Austin – This show was an illustration of what a band will do when many things go wrong at their SXSW showcase set. Austin shoegazers Ringo Deathstarr had a promising start to their set and then came the sound problems. First a few crackles, then some of their gear apparently stopped working, then the frustration, anger, then finally an act of deperation as Elliott Frazier resorted to singing Snow’s Informer a capella. Or was that an act of genius? I’m not sure. Probably genius.
You could see the frustration grow as the band struggled to fix things. It was stop and go throughout, but when it did work, it was gloriously noisy, solid shoegaze. They’ve got a really good sound and I’d love to see them play a proper set when everything isn’t going wrong. They soldiered on for awhile, but the breaking point may have been when the can of beer Frazier set on his amp fell off due to the vibrations. As he stood in spilled beer, he chugged the remaining beer and tossed the can into the audience, pegging one unfortunate guy in the head with it. I get why he felt like doing that, but it was still a bit of a dick move. But hey, at least he didn’t punch a woman.