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SXSW review: The Middle East
Some bands settle on a fairly narrow sound and stick with it, while other dabble in different genres, forging a chameleon-like identity. Queensland, Australia-based band The Middle East falls somewhere in between. While their sound might generally fall into the hopelessly broad category of roots rock, the band is all over the map within that field, pulling from bluegrass, folk, country and blues rock.
At times during their 10 p.m. performance Wednesday at Club de Ville, that flexibility worked in the band’s favor; at other points, not so much. The opener began with noisy distortion and exploded into uptempo, banjo-driven bluegrass, which had the crowd jumping. On “The Darkest Side,” the band put on their folk hat, but they seemed to struggle a bit.
At times it didn’t really seem like the band needed the six members that were contributing on stage, but it is fun to see such a diversity of instruments on stage, including a trumpet, banjo, mandolin, flute and a host of different percussion. Things picked up with a bluesy rock number sung by the band’s female vocalist. The closer, “Blood,” was a striking number which epitomized what works about the group—strong songwriting coupled with a layered, emotional sound.
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