Last week I found myself in a new land:  a place where “jorts” and bushy mustaches abound, breakfast tacos are eaten three times a day, and live music is heard even in airport cafes. 

This place is beautiful Austin, Texas: the well-known epicenter of music and counterculture in the Southern US. I was in town for work-related reasons (SXSW Eco), but visiting this southwestern soundscape had been on my bucket list for years.  And I was not going to let work thwart my desire to boogie down in a legendary music town.

As luck would have it, my trip coincided with  Austin City Limits, and thus stellar mid-week shows were in abundance. On Monday night I swooned for the crooning indie folk voice of lead singer Ben Schneider, of Lord Huron. On Thursday night I was beat-blasted by the duo of Sylvan Esso. Both of these bands I had seen before, but earlier in their careers and in less intimate venues. It was an amazing treat to see them perform polished sets to wrap up respective summer tours fora crowd of less than 200 people.

In Austin I was dazzled and delighted by the music and the people who joined me in those audiences. From street corners to front row stages this city wears it’s heart on it’s sleeve when it comes to live music adoration. It creates a creative camaraderie for the residents that electrifies your interactions with strangers. Because everyone is some degree of “music nerd.” I left town feeling exhausted but contented, grateful to have made my first pilgrimage to this indie rock music promise land.

Lord Huron, Emo’s, October 5th, 2015

The night was hot and sticky and in addition to sweat, I was steeped in San Francisco paranoia: my jacket lay limp on my purse strap. My first night, and already I was dragging myself to an ACL Late Night show, because jet lag…or something.

I  was grateful to be greeted by two friendly faces when I exited the cab outside Emo’s Club, a large warehouse venue far from from the raucous downtown scene of Austin’s main drag of nightlife. My two friends from San Francisco had spontaneously decided to join me on this impromptu show booking and so we walked to the bar while discussing foreign concepts like: “90 degree evenings” and “$3 beers.”

We sipped local IPAs and PBR tallboys and observed local hipster fashion (legit mustache games) and watched the venue fill in preparation for the main act, Lord Huron, to begin. The  popular indie folk band went onstage soon after in a glow of blue fog and mysterious ambiance to match. Within minutes band founder and lead singer Ben Schneider had us swooning for him with his raspy yet melodic vocals. Lord Huron started the set with the upbeat single “Fool for Love” off their newest album, “Strange Tails” which was released this Spring to much fanfare.  “Fool for Love” illustrates the album’s apocalyptic theme by detailing a tragic love lost, as narrated by Buck Vernon, a character Schneider once described as “..a washed-up rockabilly country singer.”

The new album has dark undertones, but that level of depth added to the charm of the band’s onstage presence. Schneider himself seemed at home playing the role of “tormented artist,” swaying along with his own particular style of guitar-infused therapy. Throughout soothing folk ballads and hand-clap pop songs, the band created a steady tempo and flow to the set.

As a native midwestern, Schneider formed Lord Huron as a solo project in 2010 and began to add bandmates as the group toured. As the instrumental complexity increased his songs began to resonate more with indie audiences. By the show at Emo’s it was evident the band had been playing together all summer and hit a solid stride of supportive musicality. Even their physical movements were synced: during their encore song “End of Time” when all four bandmands swooshed their surfer locks in unison,a definite homage to their chillwave music style and their unmistakable Los Angeles home. It was a great set to ease into Austin with, a familiar yet totally unique and expansive cinematic sound.

Sylvan Esso, Emo’s, October 8th, 2015

Lead singer Amelia Meath strode on to the
dark stage clad in an army green jumpsuit, long hair up in a side pony tail,perfectly poised for the hair-whipping set that Sylvan Esso delivered over the next two hours. As the stage lights came producer Nick Sanborn led off with a beat-wrenching melody that was matched by a howl from Meath. As the lights on stage rose up the audience gladly returned her call with a scream fitting for the youthful exuberance of the crowd.  We were hungry and Sylvan Esso was ready to satiate us with a buffet of deep bass, vivacious vocals, and sassy struts across stage.

The set was a highly energetic, sweaty mess of flashing lights and neighbors bouncing against one another, smiles all around. The crowd sang along to Sylvan Esso’s hits like “Dress” and “Coffee” at full pitch. Within just a few songs, it became evident that the emotional appeal of this show was not just coming from the audience but rather a their relationship between performer and audience. The band paused in-between sets to recount their last show in Austin, the beginning of what would prove to be a prodigious Spring/Summer tour. They noted that “selling out Emo’s as our final stop on the tour feels perfect… like coming full circle.”, My trembling concert buddy (a 6’5’’ black man from “HOT”-lanta) shouted “I LOVE YOU!” so passionately, I checked the bill to make sure Rihanna hadn’t taken the stage.We were in deep, and the party had just begun…

But I was exhausted. After a week of conferences, watering holes, and BBQ, I was spent. But I couldn’t will myself to leave until they played my favorite Sylvan Esso song, “H.S.K.T” (aka “Head, Shoulders, Knees, & Toes”). A little number that crystallized as my favorite song when I saw them perform earlier this Spring at The Fillmore in San Francisco. The genius of this song is that it is a catchy dance beat that belies a personal message – as the lead singer Amelia Meath recounts her universal struggle to accept her appearance; in the face of a female-shaming media that sets archaic societal norms for feminine beauty and leaves everyone feeling unattractive in the process. She sings “I’ve got a television and it’s filling me with hope…I’ve got a phone , and when it beeps I remember… I’m not alone”. The rhythm denotes the intoxicating lure of social media and the havoc it wreaks on self-esteem. Beautiful and horrifying all at once.

Sylvan Esso seemed to have graduated to a new phase of band since I last saw them four months earlier. They were filled with confidence and volume and guts… Coming into their own. They ended the set with a few promising new songs including “Jaimie’s Song” (available on Spotify) and “Say It to the Radio,” a hip swaying beat that will surely to be a hit single on their next album due in 2016.

All and all it was a great musical week in Austin. If I hadn’t left so exhausted, I would have been doing it wrong… and as such I can’t wait until my  next musical adventure in the Lone Star state.