Ah, Emo’s on an Austin afternoon. The conglomeration of hipsters, the ridiculous name and the sort of street bazaar layout of the place always make me feel a little trepidatious. However, the mood on Friday was instantly put into perspective when I came across a group of maybe nine guys all posing for a photo together with several people snapping shots of them – was this some kind of fraternal organization? Maybe they were semi-famous? As it turned out, they were total strangers who all happened to be wearing plaid shirts. “Badass shirt, dude!” I heard one joke to another. They laughed and bantered to each other, “You’re a stylish motherfucker too!”

The mood effectively lightened, I went inside for the last bit of a Dam Funk set (he told the crowd he’s doing 13 gigs here in Austin) and to catch the whole set of Memory Tapes, one of those bands whose name you hear bandied about during the week but whose music I’d never actually listened to.  They put on a hell of a show.
The opening number unleashed a wave of deep bass that literally had hair flying backwards like some zany 80s movie.  Of course, lead singer-guitarist Dayve Hawk was wearing a plaid shirt. Their blend of spacey guitar, drum machine and synthy loops seems almost too perfectly indie to really make an impact at first.

However, if you give it time, the more irresistible grooves begin to form almost within their existing song structures. All I can really say is, at first I thought the music was bland, but next thing you know I’m swaying and dancing and suddenly thinking “these guys sound great,” their softer side giving way to a blurry Fujiya and Miyagi. A third of the way through their set, the room is shaking – coming as close to dancing as a bunch of guys in glasses and plaid shirts will ever come.

Words by Jacob Cottingham, Photos by Dustin Downing