An Horse came to Chicago on their way to SXSW, with a local duo, My Gold Mask opening the evening for them. Well, this was quite a night, darlings! I had heard An Horse’s album, as well as their EP and wondered how two slightly thinish, young people could carry this out? Could they possibly make all that noise? Oh hell yes they could. It was a night of glorious duos. If you happen to follow me on Twitter, you’ve heard some of this before. I “live tweeted” the gig! It was a fantastic way to take blog post notes as we went along.

“Postcards” is their hit single, I’ve mentioned it before when I previewed An Horse for you. It’s still up there, go listen! But they gave us much more than what’s revealed on that one song. Opening with a new song (didn’t this LP just come out?! I love that they’re seeming to constantly work on new stuff), they took the stage and owned it! I talked to Damon before the show, he was quite impressed with our little town — “it just went on forever, so spread out!” he said, they had the day off and had done some resting up. They were in fine form, giving us sharp harmonies, insistent percussion and twangs of guitar emerging out from between the spaces betwixt the two of them.

Kate sings, Damon backs her up, weaving up and down around her earnest, at times monotone, throbbing, vocals. But when they sing in unison at moments throughout “Horizons” you think you just can’t bear it, it’s too much, too piercing. And you realize, no… it’s perfect.  An Horse has only improved from their time on the road. The final song was a thunderous finale to a great show. Hear this new album and go see them live, they’re going to take SXSW by surprise, you heard it here first! …. MySpace

Before An Horse took the stage, I was delightedly surprised to find another duo, My Gold Mask. In all the ways that An Horse has “indie cred” My Gold Mask appears to have just jumped off the cabaret/gypsy wagon. And that’s no insult to either band, mind you. I’m just saying that the Abbey couldn’t have picked two more different duos that night! Darlings, it was fantastic!

My Gold Mask are working on an album. You really need to go to their MySpace page to hear the rough cuts and demos. I can’t wait to see what it turns into. They describe themselves as “Melodramatic Popular Song / Minimalist / Psychedelic” and if you have a difficult time conjuring up an image for melodramatic and minimalist, that vision is My Gold Mask, m’dears!

Gretta wails into the microphone whilst pumping the pedal on a great bass drum, beating out the beat with a stick on the rim of another and shaking a tambourine. Jack plays this crazy looking guitar… no, it’s not colorful or oddly shaped, Gretta has all the color, all the verve, and she’s definitely perfectly shaped!… Jack has this wooden looking guitar all brown and hung low,  sings backup, and he is a wonderful guitarist. I’m reminded of Flamenco music and post-punk goodness and Euro-something or other. Jack’s not a bad dancer either! But Gretta… oh she wails, twists, writhes, captivates us with lyrics over emphasized and strung out. I eagerly await this album. Chicago might not recover from this duo. You’d better watch it! Here’s My Gold Mask’s “Coo Ka Choo (rough cut)” and go hear much more on MySpace!

Coo Ka Choo (rough mix) mp3