Live music review: Nuclear Daisies make a splash at Hotel Vegas

Every once in a while, you’ll be at a show and wag your finger because you just know. That familiar light pops on that a music nerd can recognize when the band onstage isn’t just another local band; they’ve got the sound that moves beyond “this is good” to “this is international.” I’ve been to easily over a thousand shows in my life. I have seen many a band. Sometimes, you catch a Spiritual Cramp and can see from a million miles away, “these guys are gonna blow up,” and slowly but surely, those tours keep getting bigger. I said the same thing about Fontaines D.C., and after catching Austin’s Nuclear Daisies on October 28 at Hotel Vegas, I think it’s pretty obvious they have all the correct DNA to make a splash. Some of us can remember when Die Spitz was playing Chess Club. Now, they’re headlining Stubbs.

To be fair, I didn’t feel like going to their late-night tour kick-off show at Hotel Vegas, but I did so because I promised our photographer, Justin, that I’d be there. And I’m glad I went because Nuclear Daisies is a band that takes the early ’90s playbook of groups like Placebo, Stereo MCs, Orbital, and My Bloody Valentine, along with a tripped-out light show, but makes it palatable to today’s ears. There’s a confidence to what they do, a polish that most young bands don’t find this early. The vibe they emit isn’t intense but almost lavish, a freak-off dance party meant to elicit sweat and happiness. They’ve already built something that feels bigger than the room. What they do isn’t a bummer; if anything, it’s extremely uplifting, and in times like these, everyone needs to get lost in the sauce. It’s a fun experience to see so many people in the crowd smiling, like no one was trying to be cool. People were, shockingly, happy. 

The synths shimmer, the guitars swirl, and the vocals drift through the haze like smoke from a clove cigarette. Despite playing a late set on a Tuesday night, I leaned into Justin and mentioned how it’s easy to envision the band packing out larger venues in no time, leaving us to say we saw them with maybe fifty people, playing a midnight set. By the end of the show, even the bartenders were bobbing along, the whole room a blur of bodies and flashing lights. It’s telling when you can still fill the room on a work night and even more so when multiple people in the small crowd are singing along, many of them women.

Another sign of correlative excitement: diversity in the crowd. People were sweating, laughing, dancing – something becoming a lost art in Austin’s increasingly cool-guy scene, where half the crowd’s too busy filming to actually move. Zero men in leather vests were at this show. Always a good thing. The hipsters in attendance were the earnest kind, so we will not judge their vintage Carhartts for the love of good music, although the incoming crowds will likely be a lot more square. But that’s good for the band; money is money.

Celebrating the release of their new record, First Taste of Heaven, the band is embarking on a West Coast tour, and chances are, if they play the right rooms, people will notice. While I do think people in America will dig what they’re doing, I guess for Nuclear Daisies, they gotta get over to Europe and grind it out. Berlin, Manchester, Dublin, that’s where this sound catches fire. Get those passports kids. Get out of Trumpland and go play every weird, horny, drugged out club and blow the fuck up. 

I do think they’re going to break out. It’s a matter of time, and if you were playing the smart bet, you’d get a copy of their new record and get to a show and see what I’m trying to tell you. With so many good bands in Austin right now, it’s a chore to break out who’s doing what, but what Nuclear Daisies are doing is a unique, fun dance party rather than yet another pack of brooding dudes. Nuclear Daisies aren’t chasing a vibe — they are the vibe. Catch them now, before everyone else claims they saw them first. Go be weird and horny. This is what the world needs right now.

All photos by Justin Clark

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