SXSW is a blur, but we did manage to see a lot of bands. Here are some quick reviews for some of the acts that we saw.
Day Wave – Synth poppy band played the Hype Machine Hotel on Saturday, I caught a bit of their set and they seemed like nice guys. They played an excellent cover of New Order’s Ceremony, which is one of my favorite songs ever. So that is mega bonus points for them. Go check them out, maybe they’ll play a cover of your favorite song, unless your favorite song is by Day Wave because it would be weird to play covers of their own song
Methyl Ethyl – Aussie 4 piece band played the Central Presbyterian Church in Austin. I had never been to this venue before but was sad to find out they don’t serve alcohol. The lady at the front also charged 3 dollars for filtered coffee. What kind of scam is this church running? Methyl Ethyl are a rock band from Perth who are pretty popular in Australia according to the Aussies sitting behind us. They were pondering if the rock band was going to rock out because they were playing in a church. Haven’t they listened to Creed before? The group had a sound not unlike the Brit-rock bands from the late 90’s after Britpop died. The lead singer had an alarmingly strong falsetto and they really sounded like the band Geneva. No one gets that reference but Imma slide it in there anyway.
King
King is a trio from probably New York. THey play smooth r&b that a lazy person would compare to early 90’s r&b. Sounding a bit like the likes of TLC or SWV, the trio played a set of sultry smooth r&b tracks that saw some nice vocal interplay between the two leads. The only problem with their set was that it was in a backyard at noon in sunny Texas and their music is suited for darker, more comfortable environment. While I enjoyed their set, a lot of the songs sounded samey, I believe they are still in the process of trying to find that hook, that one big song to take them to the next level. It’s a promising start though.
Estelle
What happened to Estelle? One minute she was hanging with Kanye, singing American Boy and the next minute she disappeared. Now she shows up at McDonalds and starts singing. JK. Estelle headlined the McDonald loft on Thursday night and I don’t know what happened to her popularity, but her tracks sounded good. Like, I’m going to look them up when I get home and listen to them good. Engaging the crowd from the start, Estelle delivered what I guess you could call hit after hit, all her tracks seem to encourage dancing and some definitely had some anthemy elements to it. It’s good she got the crowd to work up a sweat, because we were at a venue that served unlimited free fries and burgers. Gotta work that off somehow, and Estelle is a great way to do that. American Boy was also awesome live as you expected.