Austin City Limits Recap

Austin City Limits Music Festival on September 27th.

The pic above details the schedule of Saturday's bands.

When in Austin, do it up Texas style!

The Fratellis jam out.

The Black and White Years plays (above).

Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings funks it up.

Jose Gonzalez plays some sweet melodies.

Electric Touch above had a good crowd, but they played at the same time as MGMT.

MGMT had the crowd of a headliner. It was crazy.

Some of the crowd that gathered for MGMT. Click this pic for an enlarged version and a better sense.

Jumbo Screen shot of Beck rocking the stage (above).

Beck was the last act to perform

So the music festival was a great time. Unfortunately, lots of good bands played at the same time. However, it was a great time. Here is a summary of the bands we saw...

The Black and White Years really rocked it out. They were my surprise band for the day. I had heard one of their songs on XM or someplace, but they put on a a strong enough performance for me to recommend the album. Interesting dance/guitar/rock group based in Austin. They don't take themselves too seriously. Bit of a Talking Heads influence. Punchy guitar. Good times.

Next, we checked out Five Times August...basically a solo songwriter and guitarist. I wanted to like the guy, really, but I just couldn't. Very teenie bopper pop rock and trying too hard to be a heart throb. Probably featured on MTV reality shows. He's probably on Tiger Beat (if that even still exists), but I honestly wasn't impressed.

The Old 97's were a very solid rock band. I enjoyed their tunes. They really rocked it out and put on a good performance. I don't think they have a sound that stands out a ton, but they had a diverse rock sound with alt country, Kinks and some punk influences. Mainly just a solid rock band. Worth a look.

The Fratellis were fun to watch. Rockers from Glasgow if you can imagine. Nice hooks, strong guitar, fairly ordinary rock, pretty good sound.

Jose Gonzalez was sweet. As you can tell from the pic above, he had a massive crowd. This is the guy you want to see at a smaller venue. A real small venue, ideally. He reminds me of Nick Drake (he of tragic story) who had a slight revival when VW featured one of his songs in a commercial a while back. Sweet melodies. Great vocals, stripped down classic, around the campfire sound. Great story telling, and wonderful guitar throughout. He had a female backup singer join him at times to sing harmony or join along. Great time, but I just didn't feel in the mood to fight the crowd to get up front. He needed more wattage to push that beautiful sound out to the crowd better. Great performer. Would be better in a smaller venue.

Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings. This girl can ROCK it!! Man, she's like a female James Brown. Loved it! Killer funk. Great dance sounds. Must see live act, but like much of this genre of music, probably loses the energy on a CD. Don't miss 'em if they ever play near you.

The Concert Supremes. They provided a high energy gospel/soul groove that really got the audience moving. Stopped in for a short bit and glad I did, but I wouldn't buy an album. Not my style, but fun to watch. Got your feet tapping and your soul cleansed a little.

Electric Touch. Great band. They are another band that I've started to like. I have a couple of their songs and a friend recently gave me a CD with one of their good ones. These guys are good and I'll get an album after the performance. I wanted to stick around, but the massive storm of people gathering for MGMT at the nearby stage detracted. How many songs could I hear before racing over to MGMT? Would I find my friends....

MGMT. Not a chance in hell to find my friends. These guys had one of the biggest crowds at ACL. They were huge! They had the crowd of a headliner and because I checked out Electric Touch, I was left pretty far back. I fought up to the middle area, but then decided I was comfortable in the crowd with a good view, nice sound and with time to make an autograph move for a friend/crazed fan at the conclusion of their set. They put on a good show. Solid, but probably a little under my expectation. They had sooo many people, and I really think they could have taken and owned the stage better. They started off with a lower energy song. Sounded good, but never rocked it as hard as they could. They were probably stoned and chilling cause they certainly looked the part. Nonethless, they did a great job, had a nice cover and have a great sound. Shawn was stoked to check them out and I was happy not to have missed it. The debut album is great and the new one is being produced by the Chemical Brothers, so these guys are going to just keep getting better!! They are going to soon blow up out of control is my prediction.

John Fogerty. I thought this guy was from California?! He sounds like a good 'ol boy from Arkansas or something. To that point: he plays good 'ol Rock n Roll and added some good CCR covers.

The Black Keys. The Ohio band played just as expected. They play some hard rock blues. I have the most recent album. It was a strong performance.

Iron & Wine. Played the same time as Black Keys. I have some of their songs, but no full album. They are in the vein of Gonzalez in terms of style. They are the group you want to hear in a more intimate setting than the festival allowed. Great performance, but someone you really want to check out in a smaller venue. Or at an outdoor venue that they headline, such as White River State Park . Nice and easy. Great lyrics.

Robert Plant & Alison Krauss. The former Led Zep frontman is old. Real old. Still, he can kick out some easy tunes. Alison has a beautiful voice and plays violin wonderfully. They put on a good performance with some fun takes on old Zep songs, but time was running out... I had to run to the other side to catch and get close for Beck!

Beck. Amazing. Great stage presence. Interesting songs. Started out rocking it and then put a nice lull to the crowd before rocking it out again. Great stage show. The guy is a musical genius and it shows!

Other Notables:

CSS. Missed them. Heard a lot of good things about the performance. An interesting group, but we didn't make it. We soaked up the atmosphere a little and grabbed some food and drink instead.

Fleet Foxes. See above.

Back Door Slam punched out some killer guitar driven rock ala Stevie Ray Vaughn style solos. I didn't really truly catch them other than listening in from a resting area nearby.

Lastly:

Check here for Saturday's set list of all the performing bands. It was a good time. Austin is such a fun town and so musically focused. We met some cool and fun people throughout the weekend and had a great time in Austin. It's a comfortable town. Not real multicultural and not a true city feel, but man what a wonderful vibe!! Looking forward to visiting again next year and doing the entire festival. There were so many bands that we missed on Friday (Vampire Weekend) and Sunday (Silversun Pickups).

We may even do a summer music festival tour in 2009!