Heralding the start of an animated week of world-class musical festivities, Mohawk began its South by Southwest run last night with an enticing line-up of exciting bands that included a special guest appearance by Local Natives. If you made it past the lines in time for the opening act, you caught the intriguing performance by the post-rock group Indians. A trio of keyboardists and deft knob-turners, they pounded on an epic drum machine and sang in hearty, drawn-out voices while immersing the outdoor venue in their sparse atmospheric electronica. With their loose black outfits and cool, absorbed stances they neatly mirrored the melancholic undertones of their sound while still bringing a sense of life and energy upon the stage.
Los Angeles quartet IO Echo gave what had to be the most fascinating performance of the night. Climbing aboard the stage with long locks and recalcitrant looks they played a sort of psych-laden rock uniquely infused with industrial textures and shoegaze melodies. Their frontwoman was spectacularly bewitching, hypnotically singing and dramatically moving amongst the smoke and strobes like a prophetic oracle woman. I couldn’t take my eyes off her, or tear my mind away from the enthralling clutch of their sound.
The focus of the evening was heavy punk, and to the joy of a zealous mosh-pit crowd three successive bands came out on stage and each seemed to compete to rock harder than the last. First came the crazy antics of the strangely-humored Marnie Stern, whose technical guitar-tapping prowess shown amongst the fast-fingered drive of hard rock and riotous percussion. Next was the intense shoegaze rock and distortion-drowned psychedelia of DIIV, whose members were determined to jump up and down all over the stage while they played. But Cloud Nothings took the prize, transforming their abrasive punk sound into a near-mode of thrashing metal, and inciting a small rave with their fast crush of guitar whines, epileptic drumming, and throaty screams.
Of course the anticipation of the evening was for the prominent indie-group Local Natives. For as much time as they spent up on the stage sound-checking their sound did not come together as well as it should have, and they seemed a wearier and less engaged in their performance than the preceding bands, but it was still remarkably enjoyable to hear their unique brand of expansive afrobeat sound, and it proved a fun finale for a fun night. Happily I walked out of there knowing an exhilarating week of music had just begun.
