P+R: ACLFest Day 1
OK, I think I can finally settle in and try to recap this, although you'll have to forgive me since I'm working 100% from memory and Ace likely stole all my more astute observations made in situ. So, I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot and probably not formulating all my thoughts with the utmost coherence, but if you read until the end of all 3 days worth of blather, I will reward you with my undying love.
This was our 3rd Austin City Limits festival and the 1st without lugging the kids around, so it was really all about devouring as much music as humanly possible. And whoa-boy, did I get it by the wheelbarrowful! There were bands that I saw a significant portion of (SPO) -- meaning at least 20 minutes of the sets, which ranged form 45 minutes to an hour plus -- and some that I just saw some of (SSO), that is about two songs before moving on... I'd say about 90% of it was worth sticking around for the entire set, but there was so much going on, it was tough to stay still. The best shirt we saw all weekend (and there were quite a few good 'uns) was the one with the AC/DC logo with a lightning bolt replacing the forward slash... except it said AD/HD and it was on the back of a 15ish-year-old boy who's probably seen his fair share of Focusin... and that's exactly the way I felt. Unable to stick to one stage when I was worried about what I was missing, twitching and stumbling from one stage to the next. Thankfully, the festival is so perfectly sized that it was easy to zigzag across Zilker Park and catch 2-3 bands within a single block and still feel like you got enough of each.
The park was like a giant Venn diagram where sounds and bands and tastes overlapped and it was up to the audience to find the spot that met their needs. For me, the acts fell into a few different categories: bands I've seen before and loved and wanted to see again (and again and again), bands I know from albums but have never seen before, bands I've heard of and have wanted to check out, and finally, the most intriguing at all, the high risk/high reward category of musicians I was totally oblivious to and stumbled upon for worse, but mostly better.
With that intro out of the way, I'll split this into 3 days and try to mention every band I saw, but keep my wordage to just a sentence or two about each. I've got a few pix below, but have taken way way, too many more. For the full day 1 album, go here.Landed about 11:15ish, picked up the rental car and made it on-site with music filling our souls by the 12:30 set. L'shana tova to us! First band I caught was Asleep At the Wheel, which just screams "Austin!" in so many ways. Full-on country rockabilly that got me deep into the Texas mood within moments. Steel guitars, fiddles, et al, all the cowboy hats in attendance were quickly validated.
Within the 1st hour, it was decision time. But with the OTW method of festival enjoyment, it's never an either/or. Heartless Bastards are one of those bands I've heard and always wanted to catch and they totally kicked butt. The lady rockmatrons were in full effect all weekend long and the Bastards feature one of the better ones up front on guitar and lead vocals, giving this power trio a little something extra. Her voice is what makes the band, it's like she's got this classically trained songbird inside that's just screaming to rock out. It seems like it shouldn't work, but it's the most endearing thing about these guys. But, it'd only be a SPO as I made sure to see a nice big chunk of Del McCoury's set over at the always-awesome Austin Ventures stage. It was hot out already, but watching these guys pull the profesh bluegrass fully suited-up made everyone sweat that much more. That is one badass mandolin player Del has spawned. Who doesn't love these guys? Country>rock>bluegrass and I hadn't even munched my first BBQ of the weekend yet.
Pete Yorn was much better than expected, even though I have no idea what I was expecting. Totally giddy-up Uncle-Tupelo-esque alt-country with the perfect instrumentation to match. Very impressed with these guys. Didn't really want to leave, but it's been like nearly a decade since I last saw the Flecktones, so I sauntered across town to give 'em a listen. On the way I discovered some raunchy rock from Will Hoge which kinda reminded me of the band from Almost Famous... almost. Oh yeah, and I almost forgot there was a big ass fire that interrupted the Yorn set and got everyone's digital camera clicking away. It was totally bizarre and invited extensive use of variations on the "it was the heat" double entendre. Totally smokin!
Blonde Redhead was as good live as they are on CD, which is to say they were fucking awesome. Definitely a big highlight of day one for me. I love their newest album and they hit on that heavily as well as some well-placed back catalog. More sexy ladies doing the rock and roll with the men. This is a band that is locked into one another very nicely with some nicely laid loops and all that jazz. I still can't get "23" out of my head a week later and without even knowing the friggin' words. Now that's a title track. I kinda wish I had had the energy to check out their after hours show, but alas, they'll just have to leave me wanting mo'.
Andy Palacio and the Garifuna Collective are from Belize, I believe, which sparked an almost bizarre conversation with the lady standing next to us outside the WaMu tent... oh, the people you'll meet! Anyway, this was an unexpected detour and, no surprise, quite a nice one. Total Latin grooving that pushed the genre count for the day to the toes.
Kaiser Chiefs were one of the big outta leftfielders for me on Friday, just crazy, crazy, crazy energy. Those guys connected with their audience better than any other band I saw all weekend long, they just had the crowd going absolutely nuts and played 'em like the best can. It was pretty hard not to be enthralled by these guys. I didn't have them pegged as this sort of Franz Ferdinand like party band that maybe even better than those guys (who killed the last ACLFest I went to as well), but damn! Color me impressed. I felt obligated to check out Gotan Project midway through cause maybe they were just as awesome, ya never know, you know? Those guys had one of the better concepts that I've seen, but somehow the delivery wasn't as engaging as the idea. Basically, they were playing this tango music heavily leaning on an accordion player and then there was a string section and a piano player and behind all this were a couple of DJ's and a guy rapping in a language that wasn't English (I want to say it was French, but it could have been Spanish... I would even agree to Portugese if my arm were twisted that way. Google could settle this, but why ruin the mystery?). Anyway, it was fun and totally inoffensive and kept me interested for a song or three, but eventually I realized that I would have much more fun at the Kaiser Chiefs. In between was Rev. Horton Heat which was just plain loud and raunchy and not nearly as good as KC.
The Killers were just not all that to me, although I gave 'em a fair shot and I was much more interested in getting at least a small sniff of what Bjork was up to across the way, so I ditched on them. Bjork was one of the few acts of the weekend that brought something more than just musicians playing music to their stage. She had the whole visual thing going and outfits for everyone that synched up with the music and the lights and a full-on French horn section, etc. Bjork is what it is and I enjoyed it, but I was exhausted from waking up at 4am for our flight and 95 degree heat in the form of Texas sun on my neck all day, so we packed it in for day 1.
Ay carumba, that's a lot of music. Final tally for Friday was 23 bands seen in total, with a SPO of 15. Stay tuned for days 2 and 3 soon....
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