Panda Bear will not be performing at SXSW this year, having been largely discouraged by an equipment disaster from past experience at the festival. Noah Lennox, the man behind the moniker, is better known for his work with Animal Collective.
“I don’t have any plans to do SXSW as of yet. It’s been a while since we were there. The last time I was there it was a disaster. We’ve only done one show there ever.”
“It was outside at this…there was like a bar. For whatever reason I thought it was a good idea to set up my electronics on a bar stool next to where I was drumming. In those days, I used to stand up when I drummed. The stage was one of those bouncy stages and a song or two into it everything fell over and my sampler was totally broken,” he told Spinner.
The incident occurred back in 2005, when Animal Collective was starting to expand its fan base from the psych folk underground. “There were like 500 people at the show. For us, it felt really really big. It still feels big now.”
Lennox further explained his reasons for not playing SXSW – “I’m not super big on being at places with thousands of people. I usually just stay in a backstage tent or trailer. “
Though SXSW, held annually in Austin, Texas, is a popular channel for promotion of new records. His fourth solo album, Tomboy, is set for an April 12 release.
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