Tinted Windows | Mercury Lounge

Tinted Windows | Mercury Lounge

This new "supergroup" is the kind of band much of SXSW's jaded industry crowd would probably never admit to liking, but it was unmistakable how much they perked up to their first blasts of buzzy power-pop during their set at the annual festival. Visually, the band makes no sense at all. To one side of the stage, there's the white-haired James Iha, radiating alternative cool; to the other, the eternally frumpy Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne, looking like he just wandered up on stage from the media tent. In the back, there's Cheap Trick goofball Bun E. Carlos, happily bashing away, and up in front, it's Taylor Hanson, dressed like Simon Le Bon. But somehow, musically, all the elements gel, and the whole thing winds up sounding like Smashing Pumpkins for the Miley Cyrus crowd.  With Brookville, Mike Viola and April Smith.

More concert photos: Yeah Yeah Yeahs at Santos Party House | Chris Cornell at Webster Hall |  Steel Panther at Canal Room | The Roots at Highline Ballroom | Tigercity at Highline Ballroom | Cut Copy at Terminal 5 | Les Savy Fav at Brooklyn Masonic Temple | Lilly Allen at Bowery Ballroom | Cold War Kids at Mercury Lounge | Animal Collective at Bowery Ballroom | A-Trak at Studio B | David Byrne at Radio City Music Hal