"And No One Wants A Tune About The 100th Luftballoon ..."
It's been kind of a rough week. It's been kind of a rough couple of weeks, to be honest, and I haven't had a chance to jump online until now. However, I am finally here with a wrap up of the fantastic time I had at ACL this year-with videos ...
Friday
I started out Friday morning with Automata, who is a Irish pop-punk band, kind of Blondie/Garbage-like. Then I headed over for an ACL mainstay Asleep At The Wheel, who I'm always a little embarrassed to admit that I really like. Maybe there's just something about Country/Western Swing music that seems below my music-snobbery ... or maybe it's because Ray Benson is just kind of embarrassing ... but it's hard to hate on "Am I Right (Or Amarillo)". Hmmm ... it's a little embarrassing to even type that sentence ..
Then it was on to the wonderfully named What Made Milwaukee Famous, a local band with a Spoon-like vibe, before hitting Vampire Weekend which was ... ok. I mean, they were catchy and all but - after a while - I just started thinking, "If I wanted to listen to Talking Heads, I can just listen to Talking Heads, yo'." But whatever, they were catchy and weren't the most disappointing ...
That honor has to (sadly) go to Del the Funky Homosapien. Look .. you know why when you go see ... I dunno' ... Bruce Springsteen, he usually doesn't invite his buddies on stage to sing? Because no one wants to see Springsteen's buddies sing. Del, I'm sure you have plenty of friends. How could you not? You are - indeed - a funky homosapien. You don't have to prove how good a friend you are by allowing your buddies to rap (free style, no less) for 15-fuckin' minutes. And then, after making us wait for 20-minutes, only doing a 6-minute medley of "Dr. Bombay" & "Mr. Bob Dobalina" (which are 2 of only the 4 songs of yours that any has ever heard) is a straight up punk-move. I'm sorry, but you have been downgraded to Del the Slighty Funky Homosapien.
Click to viewI was tempted to see Patty Griffin but, since I've seen her before, headed over to Gogol Bordello and - good god. It's hard to even put Gogol Bordello into words. They are a 9-piece band of Eastern European immigrants who perform traditional and self-written punk-gypsy songs. It honestly was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. I will never, ever, ever buy a Gogol Bordello cd (I can't imagine being in my car and thinking, "You know what I could listen too? I rousing rendition of 'Think Locally, Fuck Globally'!") but I'll see them again in a heartbeat.
After a much-needed break, to wash the Gogol Bordello off with a little Mate of State, it was off to David Bryne who was - well - as wonderful and pretentious as you'd expect David Byrne to be. Yes, I could have done without the dancers "dramtically reinterpreting" the songs (your not Madonna, Mr. Bryne), I got great renditions of 'Houses In Motion' and 'Once In A Lifetime' - so it equals out.
It caught the tail end of N.E.R.D. which, from what I could hear, was for the best - before seeings the highlight of Friday for me: The Swell Season. They are the touring name for Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, the stars of 'Once'. I've gone on before about how much I absolutely adore that movie and seeing them perform live - especially at sunset - was just great music for my soul. On top of doing the best songs from the soundtrack, and a couple new tunes, they also pulled out a great version of 'Madame George', one of my all-time favorite Van Morrison songs.
The night finished with Manu Chao, who put on a great set. Granted, i probably would have enjoyed it more if I had the slightest clue what the hell he was going on about (something about marajauna and revolution, methinks) but still a solid set.
That night, I went to bed with the soothing sounds of "Same as it ever was, same as it ever was ..." going on in my head.
Saturday
Saturday started out with - possibly - the worst act I've ever seen; 'Mugison' (who isn't good enough to link to). He was billed as 'Iceland's answer to Beck' which only makes me think that Iceland has no damn idea who Beck is. It was song after song of Mugison whinning and moaning about no one loves him and he'd better off dead - which I'm inclined to agree with. When he started on some song about how he loves it when "I make you moan" my friend and I decided that he had never actually heard a woman moan ... and walked off.
We headed to one of the bands I was really looking forward to, the Fleet Foxes. I've gone on before about how much I liked them and they did not disappoint. Not only did they sound great, they were damn funny too. They lamented the fact that they were not on the WaMu stage and publicly announced that J.P. Morgan could buy them anytime it felt like it. But, most importantly, they sounded like this:
After listening to another recent favorite of mine, The Fratellis, it was time for another act I'd been looking forward to for months: The Drive-By Truckers. It was kind of full-circle, in a way. The first time I heard The Drive-By Truckers, it was five years ago at ACL. It was late in the afternoon and I was taking a little beer-induced "nap" at a smaller stage, when they kicked into '18 Wheels of Love'. The holy racket moved me out of my drunken stupor and I've been a fan ever since. So, it was cool to know see them at one of the main ACL stages. And, yes, they did '18 Wheels of Love'. And, yes, it was fantastic. And, yes, that will be played at my wedding, one day.
After some blues with Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears, it was time to visit New Amerykah with Ms. Badu who was fantastic. About midway through her mashup of 'Appletree' with Afrika Bambaataa's 'Planet Rock', it occurred to me that I could easily sit there and listen to that lady all day. My only real complaint, really, would be that 1-hour wasn't nearly enough time for Ms. Badu.
After MGMT and surprisingly still massively popular John Fogerty, I actually missed most of the Black Keys. After ten 24-ounce cans of Bud Light, if I didn't find a bathroom, something was gonna' explode.
Then it was time for my highlight of Saturday, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. As much as I enjoyed 'Raising Sand', I was a little doubtful whether it could translate to a festival-setting. Turns out, there was no reason to be concerned at all. They sounded fantastic on all of the album tracks and really interesting versions of some Led Zep tunes:
Then, after listening to a somewhat underwhelming Beck, it was time to call it a day.
Sunday
Sunday started out with A. A. Bondy, who put in a decent (if a little repetitive) set. Then I caught Abigail Washburn & the Sparrow Quartet Featuring Béla Fleck, who played a realy pretty set of bluegrass and Chinese folk songs. Perfect for Sunday morning.
After a little Octopus Project - who rocked the shit out of the Theremin - I caught the unfortunately named Massacoustics. They had a really nice set of Corwded House-ish pop music. Good enough for me to buy their cd, if not quite good enough to look past how awful their name is. In fact, the fact that the are The Massacoustics from Massachusetts actually makes their name a little worse.
After catching a little bit of Stars, who weren't as good as I had hoped; I caught Joe Bonamassa who was amazing. An old-school blues guitarist - kind of the unholy child of SRV and Hendrix, Bonamassa tore the living crap out of that stage.
Up next, possibly my favorite set of the weekend, Okkerville River. A local band, who was playing Austin for the first time in four months, their set was every bit as captivating and moving as their two most recent albums. Heartfelt and quirky rock music - that's kind of like a combination of Modest Mouse and 70's pre-Born to Run Springsteen. It's always hard to put into words why some bands speak to you - they just do. And Okkerville River definitely spoke to me.
Finally, I headed to the end of the park and set up camp for the remainder of the day. After a solid (if not spectacular) set by Gnarls Barkley, I didn't so much listen to as much I experienced Band of Horses. While I know a couple of their tunes, a friend absolutely insisted I see them. It was one of those sets where everything kind of comes together. The wash of guitars, the overall vibe of the weekend winding up, the awesome sunset painting the canvas of red/pink/black sky behind them ... I can't imagine a better way or place to be introduced to them
Then, after 3 days and nearly 22 hours of music - The Foo Fighters
kicked off the last set of the weekend with 'All My Life' - one of my favorite songs. In fact, I was possibly rocking a little too hard to the song ... my sunglasses flew off the top of my head and probably beamed some poor person behind me.
I heard all my favorite tunes, 'Big Me', 'My Hero', 'Monkey Wrench', 'Everlong', etc. and Dave Grohl just cracked me up all night. After making his keyboardist perform for us "the best fucking triangle solo you'll ever hear" someone from the crowd ran up on stage. As ACL security chased him off, Grohl told them to settle down, "He's just a student. He's just a drunk college dork, he's not an assassin." Honestly, the Foo Fighters should be legally required to close every festival.
And that's about it. All in all, a fantastic weekend. Great music, great friends, great weather - just couldn't ask for more. And I'll be back, the first weekend in October, for the next festival.
CruelNails Radio