Sleigh Bells

In concert, Sleigh Bells do the following: Scream, shred guitars, and melt faces. Lather, rinse, repeat. There really is no other way to describe it - their stage show is pure unadulterated shred. This duo - who caught the attention of the blogosphere with a demo tape that consistently pushed things into the red - turns the volume up higher than you think it would go, without losing the guttural urges that make their music so raw. This is not volume for the sake of volume; this is volume for the sake of volume for the sake of volume for the sake of awesome. It's like Derek Miller's guitars are in a competition with Alexis Krauss' vocal chords to see which can make the most noise and last the longest before fraying into a million pieces. A packed Fader Fort welcomed these newcomers to one of the biggest timeslots of all of SXSW - the penultimate performance in a week full of endless shows - and they did not disappoint.