SXSW Aftermath: Local Natives, The Only Indie Band That Matters This Year

It’s kind of hard not to notice that SXSW has become, for the most
part, a festival celebrating (and sometimes setting the trend for) the
past and future six or so months of Pitchfork-friendly indie music; and
for the past at least five years there has been that one band
that sort of set the context for almost the entire five days.

In the
past five years we’ve seen bands like Tapes N’ Tapes, Beirut, Menomena,
Noah and the Whale and Mae Shi become household indie names (quick,
someone think of a punchline to the joke “What kind of house does an
indie hold”?), and this year it’s Local
Natives. Aftermath would love to talk about the bands we saw at Emo’s
leading up to the stalwart of the night, like Rogue Wave – the only band
we can think of who pre-date the genre we now lazily call chill-wave
with a brand of music that sounds funnily similar to the bands who
critics now swear invented the genre, like Neon Indian and Toro y Moi.

Mostly, though, Rogue Wave sounds like Seth Cohen driving by the ocean
probably to meet some girl he knows he won’t score with. Or we could
talk about Adam Green, who followed Local Natives with a singular
infatuation with some sort of vehement anti-hipster vibe shown to
audiences with an irony only they can understand, one in which he plays
the role of over-exaggerated white guy making fun of himself in a
self-referential, “No really, I actually do read these 700 page-books in
my backpack” kind of way, but to talk about Adam Green
would take away from really the only band that matters this SXSW: Local
Natives.

The
Fire Marshal was inside, the audience couldn’t move, couldn’t turn
around, but could still bob the fuck out of their heads to drums that only
Yeasayer can rival these days, singing songs from their debut record
released only a month ago in the states, Gorilla Manor.
The mood at Emo’s was one of joyful anticipation, even as the set was
coming to a close, almost like we assumed these guys would go on all
night. We were dying for them to, really.

Not an eye shifted from the
stage the entire hour set, Local Natives jumping seamlessly through
songs like, “Airplanes,” “Shape Shifter,” Talking Heads cover “Warning Sign” and by far the star of the night, “Sun Hands” – seven
minutes of tribal-like chants set to banging drums on top of bangier
drums all encompassed in a vacuum of smiles inside a venue with a blocks-long line
outside waiting to get inside for just the small chance to
see a band well on its way to becoming the only indie band that
really matters anymore.

Oh, and Local Natives are coming to Mango’s in
April. Mango’s. You’ll be there, we know you will.