Sia - SXSW, The Bat Bar, 3/13/08



I've seen Sia many times, and this was as good a set as I've seen her do. The sound and lighting in the Bat Bar is the ultimate. The Bat Bar is actually a television studio/venue created out of the exhibit space in the Austin convention center. The shows are beaming live on DirecTV, and if you happened to be tuned in yesterday to see Sia, that was me standing by the stage in front of the cello player.



She opened with "Buttons" from her latest CD, Some People Have Real Problemswith her and her band all dressed totally in black, with dayglow decorations in the style of the crayon artwork she's been using on her website and the new CD. The stage is dark except for blacklight, and the effect as you can see above is quite striking. Sia's band is uniformly excellent, the arrangements of her songs are open enough to let the beauty of the melody shine clearly. Sia's a fantastic singer, and when you put it all together, it's always a total pleasure to see a Sia show.



Here's the setlist for the Bat Bar:
Buttons
Little Black Sandals
Lentil
Day Too Soon
Sunday
Soon We'll Be Found
Academia
The Girl You Lost to Cocaine
Breathe Me



4/26/08 Update - Crackle.com has posted all of the shows from the Bat Bar and Lone Star Lounge at this year's SXSW on their website for free on demand viewing. The above set list has been updated with links from each song title to the video of that song on Crackle. While the computer viewer is no substitute for the high definition video that was carried live on DirecTV, and even though Crackle seems to have the songs in random rather than set list order, it is really great to have easy access to all these shows. Enjoy.




Some People Have Real Problems

Sia's myspace.
Sia'a website.
Crackle.com's SXSW Channel.

[Prev] [Next]


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Remembering the Main Point, 1964 - 1981

Image
WXPN Most Memorable Musical Moment #5 Begining in 1964, The Main Point in Bryn Mawr provided the Philadelphia area with one of its most enjoyable venues for live music. Although it started as a folk based coffeehouse, all styles of music were presented over the years. Financial problems continually plagued the Main Point, and in spite of frequent benefit shows by artists who loved the place as much as the audience, the club finally closed in 1981. The following brief history is contained in an obituary of Jeanette O. Campbell, one of the founders and owners of the Main Point who died on October 22, 2006, written by Philadelphia Inquirer Staff Writer Sally A. Downey as reprinted on the Save Ardmore Coalition website. Jeanette Orndoff Campbell, 89, former owner of the Main Point, a music hall in Bryn Mawr where young talents including Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt and James Taylor were introduced to local audiences, died of complications from hip surgery Oct. 22 at Stap...
Read more

Cream and Blind Faith at the Spectrum, Philadelphia, 1968 & 1969

Image
WXPN Most Memorable Musical Moment #3 (L-R) Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker, & Eric Clapton I could not have foreseen it at the time, but looking back on a concert going history now entering it's fifth decade, my first three concerts were absolutely formative in the development of the music obsession that has driven life as we know it from that point forward. Attending a rock concert pre drivers license was no small feat, that I even got to these shows is the first indication that I knew I was onto something even if I couldn't quite explain it. I've already detailed my first concert (The Beatles at JFK Stadium) in my MMMM#1 . My second and third concerts took place at the Spectrum in Philadelphia, they were less than a year apart, and due to the fact that concerts never end at the time predicted, these concert experiences both ended with a very angry driver stuck waiting in the car outside the venue until the last encore had finished. I shot both concerts with the same starter...
Read more

And We Danced - Filming the Hooters Video, 7/27/85

Image
WXPN Most Memorable Musical Moment #4 "And We Danced" (picture sleeve above) was released in 1985 as the second single from the album, Nervous Night , the Hooters' major label debut for Columbia Records. Here's the video. The call went out to the Hooters' mailing list the last week of July 1985 that an audience with cars would be needed on the coming Saturday for a video shoot. Participants would report to the Exton Drive-In by late morning and be prepared to stay all day until after dark. This stage set, early in the day, was a warm-up for the crowd and probably a dry run for the production team for the night-time performance to be filmed later. The banner backdrop does not appear in the video. Some of the antique and custom cars that were on hand for the shoot. The production crew prepares the ticket booth for its shot. This is the film crew shooting the acoustic intro part of the song. The acoustic intro was shot twice, first with t...
Read more