LIVE REVIEW: Miami Horror @ Echoplex 3/12/11

Being in Austin without actually being in Austin, Los Angeles venue, Echoplex, hosted their own official SXSW Kick-Off Party featuring a night of electronic-heavy rock-pop bands including Geographer, LA’s own Superhumanoids (represent!), Chapel Club, and headlining act from Australia, Miami Horror. The bill made for a perfectly raucous night of dancing-sweating-moshing-music-loving electricity.

At the stroke of midnight the Aussie quad, Miami Horror, appeared on stage and it was only moments until frontman Josh Moriarty cranked the thermostat to levels of spontaneous combustion. Kicking off their set with “Soft Light” LA show-goers were immediately sent to another level of happy insanity that didn’t end for sixty electrical minutes with songs including “Holidays” and “I Look To You”.

Clad in a canary-yellow jacket and a black polka-dot dress shirt, Moriartys Mick-Jaggeresque sexuality sent his audience spiraling with “Sometimes”. His zealous antics were non-stop including using the bass drum as a trampoline and climbing the scaffolding while singing the chorus to “Summersun”. Moriarty’s on-stage high was so prevalent I actually found myself surprised that he didn’t leap into the audience willing them to break his fall.

After a full set of insanely good instrumentation of synths, guitars, and spastic beats Miami Horror left the stage. Soon after the 20-somethings all began chanting “One more song!” and just as I caught my breath the Aussie’s came back on stage to surprise the crowd with a sick singalong encore of Paul Simon’s “You Can Call Me Al”.

It’s not often I attend a show that I would consider truly cyclical. The artists’ energy feeds the audience which feeds the artists which feeds the audience and so on. This was one of those shows. Incredible, combustible, fierce energy… this show was OFF! THE! CHAIN! Thanks for the SXSW Kick-Off Party, Austin, er… um… I mean Echoplex!