I'm not sure
how it happened, but I managed to make it all the way
through day three without wanting to just sit on the ground
and cover my ears. Let's hope the same goes for the
final day.
Because I took a little time to sleep I didn't actually make
it downtown until about 3:00. Fortunately, that
happened to be exactly when I wanted to arrive since it was
just before Times New Viking was set to go on at the
Pitchfork event. I really love their latest record,
and I was happy to see that their underlying pop
sensibilities don't get lost in their unrelenting
performances.
After leaving Emo's I jumped across the street to another
one of Emo's venues so that I can could check out the end of
the Soundcheck Magazine event. The next to last act
was Cloud Cult, who in addition to playing a nice handful of
new songs also did Take Your Medicine. At last
year's SXSW I saw the band multiple times hoping that they
would do the song, but they never did. However, when I
saw Craig Minowa behind me in line at the bar I made sure
they would do it this year by pretty much bribing him with
the promise of kind words towards the band. That's
right, I sold out to hear Take Your Medicine live.
It was worth it.
Initially I had planned to leave after Cloud Cult to go to
the convention center to see Lykke Li, but things didn't
even come close to timing out correctly. So, I was
forced to stay and watch Why? again, because there was
pretty much no other acts performing at that time. Or
something. Anyhow, the guys did something that I wish
most acts would do at SXSW, and it was that they played an
entirely different set. It's common place to see the
same act multiple times during the week, so more people need
to wise up like Why? and rotate their songs.
- The Ting Tings -
- Santogold -
- MGMT -
Kicking off the
evening portion of the event were the Ting Tings at Stubb's.
They were one of the acts that I was most excited to see
this year, and they did not disappoint. Actually, I
was a little surprised at how good they were. As I've
gotten more and more into their material I've noticed that
some of the songs just aren't that great coming out of your
speakers, but that is certainly not the case when they're
blaring and the duo are going at it full force. These
two will be huge.
I know everyone is calling Santogold a light version of MIA,
but after seeing her perform I don't think that's exactly
fair. I think her material comes off as actual songs
and not like wild collages of sounds and words. It
will be interesting to see where she goes from here.
I hate to say it, but MGMT are boring as hell when they're
playing live. Their set was literally like listening
to the album with a bunch of people. Lame.
- Nicole Atkins -
- The Vines -
I'm not going
to lie, I absolutely adore Nicole Atkins. I think her
voice, songwriting and stage presence are all amazing, and
there will never be a time that I willingly skip one of her
performances. It's like my better half always says
when she sees something she likes, it's "quality." On
second thought, that might be an understatement for Nicole.
Let's at least slap the word high in front of it.
To be honest, I didn't even know the Vines were still
around. Coincidently, after their set I was left
wishing that they really were gone. I mean, when
you're playing at SXSW I think there are a couple of things
that you don't do. One is that you don't beg for a
record label, and the other is that you don't specifically
note that you're only interesting in "money and girls."
Also, it may be an OK idea to not make it abundantly clear
that you're totally washed up.
On a related side note, I was more than a little surprised
at how many morons were in attendance to see Craig and Co.
The band hasn't had a memorable song in an eternity, yet
there were all these people there with their fists in the
air. Strange, and maybe a little retarded.
- Robyn -
Considering
that I sat through the Vines to see Robyn I guess you can
say I was in need of something stellar, and she delivered
like it was nothing. I think a lot of people assume
that pop artists like her tend to push out sets that have no
variety, but she is such a dynamic performer with a wide
selection of material that you can't wait to see what she'll
hit you with next. For instance, where else are you
going to get the joy of Konichiwa Bitches and Show
Me Love back-to-back? That's right, nowhere.
I'm guessing that it will be an eternity before she tours
here again, so I'm glad that I got to see her do a proper
set after yesterday's weirdness at the Filter event.
- John Laird -
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