CLICK HERE FOR MORE SXSW 2018 COVERAGE!
AUSTIN, TX- For most of our SXSW artist coverage, we’ll keep it relatively short and sweet. We have over 80 artists to cover, so cut us some slack! 😉 We’ll basically be formatting each post into two parts: (1) Why our contributor wanted to see this act and (2) what our contributor thought of the performance”. Easy peasy. If you want to learn more about the act, make sure you click through to their social media links to get in the know. You won’t be disappointed!
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Why I Wanted To See Kolars: On Instagram, I follow a lot of concert photographers, and I always get excited when I see a photographer capture sick photos of an artist that I’m not familiar with. I can’t remember who it was (maybe it was my friend Cortney), but I saw a photo of a woman dancing on top a kick drum … scratch that … dancing on top of and playing the kick drum with her feet. I was instantly intrigued.
When I pulled up their Spotify profile and pressed play on their self-titled debut album, I felt into, and stayed in, a groove from the first track on. I loved the lo-fi quality of their production and their attention to the percussive elements of their songs.
Kolars is another L.A. based band that I probably could have easily seen at a local spot, but my curiosity got the better of me and I decided to check them out at SXSW.
What I Thought Of Kolar’s Performance: I had an absolute blast watching and photographing this husband and wife duo rock stage set up at the Belmont. Rob Kolar effused this distinctly outlaw aura as he snarled out the lyrics. His wife, Lauren Brown, was like an energizer bunny, dancing atop the inverted, modified kick drum, driving the tempo of each song.
Being a male/female guitar/drum duo, I really wanted to compare their sonics to that of The White Stripes, but theirs is a sound that takes a more “classic” approach; more classic rock than alternative. Maybe it was just what I was feeling at the time, but that’s what I wrote down in my notepad.
I also noted that there was a palpable connection between the two on stage. Sure, they’re husband and wife, but the musical link between them during the performance seemed much more that that. Even though Rob does all of the singing, there was an evident (at least to me) musical equilibrium between them; a perfect balance of musical push and pull.
Follow Kolars on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SXSW 2018 COVERAGE!
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