It’s been a good decade since Dallas’s cult-twee band The Polyphonic Spree first emerged on our radar. Back then, they were this cute overly joyful band with god knows how many members that played a style of music that can only be described as a wall of happy sound. Flutes, horns, strings, keyboards, choirs – they were all part of package. It was a breath of fresh air that spawned two fairly popular hits – Hold Me Now and Light and Day.
After seeing the band play a set at the Hype Hotel on Wednesday, it’s fair to say that the band is still going strong. With a new album set to be released, the ten to twenty member band played a full force set at the Hype Hotel. Tim Delaughter, the charismatic front man/cult leader of the band has traded in his long locks for a shorter bleached blonde cut, which is I think something people do when they want to fight the effects of aging. Don’t fight it man, time is not a worthy battle. Dressed in uniform floral costumes, the band played some new tracks before settling in with more familiar material. The crowd at the Hype Hotel definitely responded best to Hold Me Now, which still sounds fresh after ten years. It’s a song that best exemplifies what the group has to offer – anthemic choruses made more epic by the size of the band, many layers of arrangement in the background all somehow coming together and Tim Delaughter doing his thing. A pretty good moment.
Another note is..do all the members of Polyphonic Spree get SXSW wristbands? Wouldn’t it be possible for them to sneak some friends into the band so they can get wristbands and then go to shows for free? I would do that. They are probably too nice to though.