SXSW is a place where you can see music at its most interesting. Aside from up and comer indie bands, you get a host of creative individuals who have all kinds of thoughts and ideas about what music is and how it should be presented. This year, the band Mong Tong greatly exemplified this.
A Taiwanese duo formed by two brothers, the duo played a psychedelic dreamy multi-layered set to the backdrop of calming animal videos – while blindfolded. What? Yes, the group blindfolded themselves about halfway through their second song and proceeded to play the set under the cover, navigating perfectly between their effects pedals and the electronic drum pad. I was fascinated. Under the layer of ambient sound that they produced, I really wondered how they pulled it off. Is their sense of movement that great? How many times do they practice? Are they really blindfolded? Do they feel their way around the music like Luke Skywalker when he was training to be a Jedi?
It kept me engaged in the set while the music worked to smooth my mind, which was an interesting contrast. A very interesting show.