SXSW 2015 Thursday Rock Highlights: Years & Years, Edward Sharpe, Butch Walker & More

Not unlike a really well-stocked BBQ buffet, day three of Austin, Texas’s annual South By Southwest musicfest offered a little something for everyone, from dance-pop to dad-rock to post-rock. Here’s what we got up to on Thursday…

Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros Took Us to Church

The sprawling California hippie collective’s midnight performance at Central Presbyterian Church was a real religious experience for fans, when the group played its still-unreleased new album in its entirety for the very first time. (Word on the street was not even the Zeros’ manager had heard it yet!) Those who weren’t lucky enough to be there can still worship at the altar of Alex Ebert and company: By Friday morning, the entire history-making set was on YouTube.

Butch Walker Made His Father Proud

The venerable singer-songwriter’s new Ryan Adams-produced album, Afraid of Ghosts, is largely a tribute to his dad, who died in 2013. Introducing the LP’s tear-jerking centerpiece, “Father’s Day,” at the Red 7 club, Butch was incredibly emotional, telling sweet tales of his dad’s fondness for songs like Hoagy Carmichael’s “Stardust.” Butch was too into hair-metal at the time, preferring fast ‘n’ loud fare like Motley Crue’s “Live Wire,” but he explained that he later came to appreciate his father’s music, especially for its lyrics. (“I’m sorry, I’m rambling. It’s been a flow of emotions today,” he told the crowd, although absolutely no apologies were necessary.) Butch’s own touching “Father’s Day” lyrics — “Sunday morning, Father’s Day/The first without my dad/As I look into my little boy’s eyes/It takes all I have/Not to break down right in front of him when he smiles at me/You don’t become a man/Until you lose your dad, you see” — would have make the elder Walker proud, and it practically made some hardened Texans weep into their Shiner Bocks on Thursday night. “My dad would have been here tonight and he probably would have gotten on someone’s shoulders and gotten drunk and gotten in a fight and gone to jail,” Butch quipped with a grin. “I learned that from him.” We wonder how many suddenly sentimental SXSW-goers phoned their dads after Butch’s set was over.

Years & Years Finally Got on Schedule

The British dance-pop trio (a Yahoo Music artist-to-watch pick for 2015) was one of the festival’s most buzzed-about new acts, but they got off to a most inauspicious SXSW start. Their first showcase, on Wednesday, began 45 minutes late and was marred by technical difficulties; then they canceled their second SXSW show for reasons unknown. But when they played FLOODfest on Thursday, opening for festival veterans the Ting Tings, everything finally clicked. Giggly frontman Olly Alexander, seemingly still surprised over the huge hype surrounding his group, was immensely charming and likable, but he should not have been so flabbergasted. Y&Ys’ ’90s-inspired indie-house and Olly’s funky, knock-kneed dance moves thrilled the afternoon crowd and proved that the trio is worth the hype. It looks like this will be Years & Years’ year after all.

Bleachers Got It Twisted

Strange Desire, the debut album by fun. man Jack Antonoff’s side band Bleachers, basically sounds like the epic soundtrack to a great lost John Hughes movie, and the tour to support the album has featured cleverly curated ’80s cover songs in almost every city. And Jack chose a doozy cover for Bleachers’ gig at the intimate Uproxx club: Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It.” That song actually could have been the audience’s angry rallying cry after the band went on more than 30 minutes late (seriously, do Bleachers share a crew with Years & Years?), but all was forgiven as soon as Jack channeled his inner Dee Snider and cranked out this pop-metal gem.

Gang of Four Was More Like Gang of One

Andy Gill is, sadly, the only original member still left in this legendary dance-punk’s band’s lineup. But maybe he has such an easy time recruiting youngsters for Gang of Four (and cool kids like the Kills’ Alison Mosshart for Go4’s latest album, What Happens Next) because the band’s catalog still sounds so incredibly relevant and fresh. Fittingly playing the Dr. Martens house, that vintage punk spirit came through on new short, sharp songs like “Stranded” and “Where the Nightingale Sings,” which didn’t seem at all out of place on a setlist packed with bruising classics like “To Hell With Poverty,” “Not Great Men,” “Anthrax,” and “Damaged Goods.” The band was in fine muscular form, too — no damaged goods here. So what if they’re basically a Gang of Four cover band at this point? They’re clearly the best Gang of Four cover band on the planet.

Michelle Chamuel Brought Her Voice to Brazos Hall

The Season 4 runner-up has been laying low since her 2013 run on The Voice, only releasing music as her indie alter ego the Reverb Junkie. But this year, in Austin to promote her addictive first album under her own name, Face the Fire, the electropop songstress and unlikely reality star stunned with two stripped-down songs during an afternoon recording session at Yahoo’s “Yodel House,” aka Brazos Hall. She didn’t yodel, but her voice was exquisite and otherworldly on the tender track “Golden.” Is it still too late for a Season 4 vote recount?

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