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Home > Austin Music Source > Archives > 2007 > September > 16 > Entry
ACL after-show: Hot Freaks!
Where have all the black-framed glasses gone? The young and shaggy were outnumbered by out-of-town ACLers sporting VIP wristbands at the blogger-curated Hot Freaks! showcase on Friday night — though those two French guys from La Blogotheque screaming drunken tributes to Grizzly Bear helped keep things down to earth.
Despite the Mohawk’s attempts at sophistication (two upper levels roped off for VIPs only), these were good old-fashioned rock shows, complete with a short-lived moshpit and the familiar scent of cigarettes and beer penetrating everything and everyone.
Britishers Art Brut and Brooklyn’s Grizzly Bear took the stage at sister-clubs the Mohawk and Club DeVille, along with locals Brazos and Crazy Sexy Rainbow (White Denim in disguise). Even though they were all part of one big happy showcase, the two stages made for pretty distinct scenes (Grizzly Bear opened the set with a recorder solo; Art Brut’s lead singer played jump-rope with mike cables), and pretty distinct sounds.
Brazos opened up DeVille slow and dreamy (think Rufus Wainwright with pneumonia and drums), followed by Grizzly Bear, who took slow and dreamy to new heights. Their lengthy elegies echoed with layers of synth, clarinet and autoharp; even the up-tempo numbers sounded like lullabies.
A decidedly more energetic Mohawk kicked off with Crazy Sexy Rainbow (who were less than stellar, but hey, they jumped around a lot), ending with Art Brut, who whipped the Mohawk into a relative stir with tongue-in-cheek tributes to male impotency (“I know I can, I know I can/I’m fine when I’m with my own hands”) and funny, straightforward narratives (“I’m considering a move to L.A./He’s considering a move to L.A.”). These against infectious punk(ish) instrumentals, a good bit of drums, plus some small scale crowd-surfing? Good stuff.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: ACL Festival
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By Soni
September 24, 2007 3:07 PM | Link to this
I don’t know anything about all these bands, but this reviewer sure brought them alive for me, she SURE WRITES WELL!