Saturday, May 1st, 2010
CONTEST – The Middle East @ The Horseshoe – May 5, 2010
FacebookThings move fast at SxSW, and it really doesn’t take long for the buzz around a given act to go from silent to deafening over the course of four days. Case in point, Australians The Middle East, who headed into Austin without any more cachet than most of the thousand-plus other acts also playing the festival. But as each day passed and the question of “who’d you see that was good?” was answered via conversations, news reports, blogs and tweets, The Middle East’s name kept coming up until by week’s end, they were now one of the must-see acts of the festival, if just to see what people were talking about.
I got my chance on the final day of the fest at a chilly Red-Eye Fly, and while the logistics of setting up such a large band cut their set short, it was enough to get a sense of what everyone who’d seen the prior was excited about. Drawing from their debut EP The Recordings Of The Middle East – to be followed up this year with a full-length – they showed their stock in trade to be delicate folk music that was as expansive-sounding as it was intimate, and for something that takes that route over in-your-face antics to impress the ADD throngs at SxSW, well that takes some doing.
The Middle East are embarking on an extensive tour of North America that will see them fit a number of headlining dates between opening slots for Mumford & Sons and Laura Marling and its in that capacity that they’ll be playing The Horseshoe in Toronto on May 5. Tickets are $10.50 in advance but courtesy of Sneak Attack Media, I have a pair of passes to give away to the show. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to visit The Middle East” in the subject line and your full name in the body and get that in to me before midnight, May 3.
MP3: The Middle East – “Blood”
MP3: The Middle East – “Lonely”
MP3: The Middle East – “The Darkest Side”
Video: The Middle East – “Blood”
MySpace: The Middle East
Tags: Middle East
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