Austin360 blogs > ACL Festival > Archives > 2006 > September
September 2006
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers (Sunday, 8:30 p.m. AT&T Stage)
A lot of Tom Petty fans were trying to run down a dream Sunday night: seeing the veteran rocker perform for the first time (and possibly the last) as the big-deal headliner of the fifth ACL Fest. But that dream was temporarily dampened by a deluge just 40 minutes into Petty’s intended hour-and-a-half set. After a half-hour wait, he got back onstage at 9:40 p.m., promising to play until 10:15 p.m., a performance that stretched past 10:30, plus an encore that included “Runnin’ Down a Dream.”
The fans who stayed - and they were a vocal, teeming horde - were treated to a set starting with “Listen to Her Heart,” chimey Rickenbacker guitar and all, then the greeting, “Hello, how are you? You look good out there!” before “Mary Jane’s Last Dance.” The song’s line, “never slow down, never grow old” got special emphasis from one audience member who sang along – and it pretty much epitomized the rock ‘n’ roll vibe of this festival, at which fans of all ages congregated, no longer regarding rock with the prejudiced attitude that it’s only for the young.
“We’re having so much fun here in Austin, Texas,” Petty said in typical insert-town-name-here fashion before adding, “We’ve got quite a few songs to play for you here tonight. Hope you’re not in a hurry.” Apparently, plenty of people were not. They lustily sang along with “I Won’t Back Down,” thrilled to “Free Fallin’ ” and even seemed to get into the very ZZ Top-sounding “Saving Grace,” from his “Highway Companion” album. As the storm closed in, Petty launched into “a little British blues” – the tasty old Fleetwood Mac nugget “Oh Well,” on which Petty spiritedly shook maracas as Benmont Tench pounded the keys, Mike Campbell handled guitar, Ron Blair held down the bass and new Heartbreaker Steve Ferrone hit the drums. They managed to squeeze out a fine version of the Traveling Wilburys’ classic “Handle With Care” before the rains came. But a sizable audience waited for his return, and as the audience members rocked out to ’80s classic “Don’t Come Around Here No More,” they seemed to be enjoying a fine finish to another ACL.
(Photo by Jay Janner AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
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The BoDeans (Sunday, 7:45 p.m. Austin Ventures Stage)
Tom Petty wasn’t the only grizzled rock veteran to play the ACL Festival on Sunday. The BoDeans were also making their ACL debut, 20 years after founding members Sam Llanas and Kurt Neumann began their ongoing love affair with big-chord, unapologetic, heartland rock ‘n’ roll (in the best and most affectionate sense of that grotesquely abused phrase).
That it took five years for the BoDeans to make the cut at ACL is something of a surprise, because their music is the kind of thing that the festival specifically, and Austin in general, is perfectly positioned to celebrate. Smart, vital, passionate, brawny and fun, the BoDeans’ music is the very distillation of music in the park in the summertime, as heat lightning flickers on the horizon and heaven is just one more cold beer away.
The band’s set seemed short - only half a dozen songs - but that was because they took their time and wrung all the changes to be had out of “Good Things,” “Closer to Free,” “Say About Love,” “Fadeaway,” “Feed the Fire” and “Naked,” which featured a beautiful vocal performance by Llanas.
The set was short, but it was hopping. At a couple of points, Neumann, Llanas and bassist Eric Holman were bouncing up and down in unison. Their fans were more than happy to follow suit.
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The Flaming Lips (Sunday, 6:30 p.m. AT&T Stage)
Envision a large, inflatable, transparent ball and frontman/bubble boy Wayne Coyne rolling around over the audience while trapped inside. If you can picture that, you’ll have a vision of one-tenth of the theatrics put on by the Flaming Lips.
Oklahoma City’s orchestral noise-pop rockers - drummer Kliph Scurlock, guitarist/keyboardist Steven Drozd, bassist Michael Ivins and vocalist Coyne – played an enthusiastic, “did they really just do that?” set that was perfect for the 30,000-plus audience.
Parts of the stage were full of young men clad in Santa Claus suits and young women wearing green alien masks and purple “Barbarella”-type outer-space skirts. Even the Lips’ guitar techs were dressed in inflatable Justice League of America outfits. And in the center of all that barely controlled chaos, conductor/vocalist Coyne and band rocked their fans’ favorites in steady succession.
“Race for the Prize,” “Free Radicals” and “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1” had the audience doing assorted versions of the indie-rock bop. “She Don’t Use Jelly” and “Do You Realize?” closed out the set and proved that the Lips still can put a fresh spin on the band’s most popular, time-tested songs.
“It’s been an honor,” said Coyne during one of his infamous between-song banter sessions. “We’ve been able to play in the Austin music scene for many years because of the Butthole Surfers, Scratch Acid and even the Hickoids. Thank you for having us.”
The show was one more example of how the band combines theatrical performance with continual innovation in rock ‘n’ roll to create something orchestral, raucous, wickedly psychedelic and, ultimately, something beautiful.
(photo by Jay Janner AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
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Rain interrupts Tom Petty set
With Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers about a half-hour into their set, the rain that had doused the ACL Festival early Sunday returned in full effect, with many in the crowd bolting for the exits. The downpour forced a mid-set rain delay for the album-rock standard-bearers, but the band was back onstage by 9:35 p.m.
(photo by Jay Janner AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
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In the groove tent with Buddy Miles
A surprise guest joined the New Orleans Social Club on the Washington Mutual Stage on Sunday night: Buddy Miles, a member of Jimi Hendrix’s legendary band. Of course, the Social Club played one of Miles’ legendary tunes, “Them Changes.” Though members of the crowd seemed drugged in that superheated tent at the almost-end of a hard three days, they leapt to their feet and began to boogie with spirit. Of course, several were already on their feet, moved by the energy of the band formed in the wake of Hurricane Katrina to make a recorded-in-Austin charity album that, sadly, never was able to raise any money for its cause.
“Remember, it’s times like these that we need to stand together for our own,” Miles said before hobbling off the stage on his cane. A good reminder.
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A year to top them all - with hats
Business at the retail stalls reportedly is up from last year.
Troy Wright, owner of the always popular Texas Headgear, said he moved more than 2,000 hats.
“It was a definite improvement over last year,” Wright said, adjusting a hat for a customer. “I think a lot of people were scared away last year by the threat of the uricemia and then the heat. This year was excellent weather, and Friday was my best-ever Friday here.”
Wright sells hats at many festivals, and he remains impressed by the event here. “After ACL every year, you think, ‘OK, that’s the peak. That’s the most I’m going to sell. There’s no way I can top that.’
“But I do.”
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No dust, just good vibrations
It was tough to find anyone who wasn’t having a good time Sunday evening. The brief storm in the early afternoon created some mud, but it also eliminated any chance of dust, which was a late-evening annoyance on Saturday but a far cry from last year’s choking dust problems.
This was the first ACL Festival for Todd Kimmel, 29, from San Diego, Calif., but it probably won’t be his last. “Today went really well,” he said while waiting in a beer line. “I heard there was some trouble with buses on Friday, but today was great.”
Austin resident Jason Robbins, 32, is an old hand at ACL Festivals. “I’ve been to every day of every year,” Robbins said, standing in a fast-moving line for food. “The first year was pretty horrible. It was hard to get in and out; getting food took forever. It’s 10 times better now than it was the first year.”
(photo by Ricardo Brazziell AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
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Austin mayor: ‘Better every year’
Austin Mayor Will Wynn came to the festival on Sunday, the only day he attended this year. “I was stuck in Santa Barbara, California, at a United States Conference of Mayors … meeting,” Wynn said, heading toward the main stage in a golf cart. “It was nice, but I wish I was here.”
Wynn, no stranger to the pleasures of live music, was effusive in his praise of festival organizers and their relationship to the city.
“I can’t speak highly enough of how professional they have been,” Wynn said. “The logistics get better every year, the money that comes into the parks department is excellent, it further promotes Austin as the world’s live-music capital. It’s very impressive.”
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The New Pornographers (Sunday 5:30 p.m., AT&T Blue Room)
Your songs have to be some kind of sturdy to withstand brutal festival sound mixes. But the New Pornographers’ tunes carry the load, and in spite of often atrocious sound, the Canadian septet knocked out nugget after golden nugget of perfect power pop.
When you could hear all of it, that is. A lousy mix meant the Pornographers’ songs were sometimes loud smudges, singer Neko Case’s sledgehammer belt pounding over the top. (Case got the brunt of the bad sound; her ear monitor clearly wasn’t working, and the wedge monitors in front of the band kept feeding back.) Drummer Kurt Dahle is lucky his hard-swinging pound is fun to listen to; it sure was turned up loud.
Things sounded a little better when ace songwriter Carl Newman (who quickly turned beet-red in the heat), Case and singer Kathryn Calder harmonized, their vocals far out front in the muddy mix.
For the most part, however, the sound was catch-as-catch-can, and the band eventually seemed to play its boisterous tunes at time and a half, perhaps the quicker to end the sonic distress.
But oh, do those tunes hold up. Opening with the explosive title track from last year’s excellent “Twin Cinema,” the band stuck to its strongest, chewiest material, such as the epic “The Laws Have Changed,” “The Bleeding Heart Show” (with its sublime “Hey-LAAAAAs”) and its first smash, the power-pop classic “Letter from an Occupant.”
As that monster song and wonderful finale “Sing Me Spanish Techno” headed out over the crowd, someone held up a bubble gun, and soap bubbles floated toward the stage. Perfect.
(photo by Jay Janner AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
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Mobile Manor’s good Samaritans
While Barton Springs Road turned into a virtual swap meet of head shops and bottled-water merchants during ACL weekend, several residents of the Mobile Manor RV Park took it upon themselves to provide free water, food and a cooling station (a garden hose set to “mist”) to those attending the fest. “We were thinking of ways to make some money,” said David Sloan, who’s lived at Mobile Manor for 15 years, “but then we saw everybody else trying to capitalize and we thought, ‘Let’s just give stuff away.’ We’re having a ball, making lots of friends.”
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Matisyahu (Sunday, 4:30 p.m. AT&T Stage)
The hottest person at ACL Fest — literally — had to be Matisyahu, who was in full Hasidic dress during his Sunday afternoon set. His ensemble included a long black coat, long-sleeved shirt under which he wore his tallit (prayer shawl), black hat under which he wore a yarmulke, and long beard and payess. But that religious attire didn’t slow him down for a minute. He was in full dance-hall mode, toasting as though he was born in Jamaica, not Pennsylvania, and bouncing around the stage in his Adidas shoes while begging the Lord for redemption with what seemed like more Marley-esque conviction than Bob Marley’s own kids.
What Matisyahu does is definitely unconventional, but it’s irie, mon. His intriguing lyrics and rapid-fire delivery on “Chop ‘Em Down,” “Close My Eyes,” “Exaltation” (from his hit album “Live at Stubb’s”), “Jerusalem” and other tunes didn’t seem to offend or convert anyone, but the groove – as delivered by a great band of young guys – had many of them moving. He also injected humor into “Indestructible,” singing about the Lord being “right inside of me … right inside of that British flag over there, right inside of that cowboy hat, right inside of those people sitting on top of the Porta Pottis.” But the showstopper came during “King Without a Crown,” when he danced the hora with another Hasidic pal; they leapt joyously right off the stage and into the audience, romping straight to the soundboard as the band whipped up a white-hot beat.
(photo by Jay Janner AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
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Ween (Sunday, 4:30 p.m. AMD Stage)
Ween is not a festival band. That became apparent early in its set Sunday when the cult group from New Hope, Pa., pulled out its secret weapon, “Voodoo Lady,” and it didn’t pack more muscle than a bass-heavy disco-rock takeoff. “Take Me Away” was another song that just reminded people of how great Ween was at near-legendary shows at Liberty Lunch and Stubb’s. The band seemed to be playing well, with a cover of Paul McCartney’s “Let Me Roll It” leading into a frantic guitar freakout by Mickey Melchiondo, but too much of what it was putting out was swallowed by waves of sludge. The beauty of the group’s sound is in little details and twists of humor. And those were pounded down.
The young Ween fanatics at the front of the stage probably heard a much better show than those hanging back. The sound Sunday was more an echo than a foghorn, like looking at a fuzzy photo of a long-ago love and trying to remember how it felt. What’s the point?
(photo by Ricardo Brazziell AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
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Damian ‘Jr. Gong’ Marley (Sunday, 2:30 p.m. AMD Stage)
At about 2:40 p.m., I realized I’d already missed the beginning of Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley’s set, and I was quite frustrated. I knew I was missing what might be one of the festival’s daytime highlights.
My body certainly knew I was missing some of the set, because I could feel the throbbing reggae bass lines vibrating in my rib cage.
I’d been sulking a bit that I’d misidentified Massive Attack’s singer and the band’s great album “Mezzanine” in my hastily written review late Saturday night (it’s something pensive writers do when we make a mistake). But that familiar-sounding Marley voice, and that bass line, unconsciously lifted my spirits and pulled me toward what proved to be a soul-renewing performance.
I waded through multiple Jamaican flags, thick white clouds of smoke and a sea of dancing bodies to reach the AMD Stage just in time to witness Damian Marley’s big brother Stephen Marley emerge to sing the new song “All Right.” The Marley family performing together was a beautiful sight. The youngest member of the singing and dancing stage entourage was barely out of diapers.
Another great moment came when another one of the brothers - Julian Marley - took the mike to sing lead on father Bob Marley’s hit “Could You Be Loved.” An accelerated tempo and a dance-hall vocal delivery added a fresh spin on the classic that appeared to groove well with the audience’s joyously irie vibe.
I didn’t have the good fortune to witness Bob Marley’s appearance at Austin’s Palmer Auditorium back in the day, but I’ve heard stories from several old-school friends. Being able to see his children perform some of his songs - and several originals - under the sun-splashed fields of Zilker Park was inspirational … and possibly the next best thing to seeing Bob himself.
(photo by Ricardo Brazziell AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
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Dampened expectations
Carol Young of the Greencards (Sunday, 6:30 p.m. Austin Ventures Stage) arrived as the rain was falling and took it in stride. “It’s a bit of a bummer,” she said, “but it could be a good thing. It changes the whole vibe. There’s not as much pressure to be perfect.”
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Patrice Pike (Sunday 4 p.m., Austin Ventures Stage)
It’s axiomatic that not all the world loves a winner. But it’s equally true that everyone loves a scrapper. Thus it was that Patrice Pike received a heroine’s welcome when she stepped onstage Sunday. Freshly returned from the pop culture wars of the TV cage match dubbed “Rock Star: Supernova,” Pike asked what is surely the most superfluous question of the day: “Do ya still love me?” The answering roar from the king-size crowd would have gratified an Egyptian pharaoh.
For Pike, who cut her teeth on Sixth Street and elsewhere with her groups Little Sister, Sister Seven and Black Box Rebellion, a return to real life means that her set at the ACL Festival, no matter how rapturously greeted, was another day at the office.
Splitting the difference between Sister Seven material (“Fallen Angel”), Black Box cuts (“Jackknife Girl”) and material from a soon-to-be-released album called “Unraveling,” Pike went to work with her customary brio and zest (it isn’t everyone who can pen a song as both ferociously rocking and downright funny as, say, “My Three Wishes.”)
She looked happy to be playing for the hometown folks as well as a host of new converts. Which brings up a question: Why the heck didn’t she win that cockamamie TV show, anyhow?
(photo by Amber Novak FOR AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
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Randy Rogers Band (Sunday, 2:50 p.m. Austin Ventures Stage)
If the enthusiasm of the fans and the quality of his material are any indication, San Marcos resident Randy Rogers is just a hit away from the big time. “Kiss Me in the Dark,” the single from his just-released album, “Just a Matter of Time,” is reportedly a top country download on iTunes, and as he finished playing it for an audience of maybe 2,000 Sunday afternoon, one fan yelled, “It’s gonna be a hit!” He’s probably right. It’s one of many engaging songs the artist performed during his 40-minute set, a fiery affair featuring an arena-ready band (fiddler Brady Black is just killer) and a likable, understated frontman who wisely surrounds himself with strong showmen.
Clearly, Rogers has built a strong grass-roots following as well. His audience, which included guys in Aerosmith and Widespread Panic T-shirts as well as lots of burnt orange, knew the words to most of his songs and eagerly sang along, cheering when asked if they were ready for some fiddle during “Again.” They want to see a talented artist – a genuine artist with a great voice and an honest country soul – make good, and with any luck (and lots more of the hard work he put into battling Damian Marley on the sound-bleed kiss-of-death Austin Ventures Stage) he will.
(photo by Amber Novak FOR AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
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KT Tunstall (Sunday, 2:30 p.m. AT&T Stage)
KT Tunstall came to the ACL Festival and brought her best friends with her. No, not her bandmates (although they are undoubtedly great amigos), but her array of switches and foot pedals that enable her to sample and loop vocals and sounds on the fly. Those sonic effects played a big part (too big, opined some listeners) in creating the glossy pop sheen of her debut album, “Eye to the Telescope,” so it was perhaps unavoidable that she attempted to replicate those effects onstage.
But you live by the sample and you die by the sample. Though the gimmickry was engaging to experience live, it had its drawbacks. It took Tunstall several false starts to get all of her electronic ducks in a row before she could kick off “Black Horse and Cherry Tree,” and the gimmicky beeps and boops she conjured up did nothing but distract from her performance of “Universe and U.”
On the other hand, she was having such a transparently good time playing with her gizmos that it was hard to begrudge her some fun. And the songs that featured on her debut are for the most part so strong that a little futzing around couldn’t do much more than chip the paint.
Except for a couple of new songs (“Ashes” and “Dirty Water”) from a forthcoming album, the balance of Tunstall’s set was familiar from months of AAA radio saturation (not to mention her inclusion in the soundtrack of “The Devil Wears Prada”). “Other Side of the World,” “Stoppin’ the Love” and “Miniature Disasters” all were well-received by the sizeable crowd, as was her set-closing hit “Suddenly I See.”
(photo by Jay Janner AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
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Black Angels (Sunday, 12:50 p.m. Austin Ventures Stage)
“Too bad it’s not raining right now,” said Black Angels singer Alex Maas, because although the heavy showers at Zilker Park had ceased, the humidity still left both the band and audience drenched.
The Black Angels - an Austin band including drummer Stephanie Bailey, guitarist Christian Bland, multiinstrumentalist Kyle Hunt, organist Jennifer Raines, bassist/guitarist Nate Ryan and vocalist Maas - have homed in on a musical niche that sounds as genuine as bands that are admitted influences (the primary one being the Velvet Underground).
Big Muff distortion fuzz, Fender guitars and vintage amplifiers rocked loud and hard under the band’s precise playing (no doubt the band’s tightness is linked to its expansive touring last year). The Angels’ mastery and manipulation of all those vintage instruments - which can often be finicky after all the years of use - is the key to its authentic 1960s sound.
“Black Grease” sounded just as slick and inspired as it does on the 2006 album “Passover.” The song has an inescapable groove that had audience members dancing and shaking tambourines, creating a concert experience from a bygone era.
“Bloodhounds on My Trail” and “The First Vietnamese War” were strong audience favorites, too. The Black Angels are exploring one little droning, psychedelic corner of just one genre, but the band’s learned how to ride that one-trick musical pony really, really well.
(photo by Amber Novak FOR AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
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Kathleen Edwards (Sunday, 12:30 p.m. AMD Stage)
The only previous time I’d seen Kathleen Edwards was when she taped an episode of “Austin City Limits.” She seemed, on that occasion, an inward-looking performer, almost tentative in her delivery. How, I wondered, would she translate to the big AMD Stage and the wide-open spaces of Zilker Park?
Well, just fine, thanks. Edwards was making her first ACL Festival appearance - after deferring last year’s performance because of worries about Hurricane Rita - and this time, she brought game.
Plugged in and turned up, Edwards and her crackerjack band put the throttle down on “In State,” “What Are You Waiting For” (featuring some rocketing bottleneck slide by guitarist/producer Colin Cripps), “Back To Me” and “Six O’Clock News.” As for the inward-looking part, Edwards acknowleged being “a little happier, a little happier” now that, as she put it, “I’ve gotten past all (that).”
It was precisely that sentiment that fueled the anger Edwards channeled into songs on her two acclaimed albums, “Failer” and “Back To Me.” Now, however, she is playful enough onstage to introduce her band, concluding the ritual with “…and I’m Aimee Mann.”
Except for a cover of Neil Young’s “Only Love Can Break Your Heart” (a tip of the hat to a fellow Canadian on Edwards’ part), the set was all Edwards originals, including a new tune about coming to terms with age, mortality and dark nights alone. “Copied Keys,” another standout (though not a new song), detailed two lives lived adjacent, but not together. One can wish Edwards all the best with her self-confessed lighter disposition while hoping the creative spark she brought to the AMD stage continues to burn strong.
(photo by Amber Novak FOR AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
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The Durden Singers (Sunday, 11:30 a.m. Washington Mutual Stage)
Austin-based gospel group the Durden Singers got a huge attendance boost at 11:55 a.m. Sunday when the skies opened up and the rain brought scrambling throngs seeking protection in the “gospel tent” (officially known as the Washington Mutual Stage). That the group, led by five regal-looking female singers, was performing the stomping, roaring “Let Me Lean on You” at the time added to the moment.
Unfortunately, the group didn’t fully capitalize on the new energy, following “Lean” with the drippy, slow-tempo “God Sent Me an Angel.” It’s too bad they didn’t save a great version of the Police’s “Every Breath You Take” for when their audience quadrupled in about three minutes. Another early standout was “All I Need,” which showed that the Durdens have one of the grooviest backing bands in gospel.
Meanwhile, some enterprising soul pulled out a roll of green plastic garbage bags and attracted a circle of unprepared fans. At a dollar apiece, the guy cleaned up.
(photo by Ricardo Brazziell AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
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Despite rain, the show goes on
Austin City Limits Festival organizers Charlie Jones and Charles Attal, along with performer G. Love — who has played four out of five ACL Festivals — held a press conference at 11:30 a.m. Sunday to talk about attendance, and in an unusual twist, rain.
As rain fell at Zilker Park, Attal emphasized that while the festival will go on rain or shine, some stages might “power down” in the event of lightning or high winds until the danger passes. “The safety of our patrons and acts is our primary concern,” Attal said.
A mere 15 minutes after Attal said this, the skies opened up for a classic Texas downpour, as hard and heavy a rain as the festival has ever seen, making mud all over the park, quickly pooling on the already well-watered ground. The rain stopped at 12:20 p.m., but intermittent storms are expected thoughout the day. No acts have canceled their performances.
The festival has hosted 65,000 attendees per day, organizers said. While there have been complaints about traffic and parking, CSE spokesperson Lisa Schickel said the shuttle-bus system cleared out concert-goers in 52 minutes Saturday night and had been used by about 65,000 patrons.
Attal said there were a few instances of counterfeit tickets found and declined at the gate, but no reported instances of counterfeit wristbands. There were four medical transports Friday and four Saturday for illnesses including heat-related ailments, cardiac issues and an obstetric issue.
There was one arrest for assault off the Zilker grounds on Friday and no arrests on Saturday.
(photo by Ricardo Brazziell AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
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Big buZZ about a change at the Top
The big buzz in the ACL Fest’s artist compound over the weekend was that ZZ Top had sacked its manager of 37 years, Bill Ham of Austin-based Lone Wolf Management. Sunday, the rumor was confirmed by Lone Wolf publicist Bob Merlis, though he terms the split as amicable. The band’s contract with BMG has just expired, so if they were looking to go in a new direction with representation, now would be the time. Still, the news was as if Playboy fired Hugh Hefner, so tied to ZZ’s success is Ham (a notoriously private operator, unlike Hef).
It’s unfathomable to imagine where the larger-than-life Texas trio, which was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004, would’ve been without Ham in their corner. He’s the only manager Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill and Frank Beard have ever had. The Kenny Rogers lookalike also produced the band’s most enduring records.
But Ham also has been compared to Elvis Presley’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker, for his iron-fisted decision-making. Ham’s relationship with former client Clint Black dissolved in an out-of-court settlement after the two parties sued each other in the early ’90s.
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Massive Attack
Massive Attack was the definition of calm and collected class in a moment of would-be band crisis.
The Bristol, England, band brought its sonic landscape of ethereal trip-hop to ACL’s AT&T Stage for a headlining slot that was nothing short of spectacular. The set was even heroic considering that the band only appeared as half of its core.
The act typically performs with Robert del Naja (3D) and Grant “Daddy G” Marshall, as well as a revolving cast of musicians, DJs and collaborators. Early in the set, 3D announced that Marshall would be missing the show because he had provided the only legitimate excuse for missing a gig: His wife gave birth to a baby last night.
“I’d like to introduce an angel named Elizabeth,” said 3D, inciting applause from die-hard fans as former Cocteau Twins chanteuse Elizabeth Fraser emerged from a shadowy stage right.
Fraser hasn’t performed in Austin — or much at all in the United States — in years, although Massive Attack was able to convince her to accompany it stateside for this year’s Coachella festival. Fans close enough to the front of the stage — or the fans who could decipher her image in the gigantic screen — were seemingly the only audience members able to determine for sure Fraiser’s rare appearance.
Massive Attack played an inspired set. A massive highlight was the emotive Fraser classic, “Teardrops.” The band pleased tens of thousand of festival patrons who were either in the know on some of the innovators of electronic music or are from Texas and have seen Willie Nelson headline a show in Austin multiple times before.
Fraser emerged in flowing, pale white clothes, appearing just as as angelic as 3D had described, and made multiple more appearances to sing all af her now famous tracks from Massive Attack’s classic electronica/trip-hop album, “Mezzanine.”
(photo by Ricardo Brazziell AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
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Willie Nelson
It’s the old forest-for-the-trees conundrum: Having seen Willie Nelson hundreds of times over the years, it’s hard for me to put myself in the shoes of the first-time visitor to Austin, standing in the heart of the city under the open skies and watching Willie Nelson kick off “Whiskey River” in front of that billowing two-story Texas flag.
If there is a more purely iconic moment in the pantheon of Lone Star experiences, I am unaware of it, and for some folks (including that hypothetical young visitor), it will remain the signature moment of this year’s ACL festival.
It’s possible to argue that without Nelson (making his first appearance at the festival), Zilker Park would be devoted to soccer and sunbathing this weekend. His appearance on the pilot episode of “Austin City Limits” ensured that PBS would commit to turning the show into what has become the longest-running music program in television history. And without that show and the worldwide name recognition it achieved for the city and its music scene, the ACL festival might have remained merely a gleam in someone’s eye.
Although the novelty of seeing Nelson perform has long since evaporated, the pleasure derived from the experience never stales. The classic canon is as bulletproof as it is possible for pop music to be. Nelson’s guitar playing — now that he is on the back side of carpal tunnel surgery — remains a supple, unpredictable, virtuosic marvel (and it’s astonishing how seldom his unique guitar mastery is mentioned in reviews). His rapport with his audience, from toddlers to skateboard punks to grandmothers, is the envy of Bible-thumping preachers and glad-handing politicians.
This particular performance was notable, however, for that rarest of sightings — not one, but two new songs. Now that he doesn’t have to write to put food on the table, new compositions are few and far between. But the new tunes, a wry, jazzy number called (I think) “I’m Not Superman” and what sounded like a mea culpa to a cheesed-off spouse titled “You Don’t Think I’m Funny Anymore” demonstrated that, although the creative machinery may lie largely idle, it’s not rusty.
Although he was slated to play for an hour, that amounts to little more than a good sound check for Nelson and his Family Band. An hour and a half and 25 songs later, he finally left the stage to (go figure) “Roll Out the Barrel.”
“The gang’s all here,” he sang in wrapping the song up as the crowd roared in agreement. And that was a fine moment, too.
(photo by Jay Janner AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
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Iron & Wine
Sometime when his original, indie nerd fan base wasn’t looking, Sam Beam, aka Iron & Wine, moved from the deeply intimate, lo-fi singer-songwriter, home-recorded folk gorgeousness to, well, becoming something that sounds awfully close to a jam band.
Know this: It’s working almost brilliantly.
Too many jam bands prize instrumental virtuosity and rhythms that drift from “backbeat” to “meander” over chewy songwriting. (There’s a reason that some of the Grateful Dead’s strongest material was Dylan covers.) Beam has avoided this by starting with songcraft and blowing it out, adding percussion, electric guitars, throbbing, soulful electric bass and large caliber rock drumming. It’s more Neil Young than Phish, and that makes all the difference.
Opening his Saturday night set on the Heineken Stage with the acoustic “Sodom, South Georgia” as a duet with his sister/backup singer/violinist, Beam quickly moved to electric material, offering often radical rethinks of some of his indie classics. “Woman King,” already possessed of a tough polyrhythmic groove, roared to life in the six-piece band’s hands, a juggernaut of sword-in-hand feminism, Beam’s whisper occasionally breaking into full throated singing — big swing, big beat and Beam’s big beard all in full effect.
But “Upwards over the Mountain,” a son-to-mother plea for understanding capable of reducing cynical men to tears in its original form, suffered slightly from its rural electrification. Its new arrangement is powerful and well-designed, but nowhere near as intimate. It was hard to tell whether other songs were reboots or new material, although, either way, the crowd loved them.
He was wise to close with a sure-fire crowd pleaser, the nine-minute acoustic epic “The Trapeze Swinger” from the movie “In Good Company.” As Beam and his sister played, it was clear that the new Beam was pretty much the same as the old Beam. As I recall, some guy named Dylan made this move work pretty well, too.
(photo by Jay Janner AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
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The Raconteurs
One of the most anticipated sets of this ACL fest had to be that of the Raconteurs, the Jack White-Brendan Benson project that threatens to overtake White’s other band, the White Stripes, in popularity. And the musicians didn’t mess around —- they got right down to it, delivering chunky rock and hard-core blues with one song after another from their only album, “Broken Boy Soldiers.”
Starting out with some guitar wanking, they dove into “Intimate Secretary” and then offered another meaty guitar jam on “Level” before jumping into the hit “Steady, As She Goes” (which sounds like it owes a debt —- or maybe royalties —- to Joe Jackson for “Is She Really Going Out With Him”). It’s a cool rocker from guys who are really good at grinding it out as hard as they can. Benson and White have well-matched voices, and they’ve chosen a serious rhythm section with the Greenhornes’ duo of drummer Patrick Keeler and bassist Jack Lawrence, who streaked the part of his coal-black hair with lightning yellow. (They also brought along auxiliary keyboardist Dean Fertita to fill in Benson’s parts.)
The quintet delivered a delicious surprise with a cover of Sonny & Cher’s “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down).” Sounding kind of Cher-ish, White rung every ounce of quivery emotion and drama he could out of his voice before nearly screaming himself hoarse on the next song, “Broken Boy Soldier,” and jumping with Benson into a long, guitars-wailing blues jam on “Blue Veins.” One of the set’s many highlights, it proved you can take the red pants off of a White Stripe and let him rock out all he wants, but he’s still really a blues boy at heart.
(photo by Jay Janner AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
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What Made Milwaukee Famous
Austin (not Milwaukee’s) What Made Milwaukee Famous —- vocalist/guitarist/keyboardist Michael Kingcaid, guitarist/keyboardist Drew Patrizi, bassist John Farmer and drummer Jeremy Bruch —- has every little rock ‘n’ roll duck that a band needs to thrive lined up in a row.
Except for an over-the-top live show.
They’ve got the well-crafted songs, they’ve got a singer in Kincaid who can croon and coo like a bird, and they’ve got a rock-solid rhythm section between Farmer and Brush. Unfortunately, the band’s late-afternoon ACL set on the Austin Ventures Stage was too routine and a touch too conventional for the expansive Zilker Park setting.
While several bands broke past the festival prosceniums to gain a closer connection with the audience, WMMF kept using their between-song banter to lure the audience to their autograph session in the Waterloo Records tent.
Despite all the band’s courting, the set highlights included the Beatles-esque bounce of “Sweet Lady” and the Who-inspired keyboard arpeggios vs. guitar rock of “Idecide.”
WMMF is a great band with an original spin on indie rock that should take them very far. Now let’s see whether its ACL performance, and its slew of touring to come, yields its stage show to be less of a paint-by-numbers affair.
(photo by Ricardo Brazziell AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
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Guy Clark
Guy Clark received a tumultuous welcome when he stepped onto the Washington Mutual Stage on Saturday afternoon —- courtesy of an audience that rose to its feet on the second song and never sat down.
All in all, his show was of a piece with a thousand other Guy Clark shows —- just him, a guitar and his longtime companero Verlon Thompson to lend some harmony vocals and instrumental texture. But given his recent bout with cancer and the opportunity for listeners to preview a handful of new Clark compositions (via his forthcoming album, “Workbench Songs”), the reception he was accorded was particularly resonant.
New Guy Clark collections are as rare as radium, and “Workbench Songs” is rarer still, given that it consists almost entirely of collaborations, an unusual step for this most personal of songwriters.
Nonetheless, new tunes such as “Tornado Time In Texas,” “Magdalene” and “Cinco de Mayo In Memphis” bear the stamp of Clark’s individualistic craftsmanship. To say they don’t write ’em like Clark writes ’em anymore is a misnomer. Songwriting at his elevated level is still possible if writers care to apply his exacting standards. It’s hard work (just stare at a blank sheet of paper until small drops of blood appear on your forehead), but Clark never lets you see him sweat.
(photo by Ricardo Braziell AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
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