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SXSW Review: Lena Dardelet, Yes and Maybe, March 14

Posted on
17 Mar 2026
by
Gary

It’s 10:30 on Saturday night at SXSW and those of us who can’t get their jagged little pills after seeing the lineup stretching around the block for the impossible-to-get-into Alanis Morissette show at Stubb’s start looking into our other options. With the Global Stage at the Downright Backyard just around the corner, we opted to take in a set from Lena Dardelet.

Starting things off with a bit of trumpet, French-Dominican singer Dardelet played a short set of of mostly light ballads. But being quite adept at rallying the audience, she turned her show into not just a concert, but a dance lesson on basic bachata and mamba. While the crowd was a little thin and likely orders of magnitude less committed than what she might be used to, the atmosphere was relaxed and fun, her voice crisp and light. And the bit of French infusion in the lyrics certainly added to the joie de vivre. 

A bit later in the evening, I headed back to the British Music Embassy for Glasgow indie poppers Yes And Maybe. Comprised of a Scot (“Maybe”), a Frenchman (“Yes”), and… AND (possibly the name of the third guy onstage?), the band takes a bit of time to get up to speed, and I’d say the buildup becomes a bit of a letdown. Playing vinyl era voices in the background before the songs had already become a contrived schtick by the second time they did it. The song writing, styled after that of an indie-pop boy band, wasn’t much better, betraying a feeling of more style than substance. Perhaps I should have given them more of a chance but at 12:30am, a samosa from a food truck I passed by earlier in the evening seemed much more enticing. 

PrevPreviousConcert Review: Mammoth, March 8, Danforth Music Hall

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