Listen Live
KMJQ Featured Video
CLOSE
Pandora - 2018 SXSW Conference and Festivals

Source: Travis P Ball / Getty

One of the highlights from my first SXSW weekend was getting a chance to see New Orleans band Tank and the Bangas perform at the Showtime House on Shameless Saturday. I was first put on to Tank and the Bangas by a coworker of mine. He told me that they had won NPR’s Music Tiny Desk Concert in 2017. The song that they performed was “Roller Coasters.” I had goosebumps all over my body from the lead singer, Tank’s voice. It’s a mixture of Jazz, Soul, Rock, R&B, and Hip-Hop – not to mention her incredible delivery when she does poetry. Her voice reminds me of Jill Scott, Jazmine Sullivan, and gospel singer Tosha Cobb all wrapped up into one.

During that performance the sound kept messing up and there were a lot of feedback, but the members of Tank and the Bangas told us to “touch ya neighbor and say, ‘pushed through.'” And that’s what they did, push through all the Nicole difficulties from the sound and performed like they were at a church service. Then it was time for them to perform the song that I was first introduced to the band – Rollercoaster.

Tank and the Bangas put on a great show, despite how the sound engineers couldn’t get the sound together. As you can see in the video the crowd got rowdy when they did their rendition of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and the energy was on 💯   So, after that energetic performance I was ready to see Tank and the Bangas perform again later on that night for ‘The Roots and Friends’ show at Fair Market.  Well, let’s just say that some a**hole killed the fun by sending a bomb threat.  You’ll read about that in my next SXSW article.