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SXSW review: The Smith Westerns
This year, as the Smith Westerns, a super-young Chicago based garage rock outfit, prepared for SXSW, they found themselves on a lot of different “bands to look out for” lists. Like many bands that have a big March in Austin, they were here last year, too, with a much lower profile. That doesn’t mean they weren’t any good. On the last, freakin’ freezing night of SXSW 2010, as what remained of the crowd at the Pitchfork party at the Scoot Inn were either inside or huddled around the fire in the corner, drinking to stay warm, the Smith Westerns played to a handful of people, and they were great. This year, the Scoot Inn was Stubb’s, the weather was nice, people were drinking because that’s what they do at Stubb’s, and the Smith Westerns were still pretty great.
While frontman Cullen Omori’s youthful swagger was the center of attention (he probably hates being likened to Wiley Wiggins from “Dazed and Confused” but his haircut makes it hard not to), the Smith Westerns are a group effort. While Omori puts on different faces for the audience—pop star, punk—the rest of the band plays with the focus of a group of aces who have spent years getting bottles thrown at them at honky tonks. It’s even more impressive considering only a couple of them are old enough to drink legally. They couldn’t quite keep their energy up for the entire set, but when they did, particularly on songs like “End of the Night,” when their flying 70’s guitar licks were in full effect, it was hard not to like them.
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