Miike Snow

The high level of anticipation was palpable for Miike Snow's SXSW set; some fans had even arrived with their faces painted with white house paint in tribute to the band's classic press shot (yeah, good luck getting that off tomorrow). And after a 40-minute delay, the group finally hit the stage, wearing matching black nylon jackets. A chorus of chants went out as Miike Snow took their places at the banks of assorted keyboards, Minimoogs, drum kits, percussion pads and a strange jacuzzi-sized black, wooden device with tens of switches and bulbs that looked like the inside of the Tardis or some pioneering room-sized device from the 1950s' Radiophonic Workshop. As it turned out, the device was mostly for show, despite having a xylophone embedded on its retro sci-fi face. "God Help This Divorce" was the first tune, featuring the group's singer Andrew Wyatt on live autoharp. However, the sweetness of the vocal melodies was so out of sync with the singer's cynical demeanour, it was almost comical, with Wyatt constantly bitching about levels to the sound guy, and for some tracks, he would disappear to the back of the stage for an entire song at a time. Miike Snow played mostly tracks from their new album, Happy to You, with a few choice selections from their 2009 debut record. Despite the techical gripes, the group's brand of energetic indie rave had the crowd excited throughout, their rendition of their recent single "Paddling Out" being a highlight and bearing more resemblance to the remix than the album version. And of course they ended it all with "Animal."