ACLMF Day One: A Study in Scope

Very briefly, my first day at ACLMF was shocking in scope alone. The size of Zilker was one of the biggest fields I've been to in my life. The crowds, were easily some of the biggest crowds I've seen barring inauguration. This may have been because Zilker is such an open area and expansive park, but it was if I could see everyone in attendance. Anyways, on with the show:

Blitzen Trapper:


I really didn't know much about Blitzen Trapper when I went to see him and it showed when I finally got there. He had some good moments but nothing really worth writing about. I do recall that the band looked exactly as I imagined them. I ended up leaving after 15 minutes so that I could get to the next band in time.

The Knux:


I had promised my friend Joanna (JoSoPhine of Washglob anonymity) that I would check out the Knux because she liked the free download of their song, Bang! Bang!, provided on the ACLMF e-mails. She was originally going to join us in balmy Austin; but ended up teaching young, svelte Spanish boys English instead. So as Jo's proxy I witnessed the event that was The Knux. I must say I was rather impressed by their energy. I've found that energy is essential at a show where a significant portion of the crowd have only heard one or two of your songs. That being said, The Knux possess a strong stage presence that includes audience participation, demonstrated dance moves, and witty stage banter. The music itself is funky guitar driven rap that I thoroughly enjoyed (I dled the album shortly after returning home).

The Avett Brothers:


The Avett Brothers were the "pleasant surprise" act of Day 1 at ACLMF. Promoting their new album, I and Love and You, The Avett Brothers were a huge contrast to the funky rap of The Knux. The music they played was soulful, wistful, playful and a whole lot of other -fuls. Their music was...full. Their distinct brand of alt country blended seamlessly country, bluegrass, and folk with some indie hooks; but they could also rock when needed. I remember several times being caught off guard by the ability of Scott Avett (vox, banjo, guitar) to scream/sing certain lyrics making you feel the force with which he feels what he's singing. Accompanied by a bassist and occasionally a cellist the two brothers were able to create a sound that filled our part of Zilker completely.

At this point we took a break for lunch because frankly The Walkmen and Dr. Dog while good, were not that high on our priority lists considering that we were starving and ready to devour small children walking without a parental escort. I chowed down on some kebabs from somewhere in the food court and was very impressed with how moist the meat was, although off-put by the addition of potatoes to the kebab. They would have been good were they the texture of roast potatoes, but these chunky tough morsels were fingered to the ground. After we ate and refilled our water bottles, we returned to the music:

Phoenix:
There's not much to be said about the Parisian Alt Rockers that hasn't already been said. Having just seen them not two weeks before in Central Park, I was still impressed. Though their set was dramatically truncated from their Central Park show, the band was able to dole out a generous portion of very danceable rock for all to enjoy. It reinforced my need to inform my little brother to get their music any way he could (only to have him tell me I was right a few months later by thanking the Shazam app and Cadillac). I thought it funny that they refer to the "soul clap" as "the Prince clap", big up to Prince or the Artist or whatever he's calling himself now for managing to stay relevant to someone (I kid, I love Prince). They closed with 1901 and drove the crowd crazy and left them wanting more. I was impressed they got people moving that much in the middle of the day like that. It's hard to do at a festival show, and Phoenix proved themselves to be great showmen.

Raphael Saadiq:


Speaking of showmen, Raphael Saadiq, former frontman to 90's R&B group, Tony! Toni! Toné!, was a close runner up for "rock and roll" band of the day. I understand that it's hard to picture how the newly branded Neo-Soul artist as a rock star just by thinking about the words together. But picture those old soul music shows with their matching costumes, dancing, and spectacle. Raphael Saadiq embodied all these things as he took a small section of Zilker back to a simpler time when people were just concerned about people accidentally stepping on their new shoes as they went to the club for the night. He has fully embraced the Neo-Soul movement and belts out great songs from his new album such as 100 Yard Dash and Love That Girl. He even pulled out a (forgive the pun) "pearl" when he reprised his duet with 90's R&B star, Lucy Pearl, Dance Tonight. And oh, how we did.

John Legend:


The eponymous John Legend did not disappoint for what I was able to see of him. He started his set in the aisle that led from the sound stage to the main stage with an acapella cover of Redemption Song. I stayed for three or four hits off of Let's Get Lifted, which were phenomenal. This man is truly the next Marvin Gaye. That being said, I was hungry and left early to find food.

I found sustenance in a pulled pork sandwich from the famous Stubb's, which as Ryan had warned me, was nothing special. Perhaps it merits a trip to the actual establishment to check if it was just the festival conditions that made for a ho-hum sandwich; but that's for a future trip, and we still had more sets to see:

Andrew Bird:


A one-time member and perennial favorite featured artist for the Squirrel Nut Zippers, Andrew Bird's solo career has really started to take off. Even though he's still referred to as, "That-guy-who-does-that-whistling-song", Andrew Bird's extremely mellow chamber pop is something to behold. I was lucky to catch two or three songs after dinner before running off to get set up for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs set.

Them Crooked Vultures:


As someone who considers himself somewhat savvy when it comes to music, I must admit my complete ignorance of the formation of what can only be called the rock-super-group, Them Crooked Vultures. Comprised of drummer, Dave Grohl; keyboardist and bassist John Paul Jones; and vocalist/lead guitarist Josh Homme, Them Crooked Vultures provided some of the loudest rock I heard throughout the entire festival. I did not actually get to see them, as I was located at a close by stage getting in position for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs; but I heard the entire show and dled the album as soon as I could.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs:


The Yeah Yeah Yeahs were, fittingly, the "rock and roll" band of the day. Instead of seeing Kings of Leon with my friends (I think they sound like the band that kicked Jack Black out in the beginning of School of Rock), I chose to post up by the other stage and watch a band that I had heard a lot about in terms of their live show. I was certainly not disappointed. The stage was decked out in a large hypnotic spiral emanating from a gigantic eye hanging from the middle of the stage. Lead singer, Karen O came out on stage in what I could only describe as a Native American kimono out of the mind of David Bowie. A single light illuminates her from above as she began gently with Runaway off of It's Blitz! which eventually kicked into high gear and revved up into the rest of the show providing its attendees with the heavy danceable rock for which they are known. The concert was complete with costume changes an incredible light show and very "rock star" moments like Karen O swallowing the whole mic and screaming. After their encore, she just repeatedly swung and slammed her mic into the stage...so punk rock...I think I was in love for one hot second.

ACLMF

So, it's definitely taken awhile for me to get this up and running, but hopefully I'll be writing more regularly for real this time. I'm starting to regulate my schedule a little better and caring less and less about work, so I think I'm going to be spending more time goofing off (read as blogging, reading, and playing video games).

Now that you've granted me this small bit of self-indulgent personal life bullshit, let's get on with the dishing.

As I said in the previous blog, I visited Austin, and the main reason for me doing so was to attend the Austin City Limits Music Festival or ACLMF. What I didn't know until my arrival was that this was actually different from the Austin City Limits that I had grown up watching on PBS. The ACL concert series is a series of concerts that began filming in 1976 and take place on campus at the University of Texas at Austin complete with a mock image of Austin's skyline. The ACLMF takes place in Zilker Park and is now counted amongst the country's premier music festivals.

My personal preparations for the festival were relatively simple. Upon arrival I spoke with my friend Ryan (thanks for letting me crash at your pad) about how we were going to work the schedule. He informed me that the website (which I had failed to check since I bought the tickets back in June or whenever) had a tool where one could simply look through the schedule of bands and highlight the bands you want to see. He showed me how the iPhone even had an application that showed you the schedule of bands (p.s. ACLMF iPhone app, please be clearer about who's on what stage). We discussed what we wanted to see but really didn't do anything until the next morning.

After waking up slightly hungover from the previous night's craziness at Midnight Rodeo, we looked through the schedule of the day and blocked out which bands we would see at each stage. It was agreed that Zilker was too far for us to walk there, so we called very early for a taxi. Due to complications with Ryan's friend showing up late, we had to drive into the city and grab one of the convenient shuttles to Zilker. As pulled into the parking lot, it was stunning to see how many people rode their bikes to the event. The articles I had read on the internet boasted the show topping out between 60,000 and 70,000 guests; and it looked like half of them biked there. The stage setup was great, very easy to flow from one act to another and very rarely was I forced to choose between two bands resulting in only seeing half a set the entire weekend.

The things I noticed immediately were the enormous amount of flags that were being held by groups, which in hindsight is super-smart. If you're going to be in a sea of people, it makes sense to bring a mobile landmark that will readily identify you. It looked like a scene out of Braveheart, except you had different factions of music lovers instead of Scots.

One of the cool things I really enjoyed about the concert series as a whole was the keen attention to supporting the local commerce. There were local vendors comprising a very interesting outdoor mall. The Austin Eats food court was comprised entirely of local eateries and restaurant. I made a point to eat at a different stand each meal so that I could sample as much of the local eats as possible.



All things equal, I found the food from the Mighty Cone to be the best of the bunch. This was evidenced by the line of hungry, eager patrons that stretched nearly a quarter mile. The mighty cone was essentially a soft taco served in a snowcone paper cone. Your tortilla went in first accompanied by either chicken, shrimp or both; coleslaw; and fried avocado should you elect to add it; and two distinct yet complimentary sauces. I'm not sure what they were exactly, although one was definitely some sort of southwestern ranch while the other had a sweetness and salitness suggestive of some kind of Asian soy-based sauce. Delicious either way.


An interesting phenomenon occurred as well. Each day had what I started referring to as a "pleasant surprise" act. These were bands that we had scheduled to see even though we were not familiar with their work; and when we arrived we were pleasantly surprised by how great they were. Each day also had a band that just seemed to exemplify what rock and roll really means to me in my mind. The showmanship, the attitude, you all know what I'm talking about.

The crowd was way different from any other festival show I've attended. I don't know if this is a function of the show taking place out West, or if it was unique to ACLMF, but the crowd was incredibly nice to one another. There were tens of thousands of people there but moving through the crowd was simple and easy. For the most part pushing and shoving didn't really happen (although there were a few youngsters who "just had to be up front" that annoyed the older heads in the crowd). Everyone was willing to share just about anything from food to drinks to drugs (none for me thanks, I'm high on life, Arthur). The swaying, collapsing crowds of the HFStivals of my youth were nowhere to be seen or be crushed under.

One weird thing, I mentioned above how readily drugs were being circulated throughout the concert. It may just be me in my advancing age, but I have never seen kids this young doing drugs like this. I wanted to threaten to "beat them up for their lunch mon-I er mean your drugs..." or threaten to text pictures of them to their parents. Yikes a whole other topic for a whole other day.

All in all, ACLMF was everything I'd hoped it be and more. I'm not sure if I could afford it if I didn't have a friend with whom I could stay; but should you still be out there, Ryan I'm coming back in 2010!

If You Can't Stand the Heat

I really didn't know what to expect from Austin when I touched down at the airport last week. When I had left DC it was a sunny day with a brisk breeze sweeping through the area. I arrived on time at the airport and as soon as I stepped from the plane into that metal hallway/boarding deck thing I was immediately hit in the face with heat I had not been familiar with in over a month.

I told my friend who picked me up, "I left DC in brisk, jacket weather only to punched in the face with hot fart weather." He chuckled and let me know that this is actually much better than it had been during the summer (duh). He told me that there were long stretches of days where the mercury didn't fall beneath 100 degrees.


A mere 5-10 minutes later we arrived at his apartment, conveniently located about a mile from the hip area of town located on South Congress St. (SoCo to the locals). If you've been, I'd equate it to the Cary Town part of Richmond with its funky little shops peddling their equally funky chotchkies and small hole-in-the wall eateries. I unpacked my things and greeted his sister upon her arrival. We exchanged our hello's before she had to leave for work. Looking for a bite to eat, she suggested a local TexMex joint with good happy hour specials, Chuy's. Instead we hit a NY Style pizzeria cleverly named "Home Slice". Along with cheap beers and cheap pizzas, the restaurant itself was a well designed space with innumerable band postings by their front door, and great artwork everywhere else.

Austin is an interesting town to say the least. Their shirts advise to, "Keep Austin Weird"; but I see it more like "Keep Austin Real". This area seems to be more genuine than the places I frequent. I don't see people feeling the need to put themselves into categories the way the seem to in DC (whether intentionally or not). People just seem to like what they like regardless if some indie kid is supposed to like, or even be aware of the latest release from Taylor Swift. This is apparent at Home Slice as I peoplewatch and see aging hipsters dining with young post punks, emo kids in their skinny jeans eating with hippies in their tie-dyed glory. This phenomena is made crystal clear when we are invited to go drinking at Midnight Rodeo a local watering hole.

The bar looks to be a converted roller disco from the looks of the oval dance floored lined with bar rails. Again, I see an interesting mix of ancient cowboys swirling about the floor with sorority girls there for their 21st birthdays, butch lesbians airstepping with their dates in ways I will never hope to achieve. Another thing becomes apparent. No matter who you are in Texas, you love to fucking dance. And I'm not talking about dancing like the half-assed swaying and nodding your head seen at most clubs with the aloof hipster crowd. I'm talking full on twirly-whirly spin your girl with the most complex kinds of pirouettes one could imagine. And like I said, it's not just the aging cowboys; it's self-styled hip-hop Asian teens, Larry-the-Cable-Guy-looking dudes, hipsters, and butch lesbian types.

All in all what I understand about Austin, is that the people are cool and super friendly. The food is incredible and the support of local business is strong. The local commerce is just as interesting and unique as the people who live and thrive here. All in all the perfect place to call home for a kid caught between social circles as I often was/am. That is, if I can get past this heat...

Stay tuned for reviews of ACL Music Festival.