A Saturday Night In Austin

Saturday was busy. A couple of smaller shows were happening with ATH favorites playing at Holy Mountain and The Mohawk‘s inside stage. Matt Pond PAbrought along Matrimony in the former and Superhumanoids played the latter. It was nice of them to ask locals Tiger Waves and Orthy to join in, respectively.

I wore comfortable shoes (fashion faux pas flip-flops actually), grabbed the little camera, brought along the wife, alerted the friends and proceeded to mosey between venues on the Red River corridor. Join me for a little photo journey, won’t you?

Doors at The Mohawk were delayed a bit as Superhumanoids finished up sound check so we went next door to support the local bartenders and to use the conditioned air for breathing. It was 108F just a couple hours earlier and honestly, it could have been over the century mark still, the kind of heat you feel through your shoes. Beverages consumed, we ventured back to The Mohawk to see the familiar faces and catch some more sound checking. Orthy wasn’t up until 11pm.

First change of venue, I headed to Holy Mountain solo to meet up with RayRay and company to catch Tiger Waves. The tour and recent local shows after have done the band good. I get the feeling that backing vocals/harmonies are improving or maybe they had the sound a little better sorted having played Holy Mountain a few times now. Lights sucked. Decided to go black and white as purple/magenta is not flattering on digital sensors. Good start to the night musically.

Back to The Mohawk for Orthy, who are settling into their increased head count. Bummer you won’t have a chance to see them again until the end of July (I would link, but don’t see deets yet). They sounded great, but continued to make it rough on photo taking; the dreaded words – “can we turn the lights down a bit?” Lighting guys and gals here that as “can we turn the lights off?” I kid, I kid, but not really. It got dark, but it sounded great. “Don’t Believe” keeps getting better live, please rerecord this track soon.

And back to Holy Mountain to catch a little of Matrimony. Got to be honest here, not a fan. It seemed a little Lumineersy to me. There is already one Lumineers too many, IMHO. Don’t get me wrong, if you like the current wave of Mumford-neers, you’ll love Matrimony. They can sing, they can play. Wasn’t feeling it.

Superhumanoids interrupted an intense conversion by the merch table as Mr. Orth and I harassed drummer Alec about his other bands. Or maybe I was just making silly noises. “Geri” is a hit and a perfect lead off, but is not the one-hit-wonder. Yes, it should have been big hit and I still love it. But I get the feeling “So Strange” will have the same legs, check that one out now. No really. Here, stream it now while you click on pics.

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/87988420″ params=”color=ff6600&auto_play=false&show_artwork=true” width=” 100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

Ok, back to Holy Mountain to catch some of Matt Pond PA. The fans wanted the hits. They yelled tracks to played and Matt had to laugh; I guess a “Free Bird” reference can still be considered funny. There were songs requested from Y2K. It was also interesting to see that the fans found the cool spots in the venue. Pro tip, go to the bathroom to drop your core temp when at Holy Mountain. No really, coldest place in the building.

I bid adieu and returned to gather the wife and friends at The Mohawk. Had a nice chat about throwing a house party, we have to consider liabilities and venues. Who wants to help? I’ll get you a Topo Chico.

Tip your bar staff.