Monday of last week, 10HDG and I went to see little joy at the independent (of which I’m the mayor now).  It was phenomenal.  10HDG even said so.  He’s not so much into that type of music, the folky/beachy stuff, but G-D those guys are super talented; read: awesome musicians.

Fabrizio was not there,  rumors I’ve read said he’s off recording with his *cough* other *cough* band.  Not to knock them or anything, but I’m hoping that this little “side project” becomes more of his focus than his other bnd, they are soooo good.  Here’s one of their debut videos, so cute!

You know who was there though? Coldplay! 10HDG and I both read some tweets that “Coldplay is in the house.”  We both thought that it was just the music in between sets.  However, when we got back to my house, I checked the twitter, and sure enough, Coldplay was actually there.  They were saying how Little Joy is their new favorite band, well apparently Guy’s new favorite.

I tend to think that’s good.  It means that Little Joy will get more coverage, and thus more money, and then they can make more awesome beachy summer music for us to listen to.

I bet I know why Guy was there… I mean, I’m not a Coldplay fan or anything, but the guys are famous for a reason.  They are pretty decent musicians, and they have a good ear.  So, my thoughts are that Guy likes good music even though I’m not a fan of his music.

However, not only is Rodrigo an amazing guitar player, he can sing also. I think he doesn’t sing all of the songs regularly, but he did a very good Fabrizio impression.  The whole band sounded very together, I don’t think there was one sour note.  I was in awe of how good musicians they are. I can’t wait for them to come back.

Here’s the funny thing: for a while now, I had thought that this Rodrigo was the one from Rodrigo y Gabriela.  Except he’s not… I’m apparently a fool and this is the Rodrigo from Los Hermanos.

Little Joy was a side project that got started by Rodrigo Amarante, Fabrizio Moretti, and Binki Shapiro.  They decided to start this band after spending time together at a music festival in Europe.  I think there’s rumors that Fabrizio is dating Binki, not sure though.

The other guys that played with Binki and Rodrigo were also super talented.  Last time they came to Austin, I don’t believe that the other guys played with them, but I didn’t make it to that show.  They are: Todd Dahlhoff and Matt Borg from The Dead Trees (on bass and guitar, respectively), Matt Romano from Albert Hammond Jr’s band (drums) and Jack Dishel from Only Son (guitar, backing vocals) (via their myspace page).

Another thing that really struck me about how that space is well matched for that band was the audience interaction during the set.   In between songs they were talking to the audience, and checking in with us.  Binki and Rodrigo were both super gracious.  And that’s always an awesome thing, they know they’re thebusiness, but they’re still humble. They were full of thank you’s.

I was surprised that there were so many people there.  I think it was a sold out show, but I’m not sure, it was packed.  Especially compared to the C.L.U.E.S show that Jen and I saw later in the week.  That being said there were a fair amount of D-bags there.  It struck me as a quiet venue, kinda like the time we saw BSS at Bass. But there were these two groups of people near by us who would not stop talking.  I mean it’s totally one thing if the show was outside at Stubbs or something, but this was small, smaller than The Parish even.  There was a few moments when I almost turned around and asked them to stop taking, but I didn’t really feel like starting a fight.

All in all, the show was awesome. A little hot in the venue, but I think they’re still working out the kinks on temperature control.  The sounds was well balanced, and not crappy like Emo’s, sounded pretty full, I don’t know that I’d go with rich yet, but they’ll get there.  And One of the other best things about this venue is how close it is to Mexico (A.K.A my house).

So yeah, go to the Independent, and listen to Little Joy. I think you’ll enjoy both.