Austin – It was a hot, sweaty Texas afternoon on the second day of SXSW and I couldn’t think of a better way to spend it then to stand in a crowded outdoor tent with no air circulation on the patio of the Radar Room for the Paste Magazine Party. With a lineup outside spanning more a block, we were lucky enough to get into the showcase just in time to catch another Brooklyn favorite of ours – Bishop Allen.
The band were doing a full assault on SXSW in promotion of their new album Grrr… (reviewed here) which was released on March 10. Thursday’s afternoon affair was the first of a few shows planned to win over some new fans. Wearing many shades of plaid (Texas has given me a new appreciation for plaid), the band took to the stage and started singing their blend of tweeish indie pop. The band was larger then I expected, with two guitarists, a bassist, a drummer and some chick on the xylophone. This larger band created a more vibrant sound, much like the album, but better.
Since this set was about 40 beers and 20 bands ago, I cannot really recall the entire set list, but it was a steady diet of material from their new album and I think one track ‘Like Castenets’ from their previous LP. Songs like ‘The Ancient Commonsense of Things’ and ‘Dimmer’ got a good reaction from the packed crowd. The guitar and vocal interplay between singers Justin Rice and Christian Rudder works extremely well in a live environment. My only disappointment from the show was that the set was waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too short. It seemed like they were cut off for some stupid reason and that was high on the not-cool-a-meter. To my delight, the song about the Chinese city – ‘Shanghai’ was the closer and had a great crowd reaction.
To sum it up, good showing, too short a set, left me wanting more.