Toro y Moi @ Emo's

 I’ve been pretty into the  new Toro y Moi album “Anything in Return” for a couple weeks now, so I had very high expectations when I went to go see Chaz and his band at Emo’s in Austin on Feb. 2^nd. I’ve been to a couple of shows at Emo’s now, and I always have a good time there. I love the shape and the size of this venue and the atmosphere the place manages to create.  It’s my first time going to a weekend show in Austin in a long time and I’m really surprised by age of the crowd, which is younger than I had expected.

There’s two openers, first of which is Dog Bite from Atlanta. The band describes themselves as “psychedelic/folk pop” and features Cameron Gardner of Washed out and I can definitely hear (or at least imagine) some of his influence on their overall sound.  I keep on hearing references to the cure and I feel as though the people enjoying the concert the most were a group perpetually surrounded by a small smoke cloud.  Sure enough, the lead singer calls them out and mentions “being on stage I can’t help but notice little puffs of smoke. We’ll talk later.”

The second opener, Wild Belle, a product of siblings Natalie and Elliot Bergman, comes on stage to the crowd’s excitement. It’s pretty clear that there are many who are familiar with their work. The crowd is particularly favorable towards Natalie and it’s pretty clear why; she has a great stage presence and manages to be relaxed and yet intense, she seems like she’s having fun without trying too hard. With their funk rock jazzy sound it’s no surprise that this Austin crowd loves them and their new song “Backslider.”

Toro y Moi comes on to screams of “Chaz!” which admittedly leads itself more easily to chanting than his band name.  I’m really impressed by the lighting set up featuring white textured blinds that reflect the LED lights above them. The lights are definitely utilized, but are not overwhelming as I had feared, it was really in keeping with a lo-fi concept.  He gets “Say That” in pretty early but “Talamak” is the real gem live. Given the “Say That” music video (which is really tongue in cheek,check it out)



I wasn’t really sure what to expect of Chaz’s stage presence, but I was impressed.Stuck behind keyboards the entire time,  he was definitely working, but seemed like he was having fun in a way that was true to himself, or at least the image he’s created. During the encore he came out and said this was the largest crowd that they’ve had in a while and snapped a picture on his phone. Well, with this sort of performance, I’d expect he’ll get an even bigger crowd at SXSW in a couple weeks.

-Michelle Padley

Indie Overnight Promotion's Assistant

You can her Michelle on hear show Pandamonium every Monday night at 10 p.m.