Bryce Avary singing for the crowd at House of Blues Saturday night. (Jonathan Finley) Big D’s own The Rocket Summer recently won a Yahoo! Music contest. We were proud. Then Saturday, the band played with The Academy Is… at the House of Blues. Now we’re awestruck. Bryce Avary and bandmates…
Atmosphere teased the crowd with new songs Thursday night. (Matthew Blake) When I rolled up to the Loft just before 9 p.m., the line for Atmosphere wrapped around the building. And anyone foolish enough to think they were buying tickets at the door seriously mistook the following the Minnesota rap…
Interpol engages the Palladium crowd Thursday night. (Matt Mueller) Interpol is one of those bands I managed to only see at festivals up to this point. Let’s face it, festivals suck for technical bands. Luckily, I was able to catch the New York band Thursday night at the Palladium Ballroom…
A Wednesday night out on lower Greenville offered a couple of surprises. First, parking was a bitch. Is Wednesday the new Friday? The second surprise was President George Bush with pasties. Did I really drink that much? Zubar celebrated its 11th anniversary with a prison themed party, Lock Down, and…
Explosions in the Sky at Saturday’s Wall of Sound festival. (Travis Awalt) We spent our Saturday in Ft. Worth. Yeah. At a field little cell reception. Was it worth it? Of course! It was the Wall of Sound festival. Our photographer Travis Awalt snapped pictures all day, so hit up…
Max Cady guitarist Jeff shreds on the Double Wide stage Friday night. (Jonathan Finley) “It’s like a freight train of rock,” my friend Nick leans over to tell me. I had never seen Max Cady (rhymes with lady, not caddy as the opening band, Salute, thought) before I got to…
Club Dada was filled with cubicle drones who looked like they came straight from Chotchkies. I would venture to guess a lot of code went unwritten last night. The geeks gathered to see their king: Jonathan Coulton. You’ve heard the story by now: He used to write software, quit to…
Allow me to preface this review by saying every Roots performance I’ve been to has been the best show I’ve ever seen. Last night’s Hip Hop Honors tour kept the trend, but delivered a special dose of showmanship, because the Roots crew wasn’t there to play its own songs. The…
Last night’s The National and St. Vincent show drew hundreds of people down to the Granada. As promised, our photographer Melanie Gomez hit up the show. Her pictures will make you feel like you were there, and help prep for St. V’s ACL performance this weekend. — Chelsea Ide…
Swedish metal band Arch Enemy is known for having a female lead singer who growls like a dude. Or so I thought. Walking into the band’s Thursday night show at the House of Blues in downtown Dallas, a bald-headed 20-something man told me, “Don’t bother. There’s some chick on stage,…
There’s no easy way to sum up a week without vegetables. There’s plenty of one-sided banter, live audio and interviews on our daily SXSW podcasts. But, in short, here’s what I’m still thinking about, two days home from South By Southwest.Best Show: Cold War Kids Click the photo to watch…
Riverfront Times freelancer Jaime Lees is a huge Stooges fan. Here’s her report on the group’s set at Stubbs. It’s hard to find the line between journalistic appreciation and gushing fan girl. There have been quite a few occasions when I’ve had to put aside my love of Converse-wearing guitarists…
Click the photo to watch an audio slideshow of last night’s show featuring live audio from KOL’s set. Kings of Leon: After Palo Nutini; before Spoon; even more before The Stooges Would Meatface Approve? Yes. And he’d give a kick to the Scrabble bag to any hipster who said otherwise…
We figured that most of the people packed onto the patio at Red 7 on Friday, March 16, were there to see seminal punks J Church. The SxSW Pocket Guide listed “special guests” as the act that would follow J Church, and we hadn’t a clue as to who the…
Stalking. Shimmying. Hands-on-hips swivels. Tight-ass visible through blinding glitter pants. Just play one of the old ones and we’ll eat out of your hands. Perry Farrell’s back catalog gives him the right to make those giant gestures onstage –grandiose, tai-chi movements, arms cutting through the air as if altering time…
Click the photo for an audio slideshow for Rev.’s set. Please forgive my brevity, but I just fell asleep for 10 minutes with this computer on my lap and I can’t afford to let that happen again. I hear the computer-in-lap consequences are a lot worse than if I bored…
On Friday, March 16, Phoenix-based band The Breakup Society rocked the patio stage at Habana Calle 6, during the Get Hip Records showcase. It was a miracle the garage/pop/rock band made the gig at all — the group left Phoenix to make the drive to Austin late on Wednesday night,…
Our associate, Victoria Renard, was all up in Iggy’s grill when The Stooges played (Seattle radio station) KEXP’s broadcast from Austin City Limits. Click the photo for an audio slideshow…
The Bravery slept through their set at the Village Voice Media Party But, I have to say, they appeared well groomed and clean. They probably got a shower this morning. Maybe that’s why their set lacked in the rock category. Although, I’m willing to be convinced otherwise. I could only…
Click the photo for an audio slideshow of The Horrors at the Village Voice Media Party at South By Southwest. The Horrors just played a three-and-a-half song set at La Zona Rosa. Frontman Feris Badwan was in top form showcasing his ticks. He wrapped himself in some kind of paper…
“Move here! You guys can stay with me!” Such was the offer of an Austin native to Seattle synth-pop band The Trucks, who rocked the stage at Tap Room @ Six on Thursday, March 15. The four-piece all-female band definitely looked like the grooviest potential houseguests ever, wearing dark green…
While much of the music action goes down with the sun at SXSW — when fans fill the streets and hustle from bar to bar, bathed in the light of neon signs — there are plenty of afternoon gigs and showcases in the sun, too, and some are well worth…
