keyes sxsw day 2
(same picture, cuz I suck at pictures. also, i have no idea why comments seem disallowed on this post.)
If day two of my SXSW had a theme, that theme would be ‘Singular Voices.’ Although I didn’t get to see quite as many bands as I wanted to (every SXSW has one day like that, and apparently yesterday was mine), what I did see was stunning, sometimes to the point of speechlessness.
That all started with our eMusic lunch and our two amazing Selects bands, Man/Miracle and Hurray for the Riff Raff. I knew they would be good, but I didn’t quite realize how good. Man/Miracle exploded on stage, nailing perfectly the dazzling, interlocking guitar patterns that fill the songs on their first record, pulling those start/stop hairpin turns and generally leaving everyone in the room speechless. Ditto for the amazing Alynda Lee, whose hushed set served to draw out the aching melodies at the center of her songs. She drew mostly from Young Blood Blues, but did reach back to It Don’t Mean I Don’t Love You for a delicate reading of “Daniella,” giving new life to an old favorite. I couldn’t have been prouder of being even remotely associated with these two towering talents.
That great start was followed by a lot of wandering until I ended up at Nneka‘s evening set at the Parish. Though the set was brief, it showcased Nneka’s vision in full: her voice is even more powerful live, full of determination and heartbreak. She leapfrogged up the octave and delivered notes in short, staccato bursts, more like mission statements that pop songs. There was a ferocity to her delivery that made her songs feel urgent, and her set was a compact ball of fire, blazing and powerful.
Olof Arnalds, about whom I’ve already said tons, was just as evocative and compelling at half the volume. She commands the stage, a riveting performer with a rare gift, her gorgeous voice fluttering upwards repeatedly. In the middle of her set she performed and Arthur Russell cover (I wish I’d written down the name) that had me in tears. She is a God: truly blessed with a kind of supernatural talent, and seeing a room full of people, cross-legged on the floor, watching her, jaws open, was a truly beautiful thing.
And since Sean has already talked a bit about Titus Andronicus, all I can really do is echo: Oh My God. We both saw them a month or so ago play a very rocky set at the Bowery Ballroom, but last night they were a band transformed. Opening with the thundering “A More Perfect Union” from Best Album of the Year contender The Monitor, they turned out a marauding set comprised mostly of new material, including a blistering version of 14-minute album closer “The Battle of Hampton Roads, moving through each of the songs twisting segments with vital, vibrant force. This was a band determined, and by the time they hit the last run-through of album refrain “The enemy is everywhere!” I was hollering at the top of my lungs. This is a band to watch, and a band to see live as soon as you possibly can.
