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.

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