SXSW Live Shots

The Mendoza Line

Red Room, Thursday 14 First off, sweet porn star moustache on the bass player. Second, this really can't be déjà vu. After all of the problems that plagued the Red Room the previous night, it had to be a joke that all of the lead vocals for the Athens-born, Brooklyn-based band's first song were completely inaudible. Fortunately, the problem was fixed by the second number, "Love the Way You Look." Or maybe not so fortunately, because the Mendoza Line's male-female harmonies sounded, for lack of a better word, off for most of the set. They weren't awful, awkward, or even unpleasant, just slightly not right. Generally though, the set seemed uneven. The rocking out was totally called for in certain instances, but the cacophony also happened to kill the cool creepiness of "Something Dark." On the other hand, being raucous and loose gave "Damn Good Disguise" a Last Waltz kind of feeling (note gratuitous Robbie Robertson reference). It's probably better that they didn't play "The Big Letdown" for being too near apropos. And maybe they would have been better off playing out the faux intro to the Mats' "Kiss Me on the Bus" that they toyed with a couple of songs into the set. Maybe not, as the song might have come out worse for the wear. Again, the slightly off-kilter harmonies weren't patently bad, just dissonant enough to throw the ear off. And the volume that killed much of the grace and subtlety found in the band's music was enough to prompt the notion that maybe it's just a good band on a below-average night. Just below .200, to be exact.