Photography by Andrew Zeiter
Watch Cheers Elephant for even a fraction of a sogn and you can tell they’ve been doing this for awhile. The majority of the upbeat, indie rock from Los Angeles by way of Philadelphia has been playing together since grade school, plenty of time to get to know one another and smooth out the rough spots in any performance piece. Unlike most somewhat-traditional four piece bands I caught throughout the whirlwind that was SXSW, Cheers Elephant (which may have one of the best band name-backstories there are) had life, excitement and personality lost amongst many ‘rock’ bands today. Frontman Derek Krzywicki, who has a name only I can truly appreciate, is a breath of fresh air onstage, playfully moving his hips in a faux Elvis impression, gliding across the stage, managing to not interrupt a guitar solo while carefully executing yoga-like moves. If he is the hook then the music is the sinker as the rest of the band backs up his front-of-stage heroics with a general aesthetic that perfectly lent itself to a mid-afternoon day in Austin, Texas. Before they got onstage I was able to link up with the guys from Cheers Elephant and chop it up about their packed schedule of twelve shows in a week, how the world has treated them and everything in between just before they took the stage at the Big Picture Media showcase at the Thirsty Nickel on Wednesday March 12. Read the full conversation here.