Best of SXSW 2014: Mutoid Man

All the bands at our fourth annual South by South Death showcase were just fantastic — every single one of them. What a pleasure it was to put on a show with seven incredibly talented, grateful and energetic bands.

We’ll be recapping the entire show in the coming days but today’s focus is on Mutoid Man, the band featuring Cave In’s Steven Brodsky and Converge’s Ben Koller whose debut album Helium Head we’ve given a good amount of press here (because it rules). Mutoid Man were the final band we added to the bill, but having them play our showcase was such an absolute honor: Cave In were a very important band for me in the early ’00s, and remain so to this day.

Mutoid Man’s entire set positively rocked — I haven’t seen Brodsky this energetic and fired up in years, including with Cave In, and Koller and bassist Nick Cageao brought their own electricity to match — but watching the band cover “Big Riff” (at my own showcase that I booked!), the MetalSucks banner hanging over head, was something of a bucket-list moment for me. As we say in yiddish, it gave me great naches! Despite having seen Cave In perform it half a dozen times before. That the members of Mutoid Man are all super-nice dudes and were incredibly grateful for the opportunity made it all that much more satisfying.

Here’s some footage front the show shot by YouTube user SbMick:

And here’s some drum cam footage shot with a GoPro strapped to Koller’s chest that The PRP posted, taken from a different show on the tour:

And a photo I shot myself of the band cranking through Black Sabbath’s “Falling Off The Edge of the World” with guest vocalist Sarabeth Linden of the Dio cover band Holy Diva: