November 2009 / vol. 6 issue 3
A Look at the Austin City Limits Music Festival
Sweat. Smoke. Slightly less legal smoke. Rain. Poo? Despite the vivid olfactory assault at Austin City Limits Festival 2009, more than fifty thousand people gathered to focus on one unifying passion: music . With acts ranging from French pop rock to bluegrass folk to hip hop, the festival was a smorgasbord of musical genres that succeeded in whetting the melodic appetites of all its attendees, no matter how selective their tastes. Headlined by Pearl Jam, Kings of Leon, and Dave Matthews Band, ACL drew crowds in record numbers. By the time Pearl Jam hit the stage late on Sunday night, the entirety of Zilker Park was parked in front of the Livestrong Stage. Of course, there were plenty of bands besides the headliners at the festival, including some terrific and some terrible performances. Here’s a taste of the good, the bad, and the strange of this year’s ACL.
Girl Talk
ACL was book ended by two great dance bands — Phoenix on Friday and Girl Talk on Sunday. Girl Talk consists of one DJ, Gregg Gillis, who does mash-ups: He mixes dozens of songs into one coherent track. Watching him do his work live and on the fly makes it even more impressive, as his improvisation is masterful. Performing a show that was definitely fan oriented, he scrawled text messages to the crowd across the giant viewing screen and was joined on stage by hundreds of fans dancing their hearts out. A genre unto itself, his mash-ups of hip-hop, rap, and hard rock had thousands of people on their feet and jumping.
The Decembrists
The Decemberists has the ignominious title of most disappointing act at the festival — and nobody else came close to challenging it. Despite the virtuosity of its performance and its distinctive command of the stage, the Decemberists played its latest concept album, Hazards of Love, straight through and almost note-for-note for the hour-long set. That is an experience easily duplicated in any apartment — not necessarily one for which fans would want to pay. Concerts are venues for improvisation, new renditions, and stage presence, and The Decemberists did not add anything to the concert that was not already on its album. While Hazards of Love is a rock opera with a set storyline, there was still room to add new aspects and riffs to the instrumental theme, and those possibilities were not taken advantage of.
| Rock royalty: John Paul Jones, Dave Grohl, and John Homme. Photo courtesy of Sidehike @ flickr |
Them Crooked Vultures
Them Crooked Vultures is the best band you aren’t listening to. How do we know? Because it hasn’t released its album yet, but rest assured that once it has, that album will go all the way to eleven. The band consists of Josh Homme on guitar and vocals, the lead singer/songwriter/guitarist of Queens of the Stone Age, Dave Grohl on drums, who drummed for Nirvana and plays front man for the Foo Fighters, and finally, John Paul Jones, the bassist and keyboardist for the great Led Zeppelin. Despite being over 60, John Paul Jones had no difficulty keeping up with his younger bandmates at bringing the rock. After teasing the crowd about covering “Thriller” (which we maintain would have been awesome) Them Crooked Vultures shredded through a set list of brand new songs from its debut self titled album, due out November 17, 2009.
The Dead Weather
One thing you can always count on from ACL is an appearance and performance from the great Jack White, and you can always count on Jack White to show up with an entirely different band from the year before. Not content with just two great bands (The White Stripes and The Raconteurs) Jack White plays drums in his latest group as he teams up with rock veterans Alison Mosshart of The Kills on vocals, Dean Fertita of Queens of the Stone Age on guitar, and Jack Lawrence of The Raconteurs on bass. Once again, our expectations of hearing a cover song were dashed, but the band gave a black and bluesy snarl much closer to “Icky Thump” than “Steady as She Goes”. Its new album Horehound is angry, dark, and raucous, and that was exactly the music it brought to the Livestrong stage on Sunday afternoon.
| Flogging Molly's Dave King and Bridget Regan rock through the rain. Photo courtesy of Chronotourage @ flickr |
Flogging Molly
Flogging Molly played on the AMD stage on Saturday and faced a challenge uniquely suited to an Irish rock band: torrential rain. Flogging Molly, a punk rock band from Dublin, played during heavy showers and still managed to whip the 5000 attendees into a frenzy. A veteran band of four albums (the latest being a darker endeavor called Float), Flogging Molly opened the show with enough energy to get people jumping amid the cold and the mud. “Devil’s Dance Floor”, “Rebels of the Sacred Heart”, and “Drunken Lullabies”, perennial fan favorites, drew tremendous reaction from a rowdy crowd. With toasts of Guinness, one-fingered salutes, and even some Irish jigs, the band brought a performance that was punk rock at its best.
| Lonely beachball is lonely, mostly because of the poo dirt. Photo courtesy of sara sherwood |
Poo Dirt
ACL 2009 was smelly. Every year ACL has been defined by some feature or other (dust storms, extreme heat, etc.), and this year was no different. The huge crowds and the downpour on Saturday quickly turned the nice grassy landscape into a treacherous sinkhole of slime and mud. The grounds had been marinated with “Dillo DirtTM”— a compost of dirt, recycled yard trimmings, and, yes, treated human sewage sludge. While the composting process made it sanitary, the scent was still unmistakable, leading to our personal phrase of the year, “poo dirt”.
Phoenix
Phoenix played with the exact amount of flair you’d expect from a pop-rock band from Paris. Unfortunately, it did not play some favorites, such as “Napoleon Says”, but it definitely rocked a collection of songs from its new album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, including “Liztomania” and “1901”. Featuring a pseudo-electronic feel, the show turned into more of a dance party than a concert, a tribute to the infectious nature of Phoenix’s music.
Final Thoughts
ACL 2009 was awesome. Despite the smell, the rain, the crowds, the heat, and the presence of more hippies than you could shake a stick at, it didn’t disappoint. With attendees already speculating on next year’s lineup, and the PBS show upon which the festival is based finally receiving a nod from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Austin City Limits Music Festival has permanently established itself amongst the great music festivals of our day. Both mainstream and independent rock fans can find something to appreciate at Austin City Limits, so be sure to get your early bird 3-day passes soon, and have fun next year.
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