This post is more of a narrative and less of geek journalism-- I was very involved in the ACL festival, and just wanted the full-on experience, not very interested in note-taking (yet I still took some notes-- doh). For my second year, I performed with the West African Dance & Drum ensemble Lannaya on the side of the kid's stage (Austin Kiddie Limits). This meant I got to see morning and evening shows around the festival, but unfortunately missed a lot of the mid-afternoon action.. and with the park full of ten thousand extra bodies (AHEM), peaking in late afternoon, it was impossible to 'zip around' between Lannaya sets-- regardless of a fancy wristband.
If you think the park was too crowded, I recommend kindly informing both the city of Austin and the festival organizers how you feel. It's respectful to thank them for their work and for a (usually) great festival. However, what used to be a clearly all-ages experience (kids, elders) was instead a zoo this year.. a rather animalistic experience. In the snapshots below, I do not bring this up again.
Big Phish post coming soon. LMC Radio is partially dedicated to them, so that post will be separate. I saw many bands, but these are the ones who impressed me. In chronological order:
JJ Grey and Mofro -- I hauled ass from one side of the park to the other just to get to see one and a half songs from this Jacksonville, Florida band-- very worth the haul. By 12:20pm on Festival Day One, I was already completely musically satisfied. I didn't expect that much mojo to be handed out so early in the day. The full song I happened to catch was "Georgia Warhorse", a song JJ Grey wrote "for his grandmother".. and it's also the name of a hardy grasshopper.. and also the name of JJ Grey and Mofro's latest album! This was a striking piece, with lyrics of tenacity, riddled with swampy blues riffs, and climaxed with a slightly possessed solo from Daryl Hance on slide guitar.. resulting with the instrument being flipped from his lap and thrown to the floor. Damn!
First Aid Kit -- A duo of sisters from Stockholm, Sweden with heavenly voices. This was one of those early performances that made me stop in my tracks. Klara and Johanna Soderberg harmonized perfectly in their own style of folk, kinda mystical and earthy at the same time, a hint of country here and there.. Acoustic guitar, some light keyboards, a washboard.. a fellow on a kit adding a little bit of drumming.. I caught "Ghost Town", and another lovely number sung straight-up a capella. These voices in person were a sweet sedative.
Silversun Pickups -- To be fair to this band-- I barely know their work, but they came recommended, so I made sure I was able to catch a chunk of this LA-based band. Having followed and seen the Smashing Pumpkins in their peak in the early 90's (amazing), that's the part of my brain the Silversun Pickups ignited. Fuzzy distorted guitar, longing and breathy, vocals, a little bit of dreaminess and a lot of electric guitar with momentous blasts, clearly articulated riffs, and extended feedback.. even the rhythm section had me flashing back. The Silversun Pickups are a quality nod to the Pumpkins. As performers, they kept building the energy, even facing the afternoon Austin sun, with a rather hot and thrashing ending. Yow.
Gogol Bordello -- Highlight. Highlight. If you watched Gogol Bordello's performance, and happen to see some ladies jumping out of their skulls in the right back corner of the stage ("stage left"), that was me plus friends. For once I took advantage of the artist wristband in this way. And for once, there was no scene or line waiting to get on the side stage. What???
..Perhaps because being in Gogol Bordello's audience is the bigger point -- to jump and chant in unison with hundreds, thousands?, to watch the band members weave in and out of each other as they samba, swivel, belt, rap, thrust, pound, and dart-- and if you're close enough, to have red wine spouted upon you from the mouth of lead vocalist Eugene Hutz.
A perfectly international tribe that formed in New York City-- Gogol Bordello's members are from Ukraine, Ethiopia, Ecuador, Scotland, USA, Russia, Israel.. on bass, electric violin, drum kit, accordion, electric guitar, percussion, acoustic guitar.. busting highly energetic and infectious Gypsy Rock... or to borrow from one of their own song titles: "Immigrant Punk". Makes you want to jump up and down (rock) and twirl (gypsy) at the same time.. it's a physics thing.
Some of the songs we heard are "My Companjera ", "Trans-Continental Hustle" (with some heavy-duty guitar strumming from Eugene Hutz and later an electric violin solo from Sergey Ryabtsev ), "Break the Spell" (surely an invocation), and the song that Eugene Hutz and Sergey Ryabtsev once performed with Madonna: the celebratory "Pala Tute". Before you snort, read the passionate and transcendent passage by Eugene Hutz on the band's MySpace page, called "Intro Word".. note what he says about popular music, about the truth of sound, sacred art, about garbage on the airways. It's pretty fierce. And maybe one of the best pieces about music I have ever read.
Eugene Hutz is a perfect madman performer, with handlebar moustache, bare chest, guitar continuously spun from back to front, serenading, climbing atop equipment, growling, hooting, left-right- upstage-downstage.. conjuring band and crowd alike into a frenzy.. and the full band deserves props in keeping up with--if not matching--his energy level and stage presence.
Experiencing this band in person, especially close up, is nothing less than magical. Will wake up every cell in your body. I thank myself that I sought them out.
Immigrant Punk? Yes. More please. They reassured my chronic quest for that natural musical high. In the words of Eugene Hutz: "..So if you don't mind an extra fuel for your life you just may have to make music research your task, for information on good music is not provided, and not searching for it is basically stealing from yourself."
Amen brother.
Muse -- While conversing with friends, I said before the band came on, thinking of Mathew Bellamy's dramatic vocals, the band's rock composition: "They kinda remind me of Queen..." I trailed off. A friend finished my sentence "...meets Tool." Yes, meets Depeche Mode meets Rush and Nine Inch Nails and Rage Against the Machine. The list of influences goes on, and makes a rich musical stew, with falsetto sprinkled on top. They blend rocks-- classic rock, rock opera, metal, progressive rock, hard rock-- with electronica, harmonies, and laser beams. Did you see those green things flashing past you , even though you were a quarter mile from the stage? Holy shit.
This trio (Matthew Bellamy, Christopher Wolstenholme, Dominic Howard) from Devon, England is no stranger to stadium rock, and it shows. Their presentation is something akin to "cell candy", a whole-body experience. Phish trained me well. I was completely neurologically equipped to absorb the layers of instruments (we got a key-tar at one point!), muli-colored/textured lights, flashing graphics, sparkly suits, balloons, smoke.. all a physical expression of the emotional urgency of the music. Although I have little idea of what an actual Muse classic is, I'm still going to say we heard some Muse classics-- pieces really representative of their style.. "Uprising", "Supermassive Black Hole", "Hysteria", "Time Is Running Out", "Stockholm Syndrome", the encore "Man with a Harmonica" into "Knights of Cydonia".. yes, played with real harmonica (very grounding and sweet).. with bits of covers woven throughout the show.. like the "Star-Spangled Banner" and "House of the Rising Sun".. and in the middle of all that, possibly my favorite.. the not-as-urgent but still completely enrapturing "Undisclosed Desires". Mmmm. Witnessing Muse, you are either completely involved or completely involved-- there's kinda no choice. I didn't mean to stay until the end, but I did, and still wanted more.
Ruby Jane -- This young native Texan fiddler is on fire, with fingers of lightning. At 11:15am Sunday morning, she had quite the crowd assembled. The energy of a teenager and the talent of a prodigy, before noon, is a great combination. She started playing violin at age 2, performed at the Grand Ole Opry at age 9, has already toured with Willie, is being mentored by Ray Benson, and the list of awards and accomplishments go on.. She dedicated years to studying old-time bluegrass on the fiddle, but is recently branching out to express herself further-- writing her own songs, playing with a rock band, wielding an acoustic guitar. mandolin, acoustic guitar. If you didn't have your coffee that morning-- no need--Ruby Jane took care of waking everyone up with her expertly verbose fiddling, center stage pronto, not to mention simply running back and forth elatedly shouting at other soloing players. She mixed up her instruments, and genres-- country/blues/ jazz/pop/rock/boogie woogie-- playing all her own work with the exception of Djanjo Reinhardt and Stephane Grapelli's instrumental "Minor Swing" and Townes Van Zandt's "Be Here To Love Me".. (Stephan Grapelli is one of Ruby Jane's biggest violin inspirations!).. At age 15, this completely gifted wonder of a gal has a long career ahead of her.. lucky us!
Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue -- Any guess where they're from? The front man Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews is from NOLA's Tremé neighborhood, the oldest black neighborhood in the states, to be exact. Boy, did he bring it-- on trombone, trumpet, vocals, showmanship. And so did his full band-- on electric bass, electric guitar, baritone sax, tenor sax, drum kit, and hand percussion. The only time I wasn't dancing was when I was gaping at how long Shorty can hold a note (circular breathing?) or how cleanly he can do the moonwalk. He and the band blend jazz (from bebop to big band to all flavors of vocal and trumpet Satchmo), funk, soul, hip-hop, and even a little rock. He hip swivels like James Brown, can command several genres of singing-- including skatting, and smoothly hit the notes like Stevie Wonder.. not to mention expertly lead the band, even when stopping to give generous solo time to the other players. When it came for his own solos, he's a straight-up master of the trombone (playing since age 4)-- it's a dramatic instrument to watch to begin with-- not to mention the lack of frets/keys/buttons that really must make it an instrument of brilliant intuition and musician's ear . When I woke up that morning I didn't expect myself to be bopping out to a ten minute version of "When the Saints Come Marching In". I really did feel transported to New Orleans. In the words of one fantastic online comment: He snuck up on us at ACL 2010... played the smallest stage and ended with the largest crowd.
Robert Earl Keen -- Speaking of the smallest official stage, that would actually be Austin Kiddie Limits. Twice a day each festival day the AKL stage gets a "special guest"-- and of course the little ones (in green cone spiked and pink mohawk hairdos) have no clue about the specialness, but the parents get a treat. Today it was Robert Earl Keen with his own flavor of Americana, twanging a song about pizza with onions. Sorry, if you weren't there, you missed out. I don't think he repeated this one on the main stage.
The Eagles -- I did not think I would care about seeing this band. Born in 1971-- I had the Eagles (originally from LA) crammed into my ears from every corner of life-- the neighbor's radio, the background music at the convenience store, floating out of Camaro windows slowly rumbling by and mingled with Marlboro cigarette smoke, maybe my own parent's stereo? Were they that mean? And then when Mtv started, Don Henley and Glenn Frey were even on there, frignabbit they were everywhere, and I never liked them. Auuugh!!!
Six Grammies, five number one singles, six number one albums, induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and playing intermittently together since the year I was born.. Now headlining a signature festival in the Live Music Capital, almost 4 decades later. Did I miss something about The Eagles? Well, Don Henley and Glenn Frey never triple-spun with a guitar in heeled boots and ruffled blouse the way Prince did. But, I need to give The Eagles their due credit. Here's why:
During my post-Mtv coming-of-age years, when I was really starting to learn about rock music, I had a music-fan friend point out to me the electric guitar solo at the end of Hotel California is really a duo, by Don Felder and Joe Walsh-- and the fact it was just plain classic. So from that point on, I always let the song play if it came on the radio. I'd enjoy the archetypal/symbolic lyrics over the years, stopping to ask myself: OK, what's the Hotel California of your life now?
I retreated to the ACL artist village at the start of The Eagles' set, an area that is clearly within earshot of the main stage. I found myself wandering over to the edges to get a close listen. Once again The Eagles were floating over a fence at me, and I might as well have been 7 years old, because they sounded like a million moments from decades ago-- in other words, they sounded really good! They sounded the same. How old are they?.. I was intrigued, a little awestruck, definitely nostalgic. They opened with "Seven Bridges Road"-- a Steve Young song they made popular, but I learned to adore through Dolly Parton's version. Beautiful! Fittingly it was "Take It To The Limit" playing as I hovered near the fence during song #3.
And then they came-- the opening notes to "Hotel California". I woke up that morning wishing I could hear that song, convinced they'd save it for last. I dropped my drink and broke into a spastic and elated run onto the field. I actually freaked myself out a little, shouting in the faces of strangers on my way, 'They're playing it now!! They're playing it now!!'-- wanting to shake their shoulders, but not having time. The funny thing: Every facial response was one of happy agreement and understanding. And the Eagles played it perfectly. It was their plan, to get me on the field, so of course I had to stay awhile.
There we all were, in the middle of the largest sing-along I've ever been a part of. No I wasn't singing, but there were hundreds of people trying not to, and couldn't help themselves. The Eagles are as much a part of our country's culture as.. Camaros.. and baseball and apple pie--especially for folks my generation or older. "Peaceful Easy Feeling". What other song could fit this completely sweet moment?
It wasn't only a sing-along though-- The Eagles, by this point the only band playing, were turned up loud enough to show off how good they sounded. I guess I took their harmonies for granted all these years! The ones that, coupled with their electrified folk-rock-bordering-on-country, is their own patented Eagles Sound.
When I heard what felt like long-gone history come alive before my eyes and ears with thousands and thousands of people, it jolted that mystical part of my heart. I don't think I was alone. I'm not a suddenly-converted Eagles fan, but I acknowledge special musical moments when I see and hear them.
And the hits kept coming-- other try-not-to-sing-along moments: "Lyin' Eyes", "The Long Run", certainly: "Heartache Tonight", and the encore "Take It Easy".. Thanks to a 7am Monday morning job and 3 full days of Festival, I slowly exited myself before the show was officially over, but the sound was so clear and strong, that I basically heard the whole set-- no matter how far away I walked. Ah, The Eagles: Their sound still filling the air around me, even in Austin. I can check out any time I like, but.. ;)
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