2005 ACL Fest Home > Reports from the ACL Festival > Archives > 2005 > September > 24 > Entry
Move over Wilco, Death Cab, it’s time for Built to Spill
Some music is made for festivals, some isn’t. Hip-hop doesn’t work all that well in the blazing sun, but guitar epics sound just perfect.
Built to Spill hasn’t released an album in four years, but they sounded right at home on the Cingular stage Saturday afternoon and drew a massive crowd. Of course, some of that crowd might have been there to get good seats for Death Cab for Cutie, which was the next band on the Cingular stage. The irony is that Death Cab often wascalled Built to Spill, Jr., but now the younger Death Cabbers have a hyped-to-the-hills album, plugs on “the O.C.” and a better time slot than the band Spill jacked its sound from.
With the bald spot on his head looking awfully red on the Jumbotron, guitarist/singer/leader Doug Martsch filled the band’s hour with his high, reedy, Neil Young-ish voice and reams of interlocking guitar, bass and drums steady and rolling. The band stuck largely to hits (such as they are; the band has never really broken out of college radio). Songs such as “The Plan,” “In Your Mind” and the giant “I Would Hurt A Fly” were pulled and stretched like taffy. For those of us who worship the sound of an amp feeding back, Built to Spill set standard for the weekend, with Martsch leaning into his amp while his two hired gun six-stringers soloed away. It was an excellent set all around, but for some of us who grow weary of roots rock and sunscreen, the best part were the reams of guitar noise, shapely and shuddering in the hot, dusty afternoon. Wilco, it’s your move.
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