Along with quite a few Austinites and the staff of Pitchfork, I really dug last year’s Album from Girls. I listened to it on repeat, especially Lust for Life and Hellhole Retrace, and really, really wanted to see them live. Finding out they were playing the Parish was like a sparkly little gift of great lighting and stellar sound, and of course it sold out.

Live, I really did dig Girls; the two new members of the band did a great job fleshing out the sound of what had originally a two-man collaboration. The only downer was the crowd; there were a few really drunk people acting like fools up front. (hint: please stop screaming “If you were gay, I’d fuck you” at Christopher Owens in my ear… I think he heard it the first time, and I don’t really care.)

There were also a few sidestage shenanigans going on with the opening bands during Girls’ set that were really distracting, but I’m not gonna get into that.

The first band, the Smith Westerns, didn’t seem to have much to them. It could’ve been that I was still trying to wade up front during their set, or that I was drunk as a skunk, but other people seemed to like them so I’m reserving judgement for now.

Magic Kids were hit-and-miss for me; they were really trying to justify themselves to that sold-out crowd, you could tell, but they didn’t quite have it together yet. Every once in a while they’d get it together for a few minutes and you’d think they might be on to something good, but they couldn’t sustain it. Some of it could’ve been nerves, I suppose.

All together, a fun show, and it was over early enough for me to hustle over to the Mohawk for Missions, who are my new favorite local band… I might post pics of that show later.

(Lastly, a huge thank you to Austin Town Hall for getting me in the door! Read their review of the show with more of my photos here.)