With recent rainstorms, last night was possibly the best night of the summer to hold Blues on the Green at Zilker Park here in Austin. The breeze was amazing, the grass was soft, and the crowd was buzzing. Thousands of people came out to see performances by Suzanna Choffel and The Bright Light Social Hour. Choffel started off the night around 7:30 with soulful tracks from her new album, Steady Eye Shaky Bow, released at the end of May of this year. The album has a great energy that translates really well to the stage, and Choffel’s bluesy voice kept the crowd dancing and clapping along.
Although Choffel put on a great performance, The Bright Light Social Hour really stole the show. After a short intermission the band loaded on to the stage just as the sun was beginning to set. With Austin’s beautiful skyline in the background, The Bright Light Social Hour lit up the stage with songs from their first full-length, self-titled album, recorded and released last year, including “Bare Hands Bare Feet” and Austin’s 2010 Song of the Year, “Detroit.” Since the release, the band has created a lot of buzz, and it seems to be centered around the incredibly energetic live performance the band puts on. Each song the band played was accompanied by an animated light show that could be clearly seen even at the back of the huge crowd. The fans really got into the performance, with people dancing, hula-hooping, and singing along to every jam. The band wound down the set with one of their bigger hits, “Back and Forth,” and encouraged the crowd to follow them to the Parish for a more intimate performance. The band recently won several honors at the 2010-11 Austin Music Awards, including Band of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Bass Guitar, Best Keyboards, and Best Producer. We will surely be seeing more of The Bright Light Social Hour around town this summer, and hopefully a last-minute add to the ACL lineup later in the year.
– Submitted by Tracey Heymans, Marketing