Concerts

SXSW Review: !!!, March 17, Doritos Stage

Posted on March 22, 2012 by Ricky in South By Southwest | Leave a comment

That’s right, for SXSW, Dorito’s erected a three four story stage that looked like a vending machine to promote whatever flavor their mad scientists have concocted (“SUPER ZESTY JALAPENO BBQ!”).

Closing off that stage on Saturday night was New York’s very own !!! (pronounced check check check). It seems ages ago since this band created massive buzz with their breakout track Me and Giuliani Down by the School Yard , but here they are, on the last night at SXSW letting their fans know that they will soon have new material to be released.

!!!’s music is all about the dancing and their live show is a perfect representation of that. If you look up the definition of “play that funky music white boy” in the dictionary, you might find !!! singer Nic Offer beside it. The man is the engine that drives !!!, from the opening beat to the last track, Nic danced up the storm. I think he probably burnt 3000 calories in the show, which consisted of him dancing in the stage, dancing in the photo pit and dancing in the crowd. The crowd ate it up and Nic Offer’s dancing (which reminded me a lot of Ed McFarlane of Friendly Fires fame) was a huge part of what made this show successful. It also helped masked the fact that behind all the rapid fire drum beats, horns and punk guitar licks, !!!’s music hasn’t really progressed much in the past ten years. Maybe it’s just their live show music, but !!! today seems like !!! circa early 2000s, which involves Offer delivering/speaking rapid fire lyrics over punk/dance sounds. While it’s all energetic, I felt like it all sounded the same after awhile, save for the track Must be the Moon, which still sounds as amazing today as it did in 2007.

Sameness aside, you can’t go wrong with a one hour dance party, and !!! definitely delivered that at SXSW.

SXSW Review: Spoek Mathambo, Dionvox, Escort, Chairlift, Spin Party

Posted on March 22, 2012 by Ricky in South By Southwest | 1 Comment

Spin always seems to throw one of the better parties at SXSW so it should be no surprise that I parked myself in the Stubb back lot for the entire Friday afternoon. With an eclectic lineup, free alcohol and free bbq, you can say that I was sufficiently sophonsified that afternoon. Let’s take a look at the acts on the bill.

The opening slot of any afternoon party is always the toughest – half the people are still sleeping, the other are hungover and mostly lack the energy to do anything more than stand around. These factors were of no deterrent to Spoek Mathambo, a South African hip hop artist that seems to incorporate many elements from other music genres into his upbeat tracks. Some parts of his set involved him rapping over heavy guitars and sounded straight out of the late 90s while others involved the heavy use of horns and percussion and was reminiscent of what I think Carribean dance halls sound like. Throughout it all, the man was dancing and trying to get the crowd going. A pretty good start to the day, Father Creeper, the new album from Spoek Mathambo, is out this month.

Up next was Dion*Vox. Formerly known as Ramona the Band, Dionvox certainly captured the eye of all the male music photographers at their indoor stage with set, which involved both the lead singer and a go-go dancer progressively stripping throughout the set. Their outfits indicated to me that they were some sort of post-industrial, gothic electro s&m band. Their music consisted of the lead singer sultrily singing over industrial-type electronic music. There was also a guy who was with the dj, who just stood there the whole time for no real reason. I can’t quite place what they sound like because I was wondering if the go go dancer was going to take off all her clothes.

Up next was Escort, a Brooklyn collective that absolutely brought their A game to the outside stage. I counted seventeen members on stage including an all out horns and string section, backup singers, multiple drummers and guitarist. I wonder what their rider looks like. I also found it funny that the two Asians in the band were on keyboard and violin…surprise surprise. Escort’s set was awesome. They brought the funk, the beat and the whole kitchen sink and got the crowd moving. Lead singer Adeline Michèle has the makings of a star – her charisma is off the charts as she danced, engaged the crowd and sang throughout the set. I predict big things for her and the band, now that their debut album is finally out.

Immediately following the funkapalooza known as the Escort show was Chairlift, a Brooklyn synthpop duo that seemed to have expanded to a four piece for the Spin party. The band played a set full of tracks from their new album Something. Lead singer Caroline Polachek has some interesting dance moves, which I think was directly inspired by Natalie Portman’s character in the movie Garden State. I struggled to find catchy hooks or melody with their new material but the crowd seemed to eat it up, as did Paul. Maybe their synth driven tracks require a more careful listen, I’m not sure but nothing they did really caught my ear.

Stay tuned for part 2 of this review!

SXSW Review: Built To Spill, March 17, Cedar Street Courtyard

Posted on March 22, 2012 by Paul in South By Southwest | Leave a comment

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The Panic Manual is a model of inefficiency. Case in point: the last day of our annual trek to Austin found the entire four man Panic Manual crew (2 writers and 2 photographers) stationed at Cedar Street Courtyard to check out Built To Spill’s final set of the week. A bit redundant of us perhaps, especially considering that only two of us had any real familiarity with the band, but it’s a cool little venue and they’re a great band, so why not?

And so, after the bartender mixed us perhaps the best mojito I’ve ever tasted, we were primed and ready to take in some Built To Spill. There was a fair number of fans in attendance (I overheard one guy standing next to me saying he had seen every set they’d played at SXSW this year) who knew exactly what they were in for: Doug Martsch and co. working their way through some intricate, extended guitar jams.  Songs like “Strange” and “You Were Right” (with it’s classic rock quoting lyrics) sounded great and not at all like the band were worn out from playing shows all week.

Then again, maybe they were a bit weary.  It’s kind of hard to tell.  I mean, Martch’s voice has always been a bit weary sounding and it’s not as if the band’s ever been known to do that much jumping around onstage or anything.  Still, even if they weren’t necesssarily super energetic, it was still a solid set by the band and a nice reintroduction to them.  Apparently, the band is currently working on a new album.  No word on when it’s likely to arrive, but I’m certainly looking forward to it.

SXSW Review: Vampillia, March 16, Elysium

Posted on March 20, 2012 by Paul in South By Southwest | Leave a comment

I hope it’s not seen as lazy writing on my part to lump metal/noise/art rockers Vampillia in with the other Japanese act i saw earlier that day (that would be Peelander-Z), but besides their shared national heritage, the bands do seem to have a lot more in common. They also share a penchant for adding a great deal of weirdness and theatricality into their music. Though one could argue that both acts’ weirdness is a result of their being Japanese. A lot of strange bands have come out of Japan over the years.

However, while Peelander-Z’s weirdness comes across in more of a fun, Saturday morning cartoon ,sugary breakfast cereal, pro wrestling kind of way, Vampillia has more of a dark, David Lynch goes to a death metal carnival vibe. Which is to say odd and a little bit menacing, but still with an irreverent sense of fun about what they’re doing as well. After all, when one of your guitarists is nearly nude and covered in symbols and your singer wears a top hat and long coat while carrying around a big plank of wood and a saw (which he would occasionally “play” by sawing on the wood very quickly), you know these guys can’t be taking themselves entirely seriously.

Their music, however, they take seriously enough. The show opened with the drummer alone onstage, showing off a bit with a drum solo over some prerecorded backing tracks before being joined by the rest of the band, who then proceeded to set the mood with some moody atmospherics – some solo piano at first, followed by a solo guitar buildup that was reminiscent of something by Explosions In The Sky or This Will Destroy You. Appropriate for Texas I suppose. It was only after a few minutes that their main vocalist emerged from backstage and proceeded to sprinkle his own brand of craziness all over everything. They were definitely an eccentric bunch, incorporating elements of all sorts of music into their music (including some operatic style vocals), all while keeping it still pretty heavy and rocking throughout. This was definitely one of the more memorable shows of my SXSW experience.

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