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ACL: Sunday field report from the M.O.
4:07 p.m. Maybe Common should have been on the bill from the start, his smooth, retro positivity and flow is a huge hit with a gigantic crowd at fest. He has the biggest wave of hands bouncing of the entire weekend. Wicked set.
4:13 p.m. Spotted Joe Gross and his neckerchife talking to KUT folks and sitting next to legendary Billy Joe Shaver, who has a purty lady perched on his lap. Only at ACL.
5:07 p.m. Crew of wet patrons just explained they returned from a trip to the Green Belt, a trip they say does the trick in beating the heat each day.
5:13 p.m. Not much love for Rose Hill Drive from Boulder. Appears to be smallest crowd for this time of day of the fest. Thousands of people are flocking by them, scurrying to stake out a spot for the Ghostland Observatory set.
5:20 p.m. Moment most resembling NOLA Jazz Fest: WaMu tent packed with chairs and busting at seams for Preservation Hall Jazz Band.
5:26 p.m. Beer lines shortest they have been all weekend at this time. People may be losing steam. Bloc party lead singer ended set with “keep Austin weird.” Playing to the crowd? Who knows?
5:31 p.m. Best line of day: stage music following Bloc Party was “We’ll Always Be Together” from “Grease,” which prompted one guy to say, “This song makes me want to kill myself.”
6:01 p.m. Amos Lee seems to be winning over a bunch of new fans with his young white man Chicago blues. Somewhat reminiscent of Blues Traveler or Ben Harper.
6:16 p.m. Just heard someone leaving Regina Spektor saying “I’m tired of Tori Amos.”
6:30 p.m. Chicago resident and alt-country pioneer Jeff Tweedy sporting a cowboy hat. Ha!
7:20 p.m. Some of the new ’70s-sounding tunes from Wilco seem to satiate those who bemoaned the lack of any jam bands at ACL this year.
7:25 p.m. Second Jazz Fest vibe: Wilco throwing a swingin’, nasty, funky New Orleans jam on new tune “Walken.”
7:49 p.m. Ghostland brings the crazy light show from their recent Hogg Auditorium show. People are drawn to the thudding piece of land on the northwest side of the stage which transforms into a gigantic outdoor dance party, or rave, it seems. A few older patrons look a bit bewildered. Also, GLO lead Behrens is trying to compete with Björk and others for most flamboyant. Well, keyboardist Turner has on a cape, so, really, both of them are quite flamboyant.
7:56 p.m. Just as many people are arriving as are departing to see the Decemberists for a hot second on way to Dylan’s set. The two crowds are a bit opposite in terms of average age.
8:13 p.m. It’s not all Ghostland and Decemberists, the Eli Young Band, with its country-blues rock, is rocking to a smallish crowd at the Austin Ventures stage, while Ziggy Marley finishes his grooving and rollicking set to a packed tent.
8:17 p.m. Still, 13 minutes before the set, but it’s obvious Dylan is the big draw for the weekend, as people flock by the thousands to the AT&T Blue Room stage to see the legendary songwriter.
8:28 p.m. The crowd from the AT&T stage as Dylan is about to start stretches all the way to edge of Decemberists set at the Dell stage. Sea of people.
8:32 p.m. Vertigo is not your friend on a night like this. It is so darkened with body mass out here it almost feels like being in the deep of the sea.
8:33 p.m. Dylan is introduced as, among other things, the poet laureate of rock ‘n’ roll. He starts out his set with gravely-voiced “Rainy Day Women #12 and 35” with its sing-along chorus “everybody must get stoned,” which is met with obvious joyous approval. Dylan has set the theme for the night early into his headlining set. This is classic outlaw Dylan, in all black with a white, old flat top, Western-style cowboy hat.
8:37 p.m. A gravelly, and apologetic “It Ain’t Me” for second tune. There seem to be surprisingly few, if any, close-ups of Dylan on the big screens.
8:40 p.m. There seems to be a good share of Dylan fanatics here but also many here who seem to be here because they are “supposed” to see the “voice of a generation.”
8:48 p.m. Early defectors from Dylan set are mostly young folks. One pregnant woman has a T-shirt on with the words, “Baby’s first Dylan show.”
8:52 p.m. Young guy one: “He’s got like 30 CDs. He’s been through, like, a bunch of phases,” he says in explanation of Dylan. Girl one: “Oh, really?” Him: “Yea, I’ve got a poster of Dylan in my room.” Me: “So good.”
8:55 p.m. Hundreds of fans pouring out, not unlike during any night’s headlining act, as Dylan and Co. wail “Levee’s Gonna Break,” which is seemingly one of a myriad musical nods to New Orleans this weekend.
9:00 p.m. Second-biggest reaction of the night comes as a reaction to slowed-down version of “Tangled Up in Blue.” As a counter to the crowd’s enthusiasm, one woman laments a popular criticism of Dylan, “I can understand like one out of every five words. It sounds nothing like the album.” Thousands of others don’t seem to mind a bit.
9:15 p.m. The fans are leaving by the thousands at this point. Many, laughing about the quality of the performance and inability to hear/see the set in such a poor venue for this type of show, seem happy to be able to simply say they saw the legend perform once.
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Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: ACL Festival
Comments
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By Richard Handal
September 16, 2007 9:11 PM | Link to this
Anyone who hears Tori Amos when presented with Regina Spektor SHOULD leave. This is a soda drinker giving their opinion on wine.
By Stan
September 17, 2007 3:15 PM | Link to this
again, another clueless hipster dropping lame info on Dylan.