Ground Control Touring

Middle Brother played their first show at 2010’s SXSW – a tiny, late-night, unannounced event under the moniker “MG&V.” Other than recording the album and rehearsing once, they had never played the songs live. The audience (and the mob of onlookers crammed in the doorways and windows) was treated to an impossible-to-forget set by a band of musical comrades who seemed genuinely surprised by the fire that was ignited on stage. It was a rollicking and boisterous show that could have fallen apart at any moment and instead centrifuged into melodic and harmonic brilliance. What held it together was each member’s sense of song and performance – a perfect, intuitive balance of craft and feel, equal parts playful and earnest.

In a time when synthesizers and laptops are taking over stages, Goldsmith, McCauley and Vasquez are leading the pack of young rock songwriters who strive to carry on the tradition…