Broken Bells’ Saturday night performance at Austin City Limits featured a bright light show that utilized warm colors and large inflatable pink balls that bounced through the crowd.

This indie-rock band is comprised of James Mercer, founder and lead singer-songwriter of The Shins, and Brian Burton, a musician, songwriter and producer that is better known by his stage name, Danger Mouse.

Their radio-popular song “Holding On For Life” wasn’t the only crowd pleaser that night.

After playing “After the Disco,” a groovy song that brought back memories of a ’70s dance movie, Mercer said to the crowd, “Good to be back! We may have had a little too much fun last time, but let’s do it again!”

The next song, “Medicine,” had the entire audience bobbing their heads along to the eerily catchy music that was accompanied by a psychedelic video backdrop of the human body and its internal organs. There was even a projection of a rotating skull that showed during the guitar solo in “Medicine.”

The contrast between the dark sky and the fabulous bright light show was shocking but really added to the cool vibe of the performance.

When “The High Road,” a chill song that had the audience swaying, started playing, large pink inflatable balls and small blue light up balls were thrown into the audience, creating a whole interactive element reminiscent of the normal beach ball concert experience.

“Keep ‘em bouncing!” Mercer shouted to the crowd.

The pink balls match the album art of the band’s first self-titled album and also matched the spacey vibe of the show. Trying to keep the balls bouncing created a sense of community in the crowd. As I reached up to touch each ball, my huge smile was duplicated on each person’s face around me as we made eye contact and laughed. 

As their performance drew to a close, Mercer thanked the audience humbly, his personable character shining through. Now their two albums, “Broken Bells” and “After the Disco” are forever on repeat on my Spotify.

Follow Audrey on Twitter @audeveofeden