SXSW

2016 in Review: Ricky’s Favorite Shows

Posted on December 15, 2016 by Ricky in Year End Reviews | Leave a comment

Chvrches

2016 is now closing. What a year. Anyways, here are some of my favorite shows of the year, because you care deeply about my opinions.

Suede, Primavera, June
Anytime you can see your favorite band in one of your favorite cities in the world in the summer time, you just gotta do it. This Suede show was a hit fest from beginning to end and set the bar high for the rest of the bands playing Primavera.

Here’s my song by song review.

Daughter, Primavera, June
The girl from Daughter breaking into a smile halfway through a serious song because the entire crowd was singing along warmed my heart so much I might have died.

Hall & Oates, June or July, Toronto
Hard to find a better band to enjoy live on the lawns of the Molson Amphitheatre on a crisp summer night. It’s been too long since they last came around.

Vince Staples, SXSW, SPIN party
This guy was hilarious and the Spin party was it’s usual awesomeness with free booze, good sun and a stellar lineup. I definitely remember him being funny and it made his set pretty good.

El Conjunta Nueva, SXSW
Anytime you have a chance to see a Mexican band singing hard rock mariachi covers of modern pop songs while dressed up in Luchador costumes, you gotta do it. Also, they were playing in between wrestling matches featuring actual luchadores, so yeah it was pretty memorable. Only in Austin.

Estelle, SXSW, McDonalds Loft
Estelle played the McDonald’s party. Free fries, free booze and Estelle singing “American Boy.” What more can you ask for? Also, the discovery that Estelle actually has more good tracks was pretty inspiring.

Everything NXNE
Haha jk.

LCD Soundsystem, Primavera
LCD Soundsystem came back fast and furious this year and their show at Primavera was just an amazing show and a great party. A very swift reminder of just what a really great band sounds like live. Perfect festival show for a perfect festival band.

SXSW Quick Reviews – Day Wave, Methyl Ethyl, King, Estelle

Posted on April 2, 2016 by Ricky in South By Southwest | Leave a comment

Tove Styrke

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.

SXSW Review: Weaves, March 19, Wonderland

Posted on March 28, 2016 by Paul in South By Southwest | Leave a comment

DSC_7387

Over the last couple of years, the City of Toronto has established a “music city” partnership with Austin, using Austin’s model as inspiration for how to build Toronto’s music scene up (although really, Toronto seems to have been doing alright for itself already) and for a few more years than that, there’s always been a strong contingent of Toronto-based acts making their way to SXSW to try to build up a bit more buzz. This year, without even really trying, I managed to see more Toronto artists than usual, including such homegrown talent as Basia Bulat, Jahkoy, Greys (twice – no regrets as they’re one of the best bands around in TO or anywhere else these days) and, um … Magic! Hey, we all make mistakes sometimes. Don’t you know I’m human too …

One of the most enjoyable acts I saw was Weaves playing the Buzz Records showcase. The band’s been around for a few years now, but I had somehow managed to miss out on their live show up until now – it took going to Austin to finally see them in concert. Sure, it might seem a bit much to fly all the way to Austin to catch a band I could see pretty easily back home, but Weaves made it worth my while. The band’s off kilter rhythms and slightly twisted pop anthems make for a compelling listen and vocalist Jasmyn Burke is eminently watchable, moving about the stage with an almost mischievous unpredictability. She made good use of the space, practically turning the whole venue into a stage – at one point she was looping the microphone cord through the roof of the tent and letting it hang down, singing into it as if she were Michael Buffer announcing a match. And after climbing onto a nearby table, she also spent a good deal of their set sitting cross legged as she sang.

“We were watching Phil Collins from, like, a 1980s video, and he was sitting,” she said, explaining some of her inspiration and I’ve got to say, I wholeheartedly approve. In my opinion, we can all use a little more Phil Collins-inspired behaviour in our lives.

SXSW Review: Cumstain, Big White, March 19, Hotel Vegas

Posted on March 27, 2016 by Paul in South By Southwest | Leave a comment

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When you give your band a name like Cumstain, you’re bound to get a bit of notoriety, sure, but you’ve also got to figure that a name like that is likely to only take you so far. Neverthless, the members of the Oakland garage punk band seemed ready and willing to consider any and all cross promotional marketing possibilities, cheekily announcing that their show at Hotel Vegas would be sponsored by Guitar Center, Wendy’s and a few others. “What else can we push?” asked singer/guitarist Sean Starling to which one of his bandmates responded, “Cocaine!” Starling already had the slogan ready: “Cocaine: blow it up your nose, don’t get it on your clothes!” They followed up that bit of stage banter by launching into “Rock and Roll Don’t Pay My Bills.”

The band continued on with their satirical piss-take on corporate sponsorship a bit later in their set and while it’s a bit of an obvious target during SXSW, it was still quite amusing and entertaining, as was their set. With their fun, high energy “California Rock ‘n’ roll” (as their banner put it) driven by a crude sense of humour, Cumstain put on a memorable performance to one of the most hyped up crowds I’d seen all week inside the packed indoor room at Hotel Vegas. Perhaps not quite hyped up enough for Starling, who encouraged the crowd to “Start shoving each other, stop being so jaded.”

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Following them on the outdoor stage were Australia’s Big White, who offered up something a bit less intense, but no less enjoyable in it’s own way. Jangly at times, a bit shoegazey at others, their sound was reminiscent of a lot of British music from the 1980s – there was a heavy Cure influence on some of their stuff. The Sydney based band offered up lots of catchy melodies delivered by multiple vocalists, which added a nice bit of variety to their set. Their latest release, Teenage Dreams, is out now on Caroline Records in Australia and available on cassette via Burger Records, who were responsible for the top notch lineup at Hotel Vegas that on this day also included Hinds, Death Valley Girls, Dressy Bessy, and many more. Well done, Burger Records!

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