SXSW 2010: Pattern Is Movement, Mohawk, Austin

The show starts late, delayed as the band clash with the sound technicians for a good fifteen minutes. By the time a truce is struck, there’s only about 20 minutes left for them to play.

However, those short minutes demonstrate that Pattern Is Movement are not simply run-of-the-mill hard-to-please talent, but artistic perfectionists. In a performance that is as beautiful in its balance and tone as it is in its rhythm and melody, it is easy to understand why it was so essential to get the sound equipment tuned just so.

As more and more people crowd in from the venue’s other, larger, stage it becomes apparent that such attention to detail is indeed worth the effort, as one person after another taps a shoulder and asks ‘Who are these guys?’ or ‘Pattern is what?’ then remain, glued to the soothing yet lively, pained yet joyful sounds of a Fender Rhodes and the lilting, tripping flow of an endless drum fill.