be Dead share similar aspirations to Stef. In January, the band applied for US visas, upped sticks and amps and moved to the distinctly sunnier climes of Los Angeles. The band are slowly building a profile for themselves and have played some tour dates along the way to top up their finances. The journey took a bizarre turn when they were driving through Arizona.

"We were driving through the desert and, 10 minutes later, we were in a snowstorm on top of a mountain," says guitarist and singer Anna from a couch in the Soho Lounge before their show. "It was like going through Narnia!" exclaims bassist Gary. "And then we were back in the desert in 100 degree weather five minutes later."

The band packed a crowd into the Lounge that night and their set displays an effervescent, youthful energy that is difficult to ignore, especially when the lead singer Tara leaps onto the dance floor. "We're looking to create a bit of a media buzz," says Anna positively. "The reaction has been great. South by Southwest has been probably the best thing we've ever done."

Almost all the bands have sourced gigs in and around SXSW to maximise the trip's potential: Fighting With Wire played a staggering 12 sets in a week; The Mighty Stef played nine; We Should Be Dead played six; and The Urges played eight shows. Lisa Hannigan's last three stops on her 21-date extensive tour are in Austin.

Arguably the Irish artist with the most presence internationally, Hannigan is extremely amiable and modest in person. As we chat on the steps of the Presbyterian Church on Eighth Street, where she is about to play yet another packed set, five people approach looking for a chat, a photograph or simply to tell her how wonderful she is. An artist in her element in a live setting, she allows herself to get totally engrossed in her songs and the audience is similarly enthralled by her performance.

When quizzed on the the importance of an Irish presence at SXSW, she says: "You never know who will come and see you." Well we do know who came to see her. Notorious celebrity blogger Perez Hilton turned up at her first Austin show on Wednesday. And Hannigan has been on the receiving end of what has been christened "The Colbert Bump" after appearing on Stephen Colbert's influential Comedy Central news satire programme, The Colbert Report.

For Dublin garage rock band The Urges, SXSW is their third American visit. "There have been a few people who came down during the week who already had the record and wanted it signed and photos and stuff. It's a good sign I think," enthuses drummer Ken.

Matt Lunson, the golden-throated singer of One Day International points to the recession as a reason to be realistic at an event like this. "There are less people working in labels. Dave O' Grady, who put out the album for us in Ireland [on Independent Records], was saying that a third of the people he would normally contact for a festival like this don't have a job in music anymore."

May Kay of Fight Like Apes is similarly pragmatic. "So long as everyone who comes over knows that there's a huge possibility you'll have just one show and play to no one."

Such is the high standard of the Irish bands there's no threat of that happening. The Breakfast Showcase hits capacity seven times in six hours.

Music From Ireland's Angela Dorgan, who has been running the Irish showcase since SXSW's inception, is talked of with reverence by all the bands. Lunson pays tribute to Angela's hard work. "She mans the trade show stand for eight hours and then goes to help out at the showcases at night. I have watched her go around the venue and tip everybody. She certainly goes above and beyond what she has to do."

On Sixth Street on the last night, Angela is taking in all the bustle and talking enthusiastically about how it all went.

"Having so many bands here kind of made people take notice of us. I was talking to a couple of the other European countries and they have one and two bands over," she says. "The guestlist for our day show was over-subscribed because of the reputation of the last two years' shows. People have come to expect a level of excellence from the Irish and every band here has delivered something to be proud of."

- Niall Byrne