Photos: Night Drive @ Empire (2/9)

…with Moving Panoramas and Emme.

I don’t hide my love for Night Drive. They are friends and good people. They are fans of photographers here in Austin and the photographers are fans of theirs. +1 and I were long overdue for a date night/dance party.

Agenda: Empire for Emme, Moving Panoramas and Night Drive. Click through for a few thoughts from the evening along with a gallery ripe of fam.

The Backspace is still on lock for pizza. They have a jowl bacon, fig and fontina special right now, highly recommended. We also went by Mohawk for a beverage. Hi, Byron. Kidding.

We rolled to Empire just at the rain started coming down a little harder. Drizzle, cool. Rain, meh. Luckily, we were in the inside half of the venue. When we walked in, Emme was kicking off their set. Moving Panoramas and Night Drive are kind if a known in these parts, but Emme was a first-timer for me, overdue. I have been searching for something a bit on the down-tempo synth world, either to start a night or to finish one. I loved them. Between the loops and glitches from Walter Nichols and the sultry vocal by Sowmya Somanath, I found a gap in my scene radar.

Moving Panoramas is an evolving thing, which is good. The sound is tightening up. There are new faces involved and Leslie’s hair is bleached and that is sticking around, say reports from the scene.

Night Drive‘s fan base is growing and it isn’t just me and the photographers singing along. With friend of ATH Records, Nicholas Dudek on drums (you may know him from his work in Young Girls), the band powered through a strong set with much of the crowd singing along. Add in a cover, “Psycho Killer”, and I doubt any human there left unhappy. I spoke with a nice person up front about how a stranger in the crowd recommended this show when he caught Sleigh Bells at Mohawk so she decided to give Night Drive a shot. Not a big deal normally, but when home is a five hour drive away, taking the advice of a stranger has a larger leap of faith. Let that be a lesson, make the recommendations and be proud of the jams in this town.