Austin – This is going to be a short review, since the band played a short show. One of the things about SXSW is that they typically run on tight schedules so when a band, say, The Morning Benders take a bit more time then expected to set up their stage, then they get less time to play. The Morning Benders followed the Rural Alberta Advantage, who played a pretty rockin show (for a noon show), so it was interesting to see how the crowd would react to their blend of slowly building epic music. Despite looking like a bunch of high school teenagers who should rather play in a Halo tournament (I’m being racist against asians..what what) this band killed it. The song Excuses was amazing live, involving a singalong, on the fly looping and ending with a massive wall of sound that would make most shoe gaze bands proud. Highly recommended.
2-cents from Gary: They were so laid back I wanted to just not take pictures. I thought his voice was clearer and obviously some notes were higher in the record, but that could be them preparing for the on-slaught of the rest of the festival/showcase. Or maybe all that smoke and evaporated beer floating around in Emo Jr’s forming ether… I came to the show late and only heard Wet cement, Promise, Excuses… arguably their best songs. Ending on a good note, as Ricky has mentioned, only strengthened the show for the 300-strong crowd. I’ll now look forward (more so than before) to their show in Toronto.