It’s the second to the last night of SXSW. It’s been a day of rain that canceled out East India Youth, Mew and The Vaccines earlier at Culture Collide’s showcase at Container. But tonight, CC’s set of bands are safely covered and dry under the tents at Bar 96, as are the fans crammed into the small space.
In that line up is BRONCHO, and I was able to squeeze nearly up front, much, much closer than the almost back-of-house seating during their tour with Billy Idol. As opposed to that night, where I needed to keep answering the question of Idol fans, “Who are these guys? They’re really cool,” and me, “They’re BRONCHO. They’re whom I’m here to see,” all eyes were fixated on its five members: guitarist Mandii Larsen, bassist Penny Hill (also of the Tulsa trio Low Litas), singer/guitarist Ryan Lindsey, guitarist Ben King and drummer Nathan Price.
As with many shows, especially when you head into the evening showcases after people have been taking advantage of free booze via daytime parties, there’s always that one person (if not more) that tends to lead to and fro during their rock out session, going a bit harder than the rest of us. This time ‘round it was a Manic Panic red-haired women and her ponytail boyfriend. That said, this is indeed a rock and roll show, so you really can’t fault people too much for getting into the music coming from the stage, even if they are on the drunken idiot side of things.
BRONCHO definitely delivered, and after I captured just a few pics, I left Rolling Rock Red Hair to her leanings and passed the baton to another photographer, finding the sound and breathing room much more pleasing from a bit of a distance, including the band’s gem of a single, “Class Historian.” And even though a number of chose to escape the mosh pit in the front, we proved that a less confined dance off could happen at the back of the crowd as well.
Get your hands on Just Hip Enough To Be Woman by BRONCHO here:
http://geni.us/BRONCHO
BRONCHO Tour Dates:
