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The first official day of SXSW
events was a crazy one in which I saw 13 sets of music performed by 13
different artists. It definitely was one of the best music related
days of my life so let me give you the rundown.
Sarah and I first arrived in downtown Austin around 11:30 and the first
place that we visited was the Mohawk and the Gorilla Vs Bear/Austinist day
party. We only stuck around for four acts but every single one of them
was pretty stellar.
"You can go but you're a fool to think I won't follow." This was a
lyric that hit me right in the face during The Shivers set. I rarely
have this happen when I am seeing a band for the first time, but these
people were putting on such a beautiful show that I was more than focused on
what they were doing. The Shivers are going to be huge. In fact
the same goes for Hello Stranger. The keytar-lead band displayed some
super fun indie pop during their set that I think will end up lodging itself
in people's heads once it is spread around more.
We also saw Earl Greyhound and Loxsly at this party and both were pretty
good. Earl's fantastic voice and soft acoustic guitar work is easy on
the ears; I especially loved the Tom Waits cover that he did. As for
Loxley, the guys displayed a nice mix of indie pop and electro pop in a way
that had my head my bouncing. I recommend checking both out when you
get the time.
Top Left (The Shivers), Top Right (Hello Stranger), Bottom Left (Earl
Greyhound), Bottom Right (Loxsly)
After we left the GvB/Austinist part we grabbed some Stubb's and then
strolled over to Red 7 for the Syndicate/Wonkavision day party. This
was a pretty nice party since it had four different mixed drinks that were
free and Sarah and I both won prizes out of the raffle. Now, the
prizes were a Spawn action figure and a Rocky Horror Show 3D wall frame so
they weren't anything to write home about, but we do enjoy winning free
stuff!
Your Black Star was the opening band and I thought that they did a good job
of bringing their distorted rock sound to the ears of the people in
attendance. It sounds like their new songs are going to be end up
being rather good. The best band of the party for me was the Photo
Atlas. I was curious to see if the energy from the album would
transfer over to the live show without comprising their sound, and
fortunately they did not disappoint. Their set was electric and needs
to be seen by all.
At this point Rocky Votolato is suppose to play but he never made it while
we were there. We waited for awhile and ended up having our faces
rocked off by Panthers, who put on a fierce set, before leaving to run down
the street to the Little Radio event. There, we managed to get in with
plenty of time to catch an entire set by Peter, Bjorn, & John. The
trio put on a nice show but they totally didn't even have to try since
everyone there was eating up their every move.
Top Left (Your Black Star), Top Right (Photo Atlas), Bottom Left (Panthers),
Bottom Right (Peter, Bjorn & John)
In between the parties and the showcases I managed to grab a few minutes
with the Bravery, so as soon as I get a moment to transcribe the interview I
will have it available for all of you. They were nice guys and if I
hadn't already been set to meet up with some other people at the Ace Fu
showcase than I would have seen them perform at Stubb's.
As for the Ace Fu showcase, it was awesome! The Comas opened the show
with a creative take on indie pop that had me anxiously awaiting every song.
Langhorne Slim drew a pretty nice crowd for their set which I think is great
since I absolutely love them; some bands just need to be experienced live
and they are certainly one of them. I had never heard of Jack, the
band that came up after Langhorne, but they were entertaining. The
frontman had an insanely good voice that fit well with the band's late 70's,
early 80s vintage rock sound. Illinois came on around 11:30pm and put
on a show that got everyone feeling groovy again. I was super
impressed at how their entire set is comprised of a songs that sound so
different from one another, and yet as they move throughout it everything
just feels so natural.
 
Top Left (Comas), Top Right (Langhorne Slim), Bottom Left (Jack), Bottom
Right (Illinois)
Annuals blew my mind. I was expecting a good show but I didn't think
that they were going to be as good as they were. The entire band,
especially Adam, was bouncing around on stage throughout every song with so
much energy that I felt the need to jump up there with them. In fact I
would be willing to call the performance perfect but the vocals during the
explosion on Brother cut out and I didn't get to hear them. I
wasn't the only one disappointed though as quite a few people, including
myself, were yelling out for them to play it again. They didn't, and
afterwards there was one more song before the show and the day ended.
Annuals |
