Austin City Limits Entertainment Art Zilker Park Austin, TX September 26-28, 2008

This year’s festival was a couple of weeks later than usual and the temperatures were more moderate, which always improves a festival. The location was the same as always, downtown in Zilker Park. Zilker is smaller than, say Grant Park, about the same size as the Coachella grounds, so it is easy to get to any of the stages and the only bands you miss are when two of your favorites are at the same time.

Of course, Austin is also known for the club scene, so there are plenty of after shows to choose from. One of them featured David Byrne on Thursday, the day before the festival (wouldn’t that make it a pre-show?) at the Paramount Theatre. I had to arrive early for that, and it was a great show, in one of the nicest small theatres I have ever been in. It’s always great hearing the old Talking Heads songs, although I did yearn for an additional guitar to make it even funkier.

I began the festival proper on Friday with Rodney Crowell, another personal favorite of mine, a great songwriter known on the country charts but able to rock out with the best of them. His set was more low-key than his previous shows I’ve seen, emphasizing more acoustic textures. It was the perfect way to start the weekend. I left a little early to check out some of Paula Nelson’s set, mostly out of curiosity, and she was good too. She got some of her dad Willie’s talent but a lot nicer-looking.

Next on my list was Yeasayer, not because of any familiarity, but because they have been hyped a bit lately and I was curious. After a few songs, I decided they weren’t much to my taste and headed to Vampire Weekend’s set on one of the mainstages. Yep, despite a hurricane of blog hype followed by a similar level of backlash, they are now able to command a mainstage at a large festival. And they did a fine job despite a limited repertoire; the songs are catchy and memorable and the spirit of fun is perfect for a festival. They also kept it interesting with some new songs and by bringing out Austin’s Tosca Strings, a string quartet, for “The Kids Don’t Stand a Chance” and “M79.”

After VW’s pop, I stopped by the BMI stage to check out a bit of Sunny Sweeney. I never heard of her before, but it was some nice upbeat country with a modern feel. Sometimes it’s the artists you never heard of before that makes festivals such a great exploration. Jamie Lidell was next on the Dell stage right next door and I was curious how he was live as he has a bit of a buzz around him. After 3 songs, I left wondering if it was the singer for Maroon 5 (don’t worry, I know better, but it was the thought that crossed my mind when I heard him). Pleasant white soul has its place, but I saw Hall and Oates in their heyday and that’s about the best it gets.

The next choice was Patty Griffin. A folk chick with a pretty voice always gets my attention and it was a wonderful set. Now how would I follow that up? With a set of electronic music, courtesy of the Hot Chips on the stage just down the hill of course. A balanced musical meal is always best, especially as I’m already unbalanced. Hot Chip put on a fun show, more energy than the first time I saw them when they were all keyboards. Now they have a drummer and real bass and guitar to keep the energy level up.

Then I had to catch Jenny Lewis at the Wamu tent. Apparently I wasn’t the only person to have fallen in love with her country-tinged voice, as there was an overflow crowd spilling out from the tent and I didn’t stand a chance of seeing much of her, at least comfortably. So I checked out a few songs and then, feeling claustrophobic, I headed to the main stage to catch David Byrne again. Hearing the great Heads songs again made me even more wistful for the reunion I know will never happen, but at least I can still get the tunes live when David tours. Once again I would have preferred more guitar and fewer dancers on the stage, but it was a great ending for Friday at the fest (although I did catch some nice country on the way out courtesy of Ryan Bingham on the BMI stage).

From the festival, I headed to Stubb’s for another after show, this time featuring Gnarls Barkley and CSS. CSS put on a great show, with a festive stage festooned with balloons and Lovefoxxx’s quirky outfits. I first caught them at Lollapalooza and was impressed with their stage presence, but seeing them in a more intimate club is even better. Gnarls Barkley was about the same as usual, which is to say, nice tunes and a nice show, but they just felt like last year’s flavor, especially following CSS, which is more of this year’s flavor.

After a late night, it’s hard to get up early for another day at the festival, but the thought of Fleet Foxes motivated me to get there early. Their harmonizing is a wonderful change from the shoe-gazing introspective folk and blog-chasing indie bands. And the harmonies were there, but the music was less inspired than I had hoped and they did way too much talking and tuning onstage. Hopefully it was just too early for them and I’ll fall in love with them again when I see them in a club. The Fratellis were much more energetic on the stage nearby and kick-started the festival with a rocking set that knocked loose any remaining morning grogginess.

I’m from Florida so I next headed to the Wamu tent for Florida’s Lee Boys as they are always great for dancing and celebrating. The band’s funkiness, combined with Roosevelt Collier’s pedal steel chops are always a tonic for the troops. Even the secular hippies can’t help but feel the presence of the Lord in their feet. At this point, I found it ironic that so much spiritual music was happening in the Wamu tent. But I don’t think prayer will help Washington Mutual now. But we can thank God for the music of the Lee Boys.

I then headed to the BMI stage to check out Band of Heathens, who have a buzz going in Austin and the large crowd reflected the hype. I only checked out a couple of songs though because I wanted to catch Back Door Slam’s blues jams at the Austin Ventures stage (no they’re not from Austin, but their blues sound fits right in). For a trio, they make some wonderful noise.

Then it was back to CSS for their afternoon set in the sun. After such a late night, they could be forgiven if they were a little off, but they weren’t. They were even more energetic entertaining a huge crowd of thousands in the sun. For a song about alcohol, Lovefoxxx jumped down into the security pit to ask a fan what his favorite drink was to have a proper intro to the song. And they had the crowd sweating it out in the sun, jumping up and down and waving their arms in unison.

After CSS, I headed to the other side of the festival to catch Erykah Badu. No hurry though, as she opted to come on stage late, which is almost unheard of at these big festivals. Her reputation preceded her and her set was not nearly as entertaining as I had hoped. Even her hair was not as entertaining, so I left to catch some high-energy rock courtesy of John Fogerty. Fogerty brought tons of hits too, saving some of the best for later in the set with “Fortunate Son’ and “Proud Mary.” With only a 1 hour set, he kept the between-song chatter to a minimum (thankfully). Maybe I’m the only one, but I wish he had played “Centerfield.”

Saturday night ended with the most anticipated set of the weekend (for me at least), Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. This was a once-in-lifetime pairing of a bluegrass lady with an angelic voice and the hard-rocking former Zep belter, and it works so well it’s scary. It began surprisingly understated, with the two emerging in silhouette from either side of the stage to take their place at microphones about 15 feet apart. By the third song though, they were only inches apart as they slowly gravitated together like yin and yang to form a cohesive unity. Their voices melded well on her bluegrass tunes and on re-worked Zep classics. You can almost forgive him for not reuniting with Page for a reunion tour when you consider that he has this going on (almost, but not quite). Surely this was the best show ever in Zilker Park.

For the third day, I just was not motivated to get there as early, barely making it in time for Gillian Welch. No matter how many times I see her, it’s never enough, I just love her voice, and David Rawlings picking is like gravy. She made a joke about all the people she’s met that seems to love chicks with banjos, sorry Gillian, it’s not the banjo.

Then it was time for one more trip to the Wamu tent to get some spirituality with my music. I had seen a stripped down Mike Farris before and was impressed with his gospel, but with a full band known as the Roseland Rhythm Revue, it was even better. He mixed up some great Gospel classics with some of his originals (which were of the same cloth, so much so you couldn’t tell them apart unless you knew beforehand), and even threw in a stirring cover of Sam Cooke’s “Change is Gonna Come” that was mind-blowing. For everybody that wandered in to this set, it was probably the best discovery of the festival.

Mike Farris is a tough act to follow, but Against Me! was up to the task across the field. This quartet knows how to belt out the punk anthems, but they do it with harmony and feeling, subtleties often lacking in punk bands. The mean streets of Gainesville produces some of the best music in the country and this band has been converting people at festivals lately. Even Tegan Quin (of Tegan and Sara, duh) has been converted and joined them for “Borne on the FM Waves of the Heart” as she did on the album. After them, Silversun Pickups on the mainstage was fairly disappointing, or maybe it was the amplifier problems.

Raconteurs on the other mainstage were good too, but after a few songs it was time to hit the smaller Dell Stage for a set by Band of Horses. Even a slightly muddy sound couldn’t stop this set from being a highlight of the festival, with the vocals and guitars chiming together nicely to form perfect pop confection with an indie edge. Fans had been waiting all day to be front row for this set, and once you see them live, it’s easy to understand why.

For the end, it was the Foo Fighters. It was the end of the festival and the end of their tour, and they were ready to rock, as the thousands that showed up for their set were, no doubt, also ready. It’s better for a festival to end with a bang rather than a whimper.

Another fun Austin City Limits Festival is over. I caught 30 bands in 3 days, some familiar, and some I want to know better. The promoters also gave me a VIP wristband, which was an interesting new experience. There was a nice shady grove near the heart of the festival, with free alcohol (which I didn’t indulge in enough because I was there for the music and keeping hydrated is the most important aspect of a festival for me) and great food, including lasagna on Saturday and barbeque chicken and beef on Sunday (it’s not Austin unless you get barbeque). If I win the lottery, I’m going VIP every time.

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