photos by @griffinshot - Tim Griffin, words by Andrew Marinaccio

M83 @ Stubb's - 5/18/2012

M83 wrapped up their tour with I Break Horses in Texas this past weekend, where they played Stubb's on Friday (5/18). That tour also stopped in NYC about a week earlier. Pictures from the Austin show are in this post, along with a review of the NYC show.

M83's 2011 LP, Hurry Up We're Dreaming, saw their sonic trajectory hit a fever pitch; an album that dominated and defined 2011 by its impossible grandeur and expansiveness as a work more so than any of its smaller details (though perhaps it did help that it featured the best song of the year). Their current tour solidifies that they've harnessed their titanic sound and its incalculable amount of whirling, synth filigree. When focused, M83 can make any stage, be it at a sprawling outdoor festival set or boxy urban theater, explode.

The band's sold-out Terminal 5 gig in NYC (5/10) was an impeccably tight exercise in M83's soaring synth-pop theatrics. After the alien from Hurry Up, We're Dreaming's album cover came out to creepily glare at the audience for a minute or so, the shimmering rise of "Intro" began, as group mastermind Anthony Gonzalez stood centered and still on stage, hands cupped over his face. Call it reflection, pre-show acclimation, or prayer, but it set the intense, almost cosmically sacred gravity of their entire set. Conviction was Gonzalez's face-- the entire band's faces. This was pop with a mission to ignite whatever it touched.

And the music matched M83's countenance with as much color and power as they could generate. Their set primarily balanced between Hurry Up We're Dreaming and Saturday=Youth with tracks from Before the Dawn Heals Us thrown in for good measure. "Intro" gave way to unrelenting turns on "Teen Angst" and "Graveyard Girl," all clarified and piercing renditions with minimal deviation from their album versions. But there was little need for change--though the breakdown wedged into "Reunion" was welcome--for the band's latter-day work was already loud and lush, only demanding a setting spatially generous enough to accommodate their booming sonic textures. And their live presence cultivated just that: Keyboardist Morgan Kibby's usually wispy hush ascended to towering trills and belts, vocally steering "We Own the Sky" and encore "Skin of the Night," the latter's chorus further lifted by a by a volley of electric arpeggios courtesy of Gonzalez' hulking panel of knobs and wires.

Basses were beaten on "Bright Flash," distressed guitars furiously scraped away at during the coda of "Wait," and synthesizers chronically prostrated before throughout the whole affair, each song a furious race to reach a radioactive crescendo probably responsible for many a neon-drenched contusion by the end of the show. Not that the crowd minded much, entranced by the perpetual energy generator running molten red (and nuclear eggplant, and atomic green, thanks to tonally appropriate lighting) on stage. And it was hard not to embrace it, especially once the looping, digitized vocal chirp of "Midnight City," rang. The ubiquitous, dance-compelling pop anthem sounds miraculously inexhaustible in spite of itself almost a year into its initial release. At least, that appeared to be the consensus: the crowd upped its sway into a stomping, flouncing dance mob as it bleated the lyrics along with the band. "City is my church!" remains a favored idiom to roar aloud amid the tune's automatic, fluorescent urgency. Triumphant sax-solo relish remained intact and reappeared on the final song of the encore, "Couleurs," here ratcheted to a club-ready inferno that peaked in Gonzalez howling a distortion- wracked "New York!", eventually culminating in the entire band taking a knee (or gasping for air on their backs) beneath a storm of metallic noise.

A brief set by Swedish electro-shoegazers I Break Horses--their first in New York--began the night. Their thunderous, yet measured synth cycles swaddled Maria Linden's airy, reverb-distanced vocals, presenting a curious historic parallel to the main attraction. It wasn't too long ago that Gonzalez was writing similarly smaller, but lofty-in-spirit pop constructions.

And the latest: M83 scheduled to appear at ACL 2012.

More pics from the Stubb's show below...

Continue reading "M83 played Stubb's w/ I Break Horses, playing ACL (pics)"

photos by @griffinshot - Tim Griffin words by Andrew Sacher

Geoff Earle (AKA Fresh Millions) @ ND 501 - 5/11/2012

ND @ 501 Studios was graced by a pretty strong local bill last Friday (5/11) with the disco-y Fresh Millions (aka Geoff Earle), DFA-sounding dance rockers Rickey Jean Francois and the Balearic bliss of Orthy (aka Ian Orth). Pictures from that show are in this post.

Fresh Millions have another local show scheduled this month, which happens on May 31 at Beauty Ballroom with Art Vs Science, Cheap Curls (featuring ex-Dum Dum Girl Katie aka Bambi), Slash Future, and Sphynx. Tickets are on sale now. The flier for this show and more pics from the ND 501 show below...

Continue reading "Fresh Millions, Rickey Jean Francois & Orthy spent the night together @ ND 501 (pics)"

photos by @griffinshot - Tim Griffin

Hanni El Khatib @ Mohawk - 5/07/2012

Hanni El Khatib wrapped up a tour with Sundelles in California last week, after stopping in Austin for a show at Mohawk (5/7) with support from Austin's Black Tabs.

Habbi El Khatib is one of the guests on Skelethon, the upcoming album by Aesop Rock, who recently announced a tour which hits Austin on August 11 at Mohawk. Tickets are on sale.

More pictures from the Hanni show below...

Continue reading "Hanni El Khatib played Mohawk w/ Sundelles & Black Tabs (pics)"

photos by @griffinshot - Tim Griffin

Active Child @ Mohawk - 5/4/2012

Active Child's tour with Balam Acab and Superhumanoids came through Austin earlier this month for a show at Mohawk (5/4), complete with lasers and fog machines. Brian Gray from Austin Town Hall spoke really highly of the show, complimenting Pat Grossi's vocal abilities in a live setting and the crowd's constant engagement. He also offers, "If you are on the fence about Active Child, go to a show."

Meanwhile, as others have hinted at in the past, Balam Acab, as great as he is recorded, may not be much of a live act: "But no matter the music, one guy, several sequencers, Macbook and an 808 do not captivate, especially on an outdoor stage with static lighting."

More pics and a video from the show below...

Continue reading "Active Child on tour with Balam Acab, played Mohawk w/ Superhumanoids (pics)"

photos by @griffinshot - Tim Griffin

Jane's Addicition @ Bass Concert Hall - 5/12/2012

Veteran alt-rockers Jane's Addiction brought their "Theatre of Escapists" tour to Bass Concert Hall on Saturday night (5/12). Check out pictures from the show, including openers The Duke Spirit, below -- and more pictures at BrooklynVegan.

Continue reading "Jane's Addiction & The Duke Spirit played Bass Hall (pics, setlist)"

photos by @griffinshot - Tim Griffin

Thee Oh Sees at Psych Fest 2012 @ Emo's on 4/29

We already posted pictures of the Brian Jonestown Massacre's capper to this year's Austin Psych Fest, but here's the rest of our Sunday (4/29) coverage from the Emo's stage, including Thee Oh Sees (still bolstered by The Intelligence's Lars Finberg), Arizona legends' The Meat Puppets, Bombino, Wooden Shjips, Wall of Death, Blue Angel Lounge and more.

Check out pics from Day 1 and Day 2. More of Day 3 are below.

Continue reading "Psych Fest day 3 - Meat Puppets, Thee Oh Sees, Bombino & more (pics)"

photos by @griffinshot - Tim Griffin

Tragedy @ Red 7 - 5/4/2012

Portland d-beat greats Tragedy go in a slightly different, sludgier direction with Darker Days Ahead, the band's new and semi-suprise Billy Anderson-produced LP out now at your nearest merch table. The band is currently road-testing that material at dates across the US and Austin was the guinea pig on May 4th at Red 7, when Tragedy joined Screaming Females, Impalers, and Criaturas. Pictures from the show adorn this post.

Much like Tragedy, Screaming Females are on a tour of their own that crossed paths with the ex-members of His Hero is Gone. SF guitarist Marissa Paternoster who was recently ranked #77 in SPIN's "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". Good for her, go to the shows, like Beauty Ballroom on June 1st, and watch her rip it.

More pictures of the bands from Red 7 below... With the exception of Criaturas - missed while covering over at Mohawk (sorry!).

Continue reading "Tragedy brought it to Red 7 w/ Screaming Females & Impalers (pics)"

photos by @griffinshot - Tim Griffin

Anton Newcombe of BJM @ Emo's East - 4/29/2012

Brian Jonestown Massacre, who played a secret, acoustic set at one of the pre-parties at Red 7 earlier in the week, closed out Austin Psych Fest 2012 at Emo's on 4/29. More pictures from Anton Newcombe and the gang's set, below...

Continue reading "Brian Jonestown Massacre closed Psych Fest 2012 @ Emo's (pics)"

by @griffinshot - Tim Griffin

Tennis @ The Parish - 5/8/2012

"I'm really looking forward to playing Austin and Dallas because two of us have birthdays in May. One of our bandmember's birthday is when we're in Austin and my birthday is when we're playing Dallas. I feel like it's going to be a party day two days in a row - super fun." [Alaina Moore]

Less than two months after visiting for SXSW, Alaina Moore and Patrick Riley (and the rest of Tennis) returned to Austin to play a sold-out show at Parish last night (Tuesday, May 8). It was packed-full and steamy-hot from all of the bodies cramming towards the stage. Here are some pics.

Tennis were recently announced on the lineups of Chicago's Pygmalion Fest and San Francisco's Outside Lands.

Vacationer opened the Austin show, but I was still finishing up over at La Zona Rosa with Nick Lowe. More pictures from Tennis' set below...

Continue reading "Tennis made a racket at The Parish (pics)"

photos by @griffinshot - Tim Griffin

Allo Darlin' @ Mohawk - 5/1/2012

Like they did in NYC and on other dates of their tour together UK bands and friends (and friends of Esme) Allo Darlin & The Wave Pictures shared a bill in Austin at the Mohawk on 5/1. Here are some pictures from that show. More of them below...

Continue reading "Allo Darlin & The Wave Pictures @ Mohawk (pics)"