SXSW Music Day 3: Mikal Cronin + Dan Deacon (Insound Party)

Club de Ville bounced with the tunes of Mikal Cronin, Dan Deacon and unlimited Miller Highlife for $5 at the In Sound and Oh My Rockness party Thursday March 15. Amongst one of the cooler venues in Austin: Club de Ville is a small, shack-like bar rested on a lot surrounded by a rock quarry. Outdoors is a stage uniquely framed by the natural rock formation.

If garage rock is your forte, I highly recommend checking out Mikal Cronin. Cronin is a mid-20-something California native who specializes in lo-fi garage pop with bouts of psychedelia and ’60s rock. His music is refreshing and fun, pushing listeners to simultaneously bounce, twist, shout and mosh. Cronin himself took lead vocals while playing acoustic guitar. He was backed by cronies Ty Segall (another California garage rock darling) on electric guitar, Emily Rose (who is also known to play in Segall’s band) on drums and Chad Z on bass. Following Cronin’s set the Club de Ville crowd thickened in anticipation for electronic composer Dan Deacon.

For those weary of digital music, do not let the descriptor electronic scare you. Dan Deacon creates unconventional symphonies if you will that lures inner primal instincts out of fans. His music requires interactive, and often interpretive, dancing creating this no-reservation experience where simply watching is not an option. Deacon performed a 40 minute set of electronic mayhem off a palette of effect pedals, knobs, dials and color coded chords. His spread of “instruments” were situated off stage in the middle of the audience. Behind him onstage were two live drummers, percussive maniacs if you will, driven to accentuate the beats lifting the music to an entirely different level. Similar to any Deacon show people were directed and expected to participate in massive dance-offs. During Thursday’s performance the half of the room was instructed to dance “as if the movie Avatar was good”, while the other side danced like “the mom from the movie Big‘.’ Deacon had fans dancing like animals without a care, liberating minds, bodies and spirits.