The second
band in our Festival Bands, Man! series (in which I compare a band playing in a
festival lineup to other, more familiar bands, and give you some details about
their live show), is Equals. An experimental band from Austin, Texas, playing
The Hideout at SXSW this year, Equals is like your friends’ bands, those that
play art houses and tour locally, and sometimes get in a mini-van and play a
few hours away. That’s not to say they’re not extremely talented musicians, but
ambient, jazzy post-rock is a challenging genre to garner public interest, because
it’s more personal reflection than musical expression. You have to be exceptional
in some way; for Equals, it’s in the musical composition.
With the release of
their first (self-titled) LP, engineered by Alan Douches (who’s worked with
Animal Collective and Sufjan Stevens), Equals quickly (though not with
certainty) sweeps up a little jam-band debris into a heavy can of silvery snare
reps, scraps of guitar madness, and electrified, lolling melodies. It’s
spell-casting music that will get festival goers in the mood for something
rougher and weirder as the days tick by at SXSW; Equals, upbeat and impatient, like a séance calling up someone newly buried.
Band: Equals
Festival: South By South West (SXSW)
Venue/Stage: The Hideout
Date & Time: Tuesday, March 12 9:00PM -9:40PM
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