We then saw the Shout Out Louds, who put on an excellent show. This is the second time I've seen them, and the second time they've wowed me. Even the stuff I don't like that much from their new album sounds great live. I just wished the would have played 100 Degrees. Other than that, I have no complaints.
Next, The Stills were up (this was quite an international show: three bands from Canada, one from Sweden, and one from exotic, far-off Minnesota). I really like their first release, Logic Will Break Your Heart, but I'm not as big a fan of last year's Without Feathers. That being the case, I enjoyed all the songs they played from the first album, and only about half from the second. They did play a couple of new songs from an upcoming release, all of which sounded good. All in all, they put on a good live show, but Lola: Stars and Stripes Forever blows away any other song in their catalog.
Tokyo Police Club played next, and they were by far the best band of the day. They have great energy onstage, and every song they played sounded fantastic. They were able to get the hot, boozed-up crowd into the show.
Lastly, Tapes 'n Tapes played. Maybe we were just done with being at Emo's, but I didn't think this show was anything special. The songs sounded fine, but lacked energy. The crowd was completely still during the band's set. The free drinks supplied by The Onion A.V. Club were coming to an end. Just a bad scene, man.
After the day party, we took a brief pit stop for food, then hit the streets again. The first show we really wanted to go to was the MGMT gig at The Rio. I'd never been to this place, and I was extremely underwhelmed by it as a venue. It's actually the orgy-tainted pad from Austin's dalliance with The Real World, but it's been converted into a cheesy Tex Mex joint with a strange, half-assed cycling theme. It's not really set up to handle a huge crowd by the "stage," and the acoustics weren't all that good. But MGMT was one of the sets everyone in the group had to see this year, so we hung out and sat through a couple of spare bands: Florence and the Machine (an indie cover band from England with a really great lead singer, but ultimately sill a cover band) and Wild Light (they had a couple of good songs and a lot of bad ones, in a set that seemed to go on forever).
Finally, MGMT came on, and they put on one of the best shows of the fest. They sound fantastic live, even on the slower numbers. The fast, dancy stuff was awesome. Their strange, psychedelic dance-groove-rock translates perfectly to a live show. See them as soon as you can (preferably not at The Rio).
The last band we caught on Thursday was DeVotchka. I like gypsy music and I love pageantry, so I always enjoy a DeVotchka live show. They didn't disappoint, bringing on a string quartet from Austin to give them an even fuller sound. The lead singer's theatrics are excellent, and he can croon the shit out of some songs. Jason left a little early, because he hates gypsies. Fun Historical Fact: Hitler also hated gypsies. I know, because my girlfriend is Jewish. Anyway, the show was a lot of fun, despite the fact that it took them 35 minutes to set up, so we were gypped (PUN!!) on the amount of songs we heard.
Dear Hipsters,
I love mustaches as much, if not way more, than the next guy. I am, after all the world' biggest fan of Magnum, PI. But is a mustachio really still ironic if you care for it so dearly and spend all the time that you obviously do grooming your handlebars? I say no.
