Article and Photos By: Joshua Guerra

English rock band Band of Skulls brought their tour to the historic Antones in Austin, Texas. What is known typically as a blues concert venue or an acoustic style venue, Antones was changed Wednesday night when Band of Skulls came through to perform an electric set of the night. Opening up the show was Athens, Georgia band, Mothers. Mothers is a four-piece band headed by female lead singer Kristine Leschper. Coming into the venue it didn’t seem too packed, but midway of Mothers’ set, the crowd began crawling in.

Mothers performed a very mellow, low energy set. It wasn’t a band you would expect to open for Band of Skulls. There had some surprising high energy moments where things got heavy and the crowd really took to this. Leschper’s voice was very soothing and a mix of todays pop genre voices and a little old fashioned pop vocals.

Before Band of Skulls came on stage, the venue was packed to the back of the venue, making it hard to move around other people, as most fans wanted to be up close and personal with lead singer Russell Marsden. The three members of the band got up on stage as the crowd cheered and expressed excitement in their faces to see them perform. With four studio albums released, they made sure to give fans a taste from each album. The band recently released By Default in May, which has become a different album than their previous three.

Lead singer Russell Marsden gave the fans a night to remember and gave them the up close personal experience as he would shred his guitar in the faces of the lucky fans in the front row. With the new album just recently released, they were touring in support of that album. Songs they performed from By Default include “Black Magic,” “In Love By Default,” “Bodies,” and “So Good.” This is a tour where Band of Skulls are performing some of their new material live for the first time, and it is something they do to support the album and get the fans hooked on their latest album.

Band of Skulls will be in the States for the beginning of October but will then embark on a journey over seas performing in the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Germany and Australia.