Every year at the Austin City Limits Festival I discover a few new bands I like, usually in the afternoon before the big acts start. This year my favorite show was DeVotchKa, a band from Denver. They were billed as a gypsy-influenced rock band, and I guess that’s true, but it was more like this:

DeVotchKa is four piece band. The lead singer has a beautiful voice, a beautiful whistle, and also plays acoustic and electric guitar. Oh, and bouzouki.

Next is a violinist, playing sometimes in a classical style, but often in an Eastern European folk music style. When he wasn’t playing accordian.

Then there was the woman on double bass. Who sometimes played sousaphone.

The drummer played, well, drums. Until the one song when he came out and played mariachi-style trumpet.

Oh, and how could I forget the theremin! There was a theramin!

And somehow, the effect was wonderful. The punk kids were jumping around in the heat, and so were the twirler hippie chicks. The audience didn’t try to sneak out early to get to the next show. Fun!
Listen to music on their website, or check out (not necessarily high-quality) videos on YouTube.