South By Southwest

SXSW Review: Girlpool, March 19, Red 7 Patio

Posted on March 27, 2015 by Ricky in South By Southwest | Leave a comment

Simplicity is the key to Girlpool’s music. When you listen to Girlpool, you feel like you are partaking in a chilled talk between two friends.

Lay out those conversational pieces over stripped down Burger-Record/Los Angeles style guitar and bass combos and you have Girlpool. I loved the pacing of Cleo Tucker and Harmony Tividad’s duelling vocals and their music reminded me of some of the things I listened to in university.

Just like their music, simplicity was the main element to their show. They showed up, set up their equipment quickly and just played. At SXSW when you have a very strict time slot, the crowd appreciates it when you just get up there and do your thing. Girlpool did that and charmed the hell out of everyone. Their songs have great harmony, they seem like the nicest people but also, they seem like they’d kick your ass at a moments notice. A great combination.

SXSW Review: Big Data, Twin Shadow, March 21, Cedar Street Courtyard

Posted on March 26, 2015 by Paul in South By Southwest | Leave a comment

In keeping with their name, Brooklyn based “paranoid electro pop” band Big Data likes to go big – big beats, big riffs, big voices, and two enthusiastic, sunglasses wearing lead singers. Yet despite all of these ingredients, none of it really stood out too much for me, with the exception of the band’s solid cover of Hall & Oates’ smooth pop classic “Private Eyes,” it’s refrain of “they’re watching you” re-purposed to fit in with the band’s thematic focus on user privacy and state surveillance and such. It’s timely stuff and with that focus, they’re probably not going to run out of things to write about anytime soon. It’s almost enough to make you wonder if they really were there for some sort of data mining operation. Either that, or someone booked them for the festival thinking it was a panel proposal for SXSW Interactive.

Following them on the same stage were Twin Shadow. As they took to the stage, George Clark Jr. announced to the crowd that this was their last show of SXSW and that they wanted the crowd to make it as crazy as possible. He and the band ran through songs off their latest, Eclipse, with way more energy than you might expect at roughly 5:30 in the afternoon after having played who knows how many shows by that point. Pro Tip: even if you’re feeling exhausted, try not to let on. By giving out a lot of energy to the crowd, Twin Shadow seemed to be re-energized in return. That’s entertainment.

SXSW Review: Frank Turner, March 21, Red 7

Posted on March 26, 2015 by Paul in South By Southwest | Leave a comment

On top of the fact that the last day of SXSW always feels like a bit of a comedown of sorts, this year the last day felt even more so than usual and almost had me wondering if I was somehow accidentally transported to the wrong festival all of a sudden. After all, it was wet and rainy, I was kind of exhausted and I was watching a Brit play acoustic guitar. Was this SouthBy or Glasto? All I needed was some mud caked wellies to complete the illusion.

As Frank Turner took to the stage at Red 7 for his last show of SXSW (the above pic was taken at his very first show of the week), he admitted to feeling the effects of a week’s worth of shows and partying. “I am officially SouthBy’d out. Played too many shows, drank too many shit beers, got tattooed … ” he said, later adding that his voice was beginning to get a little rough (“I’m starting to sound like Chuck Ragan”) and that if the crowd knew the words they should sing along. Despite this caveat, Turner still put on a great performance and even decided to open it up to requests from the floor, so as to make it a little more unique than any of his other sets earlier in the week.

Fittingly, he started off with “The Next Storm,” it’s lyrics of wanting to step out and face the sunshine giving us all some hope that the weather might get less miserable as the day went on. The weather never really got that much better, but still, it’s nice to have hope.

SXSW Review: Future Islands, March 18, Mohawk

Posted on March 25, 2015 by Ricky in South By Southwest | Leave a comment

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Sheer Joy.

This is the only feeling you get at a Future Islands show. If you don’t feel that when you go see Future Islands, then I pity you.

I think the reason is simply this: Samuel T Herring dances like nobody is watching, only everyone is watching. He first inspired us on Letterman, bearing his soul and risking humiliation in front of millions. That single video, struck a chord with the audience. We want him to keep dancing, and he has happily obliged. It also helps that Future Island’s latest release is quite good.

On what I assume is the last leg of their tour, I noticed two new dance moves in his repertoire that I did not see last time I saw him live

1. Machine gun fist pump. Not your standard fist pump this one has multiple false starts before exploding into one gigantic fist pump. What a move.

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2. Guile back spin punch – you know the one, you press away from the opponent and the press strong punch. Impressive move, I hope he doesn’t accidentally knock out his guitar player on a smaller stage

We all want to find the thing that makes us feel the passion that Samuel T Herring feels when he sings his songs. While not all of us can find it, we are simply glad one of us has.

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