One More Time
Wrapping up SXSW 03: Saturday Showcases
Hot Hot Heat
Red Eyed Fly, Saturday, March 15 Hope you took a good, long look at these kids on this night, because it's the last time you'll see them perform in a club this small until their reunion tour 30 years from now. These four Vancouverites are hot, hot, hot, and are going to be Big Stars, baby, especially now that they've jumped ship from Sub Pop to Warner Bros. Despite the fact that the world awaits this impossibly cute foursome like a luscious buffet, they still had to win the crowd over, a none-too-easy task given that the lines at the club had been obnoxious since 9pm. After much fussing with the monitors, setting the start time back more than 20 minutes, singer Steve Bays said, "I'm starting anyway because I'm excited." And start they did, oozing the kind of energy from the get-go that made the average 30-year-old in the audience feel old as hell. Bays grinned and strutted, channeling Mick Jagger through those ultratight jeans and poofy hair. Much of the set list was culled from the band's debut, Make Up the Breakdown. They powered excitedly through songs like "Get in or Get Out" and "No, Not Now," but when they hit "Naked in the City Again," the energy sagged a bit. They picked themselves back up after the bridge, and kicked out the jams, Bays draping himself over his keyboards when he wasn't slinking up to the front of the stage to flirt with the audience. All told, despite the technical difficulties, Hot Hot Heat turned in one of the best performances of this year's festival.
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