If I made myself one SXSW promise this year, it was to not
overdo it. For once I wanted to
make it through the festival without feeling like it would take my body most of
the next week to recover. For the
most part that was achieved, as well as seeing some bands worth
mentioning.
On Tuesday night at Empire Control Room the two dudes that
comprise South Africa’s Goldfish
cranked out an oddball brand of EDM-inspired music, with Dominic Peters on
keyboard and electric bass, occasionally sampling bits of Rodriguez (from
“Searching for Sugarman”), and David Poole playing a mini-saxophone and the flute. It was as surprising as it was danceable
and the crowd was certainly dancing, as well as making cardboard cut-outs of
goldfish swim through the audience.
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| Goldfish |
Wednesday at Ironwood Hall the already-exploding Twin Shadow played from behind a
translucent white gauze that wrapped the stage. Likely employed to showcase some dramatic lighting design
elements, namely what looked like a four-poster bed frame equipped with
incredibly bright neon lights, the gauze created a bit of a disconnected
feeling between the audience and the stage. You can say this is no ordinary love George Lewis, in your
sexiest Sade-referencing voice, but it still feels like there’s something
coming between us. Specifically
gauze.
At the Parish Thursday night London’s The Vaccines gave the crowd what they expected, banging versions of
“Post Break-Up Sex,” “Wrecking Bar (Ra Ra Ra),” and “If You Wanna,” as well as
a few tunes from their forthcoming album (due at the end of May).
Friday and Saturday saw some wetter weather in Austin, but
that didn’t stop folks from trying to crowdsurf to Thee Oh Sees at the Mohawk.
While John Dwyer held his guitar like a machine gun and the two drummers
pounded away at their sets, slippery fans tried to climb atop the thin crowd,
with little success.
A few hours later at Empire Control room Emmett Miller was
much more successful, jumping on top of the crowd while continuing to play
guitar toward the end of Diarrhea
Planet’s set. Two years ago at
South By everyone was talking about Diarrhea Planet, but admittedly I’d
resisted seeing them because, well, that name.
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| Diarrhea Planet |
The energy of the Nashville-based band is undeniable, with a
sound driven hard by the four guitarists (the other two members play bass and
drums), which under different acoustic circumstances (everything was turned up
too high at Empire) can create a generous layered texture to their songs. The members took turns getting
spotlight time, reaching as close as possible to the crowd.
Oh course no one stirred people up more than the UK’s Palma Violets – not strictly because of
their music, per se, but more thanks to a dude in the crowd who insisted on
bringing people into a dance circle near the front of the stage. It was unclear what his relationship to
the band really was, but no one in the audience was safe from his potential pull. Danger in the club? You got it.
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| Palma Violets |
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