Local heroes Local Natives performed to a sold out crowd Saturday night (the second of two back to back sold out nights), September 18th at the Fonda following closely on the heels of a breathtaking and well received performance at FYF Fest earlier in the month. Ever since the band name change (from Cavil at Rest to Local natives) and move from Orange County to Los Angeles, they’re ascent seems unstoppable. With their recent shows at the Fonda Local Natives have departed on their first national headlining tour with The Love Language and Los Angeles locals The Union Line in tow as support. Definitely not a tour to be missed.

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Silversun Pickups wrapped up their national tour with tour mates Against Me and Los Angeles locals The Henry Clay People in August at the Greek Theatre. The enthusiastic crowd responded warmly to recent tunes off Silvserun Pickups’ lastest release Swoon as well as older songs.

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The Like performed to a packed house on Saturday, June 19 at The Troubadour to celebrate the release of their new album Release Me which hit stores last week. Their performance was exuberant beyond expectations and quickly and easily captures the imagination of the audience, many of whom joined them on stage for a few songs to dance along. Openers Tijuana Panthers had to overcome a few technical problems but completely won over the crowd by the end of their set, a crowd that clearly seemed to have never heard or seen them before.

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Real Estate headlined the Woodsist Fest both in Big Sur and when they played the Echo/Echoplex on Tuesday, June 15. Real Estate is one of those rare bands that takes a promising record and delivers a live show to remember and Tuesday was no exception.

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The Henry Clay People didn’t quite sell out Spaceland for their record release show last night, June 8, but they did gather a large crowd that sang along with ease and joy. Their show was peppered with a number of covers and guitarist Steven Chen from The Airborne Toxic Event joined the band on stage for an encore performance of The T.Rex classic.  ”Bang a Gong”.

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LCD Soundsystem played to an eager, sold out crowd, but didn’t seem to be able to get the things completely off the ground. Plagued by an unruly electric piano early in their set, they were forced to borrow equipment from openers Holy Ghost. Not to say that the show didn’t have magical moments, it did, especially with fan favorites “All My Friends”, “Daft Punk is Playing at My House” and their new single “Drunk Girls”. But they just seemed sprinkled into the performance in a way that left many wanting more.

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Japandroids performed to an eager crowd at The Echoplex on April 22, but opening the show and blowing people away with their antics were No Bunny. Videothing was on site creating awesome projections as well.

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This was my second year at SXSW and it was just as fantastic as last year. Part of my strategy for enjoying Austin this time round was to: a) drink less free booze, b) carry around less crap, and c) try and relax and see more bands I’ve never heard of. And in order to do this I decided to take less camera gear and photograph fewer shows. But I still wanted to take pictures so I brought along my Lomo Kompakt Automat and and handful of film and this is what I came home with. I’ve tried to put captions beneath each photo, hope you enjoy them.

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I had to camp out and wait few a through lousy acts and a couple good ones to see Band of Skulls at 1:00am at Maggie Mae’s, but it was definitely worth it. They really brought their album to life and gave the performance of SXSW for me.

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We Were Promised Jetpacks captured my heart at SXSW and I only wish I got seen them in Los Angeles when they passed through at the beginning of March. Their record is fantastic as well.

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