Bright Light Social Happy Hour - Side Bar, SXSW, Austin TX - March 18, 2015

[Austin] This was just the beginning of my flagrant violation of all of my own SXSW rules – and maybe the first sign that this will be my last SXSW. Not only is this band from Austin but I’d seen them before. I loved them so hard at a previous SXSW and kept trying to see them but they were always on tour in far-off places – they were kind of controversial among my friends who had seen them (like too polished – too good – too pretty and clean clean). They are still exactly all that and I loved them exactly as much as I had before. The space was a lot tighter and less rock star than where I’d seen them before – and they’re pretty scruffy up close (or nowadays). They have the biggest cleanest Pine-Sol sound I have possibly ever heard live – the definition of anthem Southern prog disco rock. The audience and the band became one in a fury of hand-clapping and sweat.