Show Pics: Craft Spells @ Red7 (3/3)

Tuesday night had a couple of shows and this time around, we made the tough choice to go with the touring acts hitting Red7 over a sweet local show at Cheer Up. We know it is overwhelming right now, trying to think about waht bands to see with SxSW just around the corner.

Craft Spells brought along an ATH favorite The Bilinda Butchers; call it a Captured Tracks mini-showcase. Locals Whiite Walls opened the night. I ended up shooting in black and white just for fun.

Hope you enjoy. Click through for more thoughts and plenty of pics…

Whiite Walls started the evening, which began at an early 9pm for Red7. Sidenote, headliner on at 10:45? I wasn’t sure I was at Red7. Awesome. Anyway, WW brought the long format indie funk that everyone can dig. They played some fun new jammy that perked ears and increased the dance quotient. My only advice is to pull the vocal back in the mix a bit to let the songs breathe a bit instead of live underneath. Sound guy or band, not sure, just an observation.

The Bilinda Butchers are a different band live. Less polish, more rock, it is a bigger wall of sound. They had to work through some technical issues, a failed pickup is what think I heard through earplugs, that could have impacted the direction of the band’s live set. Not sure, meant to ask before heading out for the night, but a chance didn’t materialize. The underlying structures are present and the songs work. It just doesn’t have the candy coating of recorded material. …and that’s fine by me.

Craft Spells headed to the stage, one Justin Paul Vallesteros sporting a hoodie, though it was quite warm indoors by now. He was happy to finally play Austin NOT during SxSW. I guess he is like a fighter, happy to be sweating? Hey, how else can he dramatically become shadowy and lurking if not by hoodie? I digress, the band in its current form sounded great and old and new songs were blended seamlessly, though the crowd was more enamored by “classics”. I was good either way, super good crowd of people, friendly. I walked out with guitar riffs on repeat.