SXSW 2008: New Punctuation Rock

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Express contributor Katherine Silkaitis is blogging from the SXSW Music Festival through Monday.

IT'S 7 p.m. WEDNESDAY, the first official day of the SXSW Music Festival, and I've been running around catching shows all day long — yet I've found just two new bands really worth writing about.

I can't tell if 7 p.m. is late in the day for SXSW or early in the night, or if two is a reason number or a bit pitiful. I mean, there are more than a thousand bands playing here this week, so I know what the percentages say. I'll choose to be an optimist, preferring quality over quantity.

The first group to surprise me is Portugal. The Man — herky-jerky punctuation all theirs; thanks! guys! makes! for! easy! reading! But I actually saw this Portland, Ore., by way of Alaska band play on Tuesday, the night before the festival officially began.

Portugal. The Man write the kind of heavy, emotion-laden instrumental music that's easy to write off as indulgent and jam band-y, but the trio is just so good at it. But they're not technically an instrumental band, they have a singer, John Gourley, and he's great.

It doesn't hurt that Gourley looks like Bret from "Flight of the Conchords," which makes me like Portugal. The Man even more. And his voice reminds of the high-pitched wail of Rush's Geddy Lee or Coheed and Cambria's Claudio Sanchez, but piercing might be a good way to describe it.

The other new standout band so far is Does It Offend You, Yeah? MORE! PUNCTUATION? YEAH!

I was really excited to see the group simply because I liked their name hella lot. But it's so fulfilling to find a band whose music lives up to its cool moniker. The British quartet plays hardcore dance rock, and while its show wasn't as raucous as Internet reports might lead one to believe, the group had tons on fun. And they looked awesome. Even the keyboardist, who wasn't able to dance around as much as the rest of the band was doing his best to not to be inhibited. (Consider a keytar, fella.) Sounding like bits of !!! (natch, being punctuation fans and all) with Daft Punk, Does It Offend You, Yeah? Is going to have its 15 minutes of blog fame very, very soon.

But SXSW isn't always about discovering the NEW! PUNCTUATION! ROCK! Sometimes you have to reset your brain and go see some bands you know you already like. I saw Washington, D.C.-based Olivia and The Housemates play a set with Donny Hue and The Colors, and later I saw Elf Power, and all three groups put on very impressive sets. Elf Power, by the way, is surprisingly good live. That bassist is a madman with his instrument.

I'm trying to plan out Thursday now, but it's so frustrating to see so many bands I want to see scheduled to perform at exactly the same time. But what I will not let myself miss is Del tha Funky Homosapien opening for Spoon, N.E.R.D. and a tribute to Lou Redd.

Lou Redd? Yep, that's what some of the flyers say.

Apparently this Mr. Redd is a big deal, too, as he's managed to get Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, Yo La Tengo, Mark Kozelek and about seven others to fete his songwriting skills. I just hope this Redd chap is as talented as Lou Reed. You know, the keynote speaker. (No respect, I tell ya, no respect.)

And because I have to wake up at 8 a.m. on Thursday to make sure I catch Mr. Redd Reed's keynote address, I have to bid Wednesday adieu, thereby answering my own question, at least for today's events: 7 p.m. is late in the night.

Does It Offend You, Yeah? (top) and Elf Power (bottom) photographs by Katherine Silkaitis; Portugal. The Man photograph (middle) by Makenna Combs