Marcus Foster singing “I Was Broken” live at Creekside at Hilton Garden Inn in Austin, TX on March 15, 2012. Chills.
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Marcus Foster's set at Creekside at Hilton Garden Inn, SXSW 2012!
If you missed your chance to see Marcus on his recent US tour, here’s a front row seat for you! From March 15, 2012. Part of an amazing showcase sponsored by The Bedford, UK.
- Shadows of the City
- I Don’t Mind
- You Send Me
- Faint Stir of Madness
- I Don’t Need To Lose You To Know
- I Was Broken
- Old Birch Tree
- Solid Ground
Marcus Foster singing “Shadows of the City” at SXSW! I took pristine up-close video of the entire set. This is #1 of 5.
I’ll be linking my tumblr/twitter followers the rest of the set over the coming weeks as your exclusive treat and a THANK YOU for following me! (Right now I am keeping this set of vids as unlisted.) I have a lot of other great concert vids from SXSW and other locales over at my YouTube. :-)
(Source: youtube.com)
The last band we saw at SXSW was GIVERS at the Chevrolet Sound Garage. I had heard one of their songs, “Up Up Up,” before and was favorably impressed. I think this video shows that they have a fun and energetic show, but again, this venue just amplified any noise and fuzz about 50 fold. I would have loved to have caught them at an outdoor day party.
Guards were the next-to-last band that we saw at the Chevrolet Sound Garage Saturday night. The main guy is the brother of the gal in Cults, evidently… although that bit of info doesn’t mean much to me. He was complaining about the annoying high-pitched feedback noise until he realized it was a smoke detector set off by their own smoke machine, lol.
Quiet Company, a hometown Austin band, started off our Chevrolet Sound Garage experience. I enjoyed their set probably the most of the three bands we saw there. They broke a record for most awards won at the Austin Music Awards this year with ten! I really should check out some of their music, because I didn’t preview any of it before coming to Austin.
I really don’t remember this venue being around last year. I initially thought it was a cool setup, with an upstairs viewing deck offering excellent views of the stage and even some seating. However, the sound quality inside the room was awful. Everything just reverbed around the metal and concrete interior. I won’t be going back there on any future visits.
Django Django brought a surf-movie mixed with African rhythms and Britpop sound to Latitude 30 Saturday night at SXSW. Unique and somehow entrancing.
From here, we moved on to the Chevrolet Sound Garage… and I think these guys did too. I’m pretty sure I saw them in the crowd over there…
Watching Clock Opera was a blast of good vibes. Bestie and I had seen them close out Latitude 30 last year on Saturday night, and at one point they played a song dedicated to those of us who had partied with them then. This is the kind of awesome, earnest dance music that you can only get at SXSW…and then it flies away to the U.K., never to return until next year… *sniff*
Dawn Landes was on tap for our first show of the last evening of SXSW. She opened the evening lineup at Lustre Pearl. I have to admit the set was not what I hoped it would be. Her new songs didn’t seem to live up to the two songs I knew from magazine samplers (Romeo and Young Girl), and the stage lighting at this venue was abysmal. However… she signed a CD for me and gave out some free bandanas :)
Bestie took this awesome vid of Ed Sheeran at SXSW! At Creekside at Hilton Garden Inn well after 2am, he finished his set with an acoustic version of “Make You Feel My Love” while standing on a table!
Of Montreal wrapped up the Saturday afternoon at Clive Bar. As my stomach rumbled and I dreamed of the Texas barbeque I would soon be scarfing, I found myself watching a sort of modern-day Village People…bouncy, funky music with a couple of good looking dudes hanging about in the back with nothing better to do than shake a tambourine or jiggle a shaker in a dramatically aerobic fashion. I dare you to watch without lol’ing…
Polarsets, a British electronica group, were next on the S.O.TERIK stage at Clive Bar on the Saturday of SXSW 2012. The lead singer has quite a high voice! They are fun and danceable, although I think Two Door Cinema Club has them beat in this genre.
Saturday afternoon at SXSW, Bestie and I saw Polica, a soul/electronica outfit fronted by Channy Leaneagh. They were put together by Channy and Ryan Olson of indie supergroup GAYNGS, which involved Justin Vernon of Bon Iver as well… who has since gone around saying that Polica is his favorite band. Ok…
Channy has a lovely Sade-like smooth and soulful voice, and sings with various pedal effects over two drummers and a bassist. I think I would like Polica’s music on my stereo possibly better than I liked it live. The sound systems at these outdoor day parties are sooo loud that it’s hard for me to discern individual lyrics.
Memorably, a fan threw his phone number on the stage during their set, presumably so Channy could call him up. She swept it aside with her foot. Ha!
Gardens and Villa kicked off our experience at the S.O.TERIK party at Clive Bar. As far as dance music goes, this was some of the better stuff. I mean, he has an arsenal of wooden flutes on his back… and the falsetto is pretty intriguing. They’re touring with Fanfarlo and it seems like a good fit.
Plants and Animals are an indie rock band from Montreal who played on the Radio Day Stage Saturday afternoon. They were a little too late-’70s-early-‘80’s rock for me (meh).
