Friday SXSW Showcases
By Greg Beets, Fri., March 18, 2016
Panache Booking
7pm, Hotel Vegas, Hotel Vegas PatioOnetime teen DIY promoter/zine publisher Michelle Cable at the helm, Brooklyn-based Panache Booking continues to mine the underground rock circuit's bleeding edge. The inside edition of this two-stage blowout opens with affable Hamilton, Ontario, noise-pop trio Young Rival and the airy Amsterdam indie-folk strains of Eerie Wanda. Montreal quartet Sheer Agony deals eccentric psych-pop on debut LP Masterpiece, while Copenhagen singer/producer Dinner croons over Eighties-baiting techno. Minneapolis fuzz-and-scuzz trio the Blind Shake squeegees truckloads of third eyeballs before reformed Sunset Strip staples the Sloths incant the spirit of '65. On the patio, Australian sister act Stonefield resurrects early-Seventies classic rock. Berlin's Exploded View features journo-cum-avant-garde chanteuse Anika in a new role. Michael Rault cranks out flange-happy pop strangeness from his Montreal home base, while Seattle quartet La Luz imbues faraway psych-pop with warm vocal harmonies. Orville Bateman Neeley III leads Austin's OBN IIIs through a tight wind of Motor City proto-punk before French-based, American expat sisters CocoRosie weave folk, cabaret, and hip-hop influences into arresting pocket operas. Though bandleader John Dwyer decamped to L.A., closers Thee Oh Sees remain standard-bearers of San Francisco's garage-psych renaissance in the wake of last year's Mutilator Defeated at Last.