SXSW is a music festival in Austin, Texas that I dream of attending one day... but in the mean time I like to check out which Canadian bands are performing. This year there were only a few bands from the prairie provinces, two of which were Yes We Mystic from Winnipeg and Close Talker from Saskatoon. I made a mental note to check out these bands and then the next day I saw a poster that they were playing a show together in Calgary - Perfect!
I was blown away by Yes We Mystic who opened the show. They were a five piece band (with violin and cello so I was in love) and they all kept switching up their instruments. One of them took turns on the keyboard, guitar, and cello...and another was on keyboards and then suddenly had a mandolin! I also must say that the lead singer's voice was phenomenal. What a talented group of artists! The highlights for me were "Monument" and "No Harm" which they finished their set with. I love how their music has many different layers and the way their songs evolve. Actually I found myself reminded a bit of Radiohead while listening to them. I really love their 5 song "Floods and Fires" EP but unfortunately they didn't play any songs from it. The video below is of their song Odessa Steps which they didn't play but is my favourite song by them.
Close Talker who just released their new album Lens a week ago brought us an incredible show as well. They are a trio but both guitarists also played keyboards so they had a very full sound. They opened with their set with the album opener "All of Us" - the bass was loud and it was very groovy. The lead singer's vocals were super nice and fit the music well. Their new songs all sounded great. I was reminded a bit of The Neighborhood by their slow but groovy songs. My favourite song that they played was "The West Was Won" (from their first album) which got everybody dancing. They came out for a one-song encore (concerts at Commonwealth are way too short) and played Heads which is a great song and had the whole crowd singing "We lost our heads back at home" - it was awesome.
