Austin – This is the fourth time we’ve reviewed The Antlers on the Panic Manual, so it’s quite possible to say we like them quite a bit. Friday night was a great source of frustration for me, as once again, I was foiled in my attempt to see She & Him. The lineup was extremely long and my attempt to casually walk through the side entrance pretending to be someone important ultimately failed. I then retreated to Esther’s Follie to check out some comedy acts to cheer me up. Once fully cheered, I decided I liked nothing more then to hear some familiar depressing music. It was my emotional roller coaster night I guess. Midnight seemed like a perfect time for the Antlers to play. It’s dark outside and they play dark music. They were playing the French Kiss showcase, which also featured bands like An Horse, Suckers and Les Savy Favs.
Just like their opening set for the Editors in February, the Antlers played only a handful of songs – five to be exact, and just like that concert a month ago, I was equally captivated by their music. This time, I was slightly less captivated as the sound system pretty much sucked balls for some reason. Still, it’s always a pleasure to see Pete Silbermann sing. The man does not hit all his notes, and somehow every version of Two comes out sounding a bit different, but the intensity and heart behind the voice makes it all okay somehow. The Antlers have become experts at the building up songs. The music starts off quietly, maybe a few beeps, a few boops. Some slowly paced drum beats and stellar guitar feedback and then the next thing you know, Silbermann’s wailing on his guitar, the synth has become deafening and theres a massive wall of sound hitting you square in the face. It’s quite the treat experiencing it. This wasn’t the best set of theirs I’ve seen, I thought the some of the tenderness that is Bear was lost amongst the chattering and the crappy sound system. Still, a band I would recommend seeing live.
Here’s a crappy video I took during their set. This video camera is good a picking up vocals, bad at picking up noise, so don’t think this is acoustic performance by any measure:
ps. the picture was not from sxsw, but from February because our photographer Gary decided to take a break.