polaroids of androids

South By Inner West Festival @ Annandale Hotel - 10/6/07

Another long weekend in Sydney, another all day 7 band showcase at the Annandale. Nothing to sneeze at, but would the rather ambitious comparison to Indie music's week of weeks held in Austin Texas every year hold up?

Cut Off Your Hands were the highlight, with the band almost taking a busted bass amp in their stride (a little bass throwing dummy spit has to be somewhat expected) and getting on with the show in their usual energetic, writhing on the floor, dancing on the bar kind of way.

The Shake Up were a pleasant surprise. Their overt likeness to 70's and 80's British punk bands came off more as a tasteful head nod rather than a direct rip-off and seemed to amuse the dancing drunk girls down the front to no end.

Moscow Schoolboy didn't come off as naturally however, most of their energy seemingly channeled into looking cool with their music droning along behind in an entirely forgettable manner.

Other bands that were on show that were missed by us were The Panda Band (WA favourites), The Mares (New EP Love Billows From My Soul to Consume You Splendid People as an Avalanche Does a Mountain out now), and The Waysiders.

Unfortunately Bright Yellow had to pull out due to illness. That made us cry as they we were very much looking forward to them.

Unfortunately, if there is one thing that will be remembered about the night it will be the bad sound which made it nearly impossible to enjoy the talent on show to the fullest. It's hard to point fingers at the equipment, acoustics of the venue or the sound staff, but one thing that is certain is that the Annandale is quickly building up a reputation for making bands look really bad.