Digital Antique Performs Tonight at The Mohawk
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As a rule, I try not to obsess over band names. However, this one seems quite fitting of the musical melange. Digital Antique summons a sophisticated palate marrying a melodramatic classical approach with progressive pacing. However, simply comparing it to prog rock or dubbing it “rock opera” would be a tad limiting. Those boundaries are broken through by – and really, there’s no other way of putting this – their strangeness.
Odd? Yes. Fascinating? Absolutely. Which is why they’re worth checking out.
The band got its start in 2008 when its core members met at South Plains College, where they each studied music. Guitarist Travis Kennedy, drummer Payton Holekamp, and bassist James Parker Randolph have extensive musical backgrounds, experience, and a lot of inspiration from varied musical genres. Each has an obsessive ear for detail, which can be deadly, but in the best way possible. Theirs is a collaboration of precise strategies and unconventional melodies, logical processions with illogical signatures.
The trio has been described as an instrumental indie rock band with cinematically driven compositions. All true, but their music is also an immensely striking waltz with darkness, winding its way round a complex tapestry of textures and startling aural landscapes. There is something distinctly eerie that threads it all together. Even my Texas Music Matters colleague Paul Carrubba remarked that the track “Zombie Knuckle” (used on this edition of the Austin Music Minute) would be the perfect soundtrack for a film scene panning through a darkened alley on a cold, overcast day – where something’s gone horribly wrong. Sounds like my kind of musical adventure.
Don’t miss Digital Antique’s performance tonight at the Mohawk, 912 Red River, on the inside stage. The bill features swing/folk/bluegrass rocker Joe Sundell, and Delaware-born/Austin-based songwriter and guitarist Kyle Offidani. Doors open at 9 p.m., and the music starts at 10 p.m. Very cool indeed.
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