Long a session player and touring support musician for Of Montreal and Regina Spektor, Kishi Bashi is making a solid run at a sustainable solo career as evidenced by his performance early Saturday evening at ACL. A drenched but passionate crowd gathered at the intimate BMI stage, cheering wildly when Bashi, clad in a waistcoat and bow tie, emerged and plugged in his violin, starting off the set with “Turn Up the Radio,” a song from his early-aughts Brooklyn band Jupiter One. Bashi was soon joined by banjo player Mike Savino (who performs as Tall Tall Trees) for “Pathos, Pathos,” the opening track to Kishi Bashi’s recent full-length, 151a. Together the men looped and layered the vocal and instrumental strains of each song; the effect was a DIY electronic rhapsody, like Jónsi jamming with Tune-Yards. The set list was heavily populated by songs from 151a, with the set’s highest point being the LP’s “Bright Whites,” Bashi and Savino facing off in a prolonged, effect-free violin and banjo jam that meandered into post-modern hoedown territory when Bashi laid down a loop of beatboxing to accompany them.
This article appears in October 19 • 2012.