On November 13th, Smallpools performed at Emo’s in Austin, Texas with Magic Man and Panama Wedding. As this was their first headlining tour, it came with much excitement that they were coming through Texas.

Being a year and a half old, the band has received much critical reception for their EP, Have a Great Summer!, it comes to no surprise that the band has flown under everyone’s radar. Personally, having seen the band twice already open for Grouplove and Neon Trees, I already could tell the show was going to be fun and energetic, especially since they were going to perform songs from their new album, which, they hope, will come out early next year.

Originally, the three bands were billed to perform at the Parish in Austin, however, they soon changed it to Emo’s in order to fit a larger crowd.

Panama Wedding was the first band to come on that night and raised the spirits on the shivering crowd. Known for their two singles, “Uma” and “All the People,” Panama Wedding has a very 80’s synth-pop sound to them. The band performed songs from their Parallel Play EP and had an enthusiastic performance overall.

Magic Man, the synth-pop band behind Before the Waves, played after Panama Wedding and danced their set away. Opening with the opening track from their album,”Texas,” and ending with their hit, “Paris,” Magic Man got the crowd going and singing along. Lead singer, Alex Caplow seemed to never stand still, moving and dancing to the music.

Smallpools set, in the slightest of terms, started in grand terms. Walking on stage, Beau Kuther, drummer, Michael Kamerman, guitarist, and Joseph Intile, bassist, it seemed like an odd choice for the band to enter with classical music. But, once Sean Scanlon, singer got on top of an amplifier in a shirt and dress coat, pretending to conduct, it all came together. After this grandiose entrance, Smallpools went into “No Story Time.” The energy in the room sky-rocketed from this entrance and went on for the entire set.

The set included songs from their EP and new songs from their upcoming album, including “Bruce Lee.” The onstage banter was enjoyable as the band made witty remarks and interacted with the crowd. Scanlon told a story about how in the beginnings of the band, they would search for themselves online only to find rants about killer whales being kept in small pools. This, incidentally, lead to their latest single, “Killer Whales.” As usual, the band threw inflatable killer whales into the crowd, including a massive one with the band name spray painted onto the stomach. As an ongoing tradition, before the band performed their last song, “Dreaming,” they took a picture of the crowd with their two small dogs.

All three bands had lively sets and it will be interesting how each of them will do next.