Photo by Erez Avissar/Weird Magic. For all of our SXSW 2013 coverage, head here.
The Leeds-based melodic punk band Eagulls are not the sort of group that seems to be comfortable inside the corporate shit-show of SXSW. (Revisit their handwritten blog postfrom January, in which they decry the music industry and "all beach bands sucking each others' dicks and rubbing the press' clit.") But their set last night at the SESAC showcase at Friends, following some astonishingly terrible electro-rock-dubstep hybrid thing, was at least a sort of interesting glimpse into the types of hyper-industry showcases international bands get tacked onto when they happen to score funding to travel to the fest.
Eagulls' set was nonetheless just as engaging as when I saw them Saturday afternoon in Monterrey, Mexico for the NRMAL fest. The band's live show is more raw and amusingly deadpan than the slightly slicker EP they re-released on Deranged earlier this year, adding more deliberate nods to late 70s post-punk. (One of the guys was clad in a Gang of Four shirt.) Frontman George Mitchell and the drummer's throttling rolls carried the set forward. Mitchell, T-shirt tucked in, stumbled about shouting and gazing out entranced, a strong presence. He saved his one bit of appropriately bratty banter for the end, after slamming down his mic stand and then his mic. "We're Eagulls. If you wanna see us again then come and do it again and bring me some beer."