Neon Indian’s Performance at Emo’s
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Neon Indian, a new indie/electronic band, was founded by twenty-third year old Texas Native Alan Palomo. Palomo experiments with different techniques to produce a very unique sound, unlike anything heard today. Although electronic music is becoming increasingly popular among today’s younger generations, Palomo still incorporates musical instruments such as the drum and the keyboard played by other members of the band. I decided to go see this band live because I admired Palomo’s incredible talent at such a young age as well as his inspiration to create a completely different sound. I think it’s important to think outside the box with any medium as you’re producing something never seen or heard before promoting progress and giving the perspective audience a different way to view art and life.
After seeing Palomo live I realized because he uses the computer primarily to generate this unique sound, it isn’t as transferable to the stage. This barrier to bringing your sound to the stage is a constant theme I’ve noticed when going seeing electronic bands compared to bands that use instruments. Performances are always better if the band has instruments because it represents the talent of a band as a raw entity with no studio to tweak their sound to make it sound better than it really is.
Besides the sound not being as transferable, I also think the venue was not ideal for Palomo. The show was at the new Emo’s on Riverside. This was my first time at Emo’s new location and I was not impressed by the alteration. The new venue is very open with high ceilings and only one room, making it seem like one big arena with no bleachers. There is also no outside patio at this Emo’s, making it very stuffy in this gigantic space. Besides having a terrible layout inside, the location picked for this venue could not be worse. Located 10 mins down Riverside, it is not a lively, fun part of town but rather makes one feel that they have just crossed the border into Mexico. It is obvious that Emo made this chane to downgrade as changing locations brings down the cost of rent substantially, but unfortunately it also came at the cost of also downgrading many good shows to come.