Austinist Preview: Golden Bear and Pals at Mohawk
Mohawk, how we love thee. Let us count the ways ... With so many great shows and events, we don't know how you keep up. Yet on any given evening you offer us a great band, a film screening, secret and not-so-secret shows, a cheap drink, or simply a place to hang our hats before we trudge into the chaotic maw of the Red River District. Tearing up here, so we're gonna quit with the mushy stuff while we're ahead.
Tomorrow evening is no different, with Mohawk once again offering us a delicious Neapolitan ice cream scoop of local - and semi-local - bands. The Corto Maltese is first on deck with their uber-catchy indie-pop and relentless hooks. You'll be lucky if you leave without one of their new demo's songs playing in your brain's stereo on repeat. Don't be fooled as you return to the stage after their performance. That's not Wayne Coyne's slightly younger yet equally prematurely silver-streaked brother. It's the guitar player for Buttercup, peddlers of tightly wound R'n'R, some of which sounds like it could cuddle up between tracks on the best Teenage Fanclub albums (Thirteen and Bandwagonesque, if you didn't already know). Afterwards, the baton is to be handed off to The Laughing, a band almost completely subsumed by their radioactive forcefield of irony, a disorienting barrage of tight jeans and baritone saxophone solos. Golden Bear top things off with their good-natured and sprawling pop anthems. They're the type of indie-band you wouldn't hesitate to take home to meet the folks, being both "aw shucks" earnest and talented, unafraid to bring down the house yet sticking around to clean up afterwards. Highly recommended.
[The Corto Maltese Myspace]
[Buttercup Myspace]
[The Laughing Myspace]
[Golden Bear Myspace]
Golden Bear and Friends
Saturday, July 14th
The Mohawk [map]
Doors @ 9pm
Photo by Matt Wright
