beach house

Our SXSW week continued on Tuesday March 17th with an anti-St. Patty's Day party featuring dreamy synth-pop group Beach House and native Houstonian (via Baltimore) Jana Hunter at the Orange Show. We made it to the venue right in the middle of Hunter's opening set. While her look could be termed serial killer chic, her music reminded me most of early Velvet Underground and Nico only with a tad more heroin in their system. It was a nice warm-up for the forthcoming Beach House set, but I didn't catch enough of her performance to warrant much of a review.

Beach House soon took the stage, as time was running short on Houston's ten o'clock noise curfew. They didn't waste any time filling the unique venue with their layered instrumentation and vocal work. Though original members Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally write and record as a duo, they brought an additional player to fill in the voids in drums and percussion. Their sound was all original, but at times reminded me of early My Morning Jacket and Cat Power, especially Legrand's vocal work on songs like "Apple Orchard," "Gila" and "Beach House." We were only there for a little over an hour, but it was still a great experience, heightened by the amazing surroundings of the odd little venue. If you've never been to the Orange Show to catch a concert or just explore, my advice would be to check it out as soon as possible.

View a bunch of photos and a video from the show after the jump

Beach House