Show Pics: Knifight @ a Benefit, Daughn Gibson @ Red7

I love nights when I can see a bunch of bands, SxSW style, bouncing back and forth between venues to be able to see acts we have talked about here, but not yet seen live and still manage to check out the headliners we dig. Last Thursday was one such night. We had the Attendance Records Benefit at The Mohawk that featured ATH local favorites Knifight and a show at Red7 headlined by Daughn Gibson that included fresh locals Silk Rodeo in an opening slot.

In total, pics of four bands, a few whiskeys, plenty of friends and I get to say I did it “for the kids”. Well, half of it, anyway. Click through for random thoughts and plenty of pics…

Attendance Records had a benefit with a bunch of local bands to boost their program that sets up kids with local artists, taking the poems and short stories from the schools and putting them in the hands of musicians and producers to give them a taste of the record biz. Kind of cool. Of the bands on the bill, we checked out indie party band The Baker Family and Austin dark pop reps Knifight. The other goings-on was Daughn Gibson headlining a show at Red7, locals Silk Rodeo and The Young opened. I wanted to lay ears on Silk Rodeo.

Chronological.

A fiver was gladly separated from my pocket; it was for the kids. The Baker Family was fun, nothing I will actively pursue, but if you are throwing a party, they’d be good to get the party going. Fun. Edit: Band name fixed. Still not actively pursuing.

Check in at Red7, check out Silk Rodeo. Black light/blue light set the tone, they had plenty of sweet synth gear to tinker with. They would often reach across into the others’ space to twiddle something and you could hear the change. It was live performance. I really liked it; the tones they use are in my wheelhouse and vocals were processed but solid. Also chatted with Daughn for a bit about the FFF set that he DID NOT like. Made him feel better about it by showing him my favorite pic of the performance. “Best thing to come out of that set”. In my absence, Nathan informed me that The Young put down another solid set.

Back to help the kids by getting our dark waves with Knifight. Not much light for the camera, whatever, they sounded bad ass. The band is a full band. Driving bass lines and the lower register vocal take you straight into the eyeliner store. The band has good stage presence, a bit shoe-gazy, but with a well-measured intensity.

…and finally back to Red7 for Daughn Gibson. Indeed, way better in the dark than mid-day at FFF. The band now touring with Daughn adds a ton of depth and the material is performed instead of played back. We love the new record. We loved the songs he played from the new record. Solid stage presence, but that is inevitable as he’s kind of a big dude. Chicks dug his Garth Brooks shirt. His delivery was part gangster rap, part Macho Man, part bro telling a serious story – summed up, it comes across as an lecture. …of jams.

More pics at the photo site here and here…