Category: Music

Show Review: Snow Tha Product Gettin’ It At Empire

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Written and photos by Tracy Fuller

I have been a fan of Snow Tha Product’s music for about five years now, but oddly enough, I have never seen her perform in concert. So naturally, when the opportunity arose to review this show after the Sound On Sound Fest cancellation, I jumped on it. Snow, originally from San Jose, California, ended up moving to Texas in 2010. It was then she started to make a name for herself by performing here in Austin at South By Southwest.Snow The Product

This performance was originally scheduled to take place at Sound On Sound Festival but was rescheduled to take place at Empire Control Room.

Within the first few minutes of her hitting the stage, I realized that this is no ordinary hip-hop show, this was a full-fledged party! You could quickly call this a family celebration, since it was the last stop on Snow’s tour that her mom would be present.

Snow is not your average hip-hop artist. She could be pitted against the best of the best, and would utterly school them with her chopper styled flow. She transitions between spitting bars, melodic singing, and jumps between English and Spanish without missing a beat. Snow also does not not hold back when it comes to expressing her political views.

Snow kept the crowd turned up as she played a bunch of songs from her Good Nights & Bad Mornings 2 mixtape.  She performed “Play,” “Lord Be With You,” “Cookie Cutter B*****s”, “Business Is,” “Hopeless,” “Waste of Time,” and even took to crowd surfing for the hype party track “Gettin’ It.”

Snow and her fans have a robust Chicano pride in common. Between songs, she takes time to connect with them personally.

I couldn’t close out this review without giving a shout out to the venue staff at Empire Control Room. The staff are always on point and accommodating. For a Sunday night and a first-time experience with Snow Tha Product, I had an absolute blast – even with a 10:30 PM curfew![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_video link=”https://youtu.be/wfISNlnN0bI”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Show Review: The Story So Far, Turnstile, & Drug Church Throw Down at The Mohawk

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Written and photos by Taylor Kokas

Despite this year’s sudden cancellation of Sound On Sound Fest, many artists were able to be rescheduled at various venues around town to perform for the live music capitol audience. The festival continued on in spirit, early that Saturday afternoon. Fans lined up on both corners of The Mohawk, awaiting performances from their favorite punk bands: Drug Church, Turnstile, and headliner The Story So Far.

Thirty minutes after the doors opened, Drug Church warmed up the crowd playing songs like “Banco Popular,” “But does it work?”and their newest single “Weed Pin”. After finishing up their short, 30 minute set, the crowd continued to grow. As casual fans played it safe and settled along the railing of the upper levels of the venue, dedicated fans and avid moshers made their way down to the front of the stage. For a good 45 minutes, Turnstile performed songs like “Drop” and “Fazed Out” inciting the crowd to throw down in the pit. Crowd surfers made their way to the stage hoping to be handed the mic from lead vocalist Brendan Yates (who occasionally tossed the mic out while he dancing around on stage). After their set, fans dispersed to grab a drink, buy some merch, or re-situate themselves for the final act.

The Story So Far Knife

The Story So Far kicked off their set playing two of their most popular songs, “Things I can’t change” and “Nerve” while also performing their newest single “Out of it.” It was a wild set, as some fans surfed their way up to the front, attempting to get a hug from lead vocalist Parker Cannon. At one point during a break between songs, Cannon was handed a switchblade, causing some shock amongst the band. Parker put it away safely in front of the drum kit and continued on with the show. Throughout the remainder of the night, fans jammed out to a setlist of the band’s greatest hits from their past three albums while also squeezing in a couple covers from Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix. Fans left with a fun, memorable performance to reflect on as they exited the venue to go home and recover from their ringing eardrums.  

Pick this review up in the Spring 2018 Life4U magazine on campus.

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Show Review: YELLE

Written & photo by Wes Eng

I’m not a typical fan of electropop, but I wasn’t going to miss seeing YELLE during their re-scheduled show for Sound on Sound Fest. YELLE is an electropop band from France who has been making waves since 2005. YELLE’s distinct style of sound is a mix of disco and electropop. This mixture, paired with the french vocals creates quite a unique sound. All of the songs were in French, but that really didn’t matter. The vocals were what really made the sound so iconic. The performance from Julie Budet (lead singer) and the two dummers lead to quite a show. Everything seemed to be choreographed. The drummers had a routine where they would mirror each other’s movements to produce an amazing visual and audible display. It was more like being in the front row of a music video. If you are a connoisseur of electropop YELLE is a must!

Show Review: Gatecreeper

Written and photo by Wes Eng

Opening up the Friday night of the previously scheduled, Sound On Sound Fest at Mohawk was Gatecreeper for Cannibal Corpse. The show was a rager as they shredded the night away with dark, grungy metal. Being in the crowd was something I will always remember. As the band got into their rhythm the whole crowd began to head bang in unison. The love for the music was definitely there. As to be expected there was a lot of action in the crowd. The mosh pit was going nearly the whole time. Unfortunately it seemed to me as if the mic for the singer was too low. With all the guitars and bass tones, the lyrics were drowned out, which was unfortunate. All in all it was a great concert with some really killer songs!

 

Austin City Limits 2017

Written and photos by Halie Davis

Pulling in headliners as Jay-Z, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Killers, Chance The Rapper and Gorrillaz, made for a variety of dance parties across the stages. If those artists just weren’t an attendees jam, silent disco was offered. Adding in a new stage this year (Barton Springs) and the festival merchandise store, it’s evident to see the growth of the festival.

We were able to take some photos of bands we were able to catch, from the multi-talented musician Tash Sultana to Austin’s The Black Angels. There is more to be found on aclfestival.com.

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