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Monday, September 29, 2008
ACL aftershow review: Conor Oberst, M. Ward and Jenny Lewis
M. Ward took the stage first to start off Conor Oberst’s aftershow at La Zona Rosa around 10 p.m Sunday, without the high-powered band that accompanied him during his Friday set at the festival. Ward is just as good solo as he is with his band, however, as the big sound of his finger-picking style compensates for the lack of umph. He played a few repeats from his Friday set, including, “Sad, Sad Song” and “Chinese Translation,” before bringing out Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, who appeared at the festival on Sunday. Rawlings and Ward traded licks and Welch sang backup on Ward’s “Fuel For Fire,” a mellow cover of “It Hurts Me Too” and Ward’s “One Life Away” to finish the set.
Lewis came out second. Her performance on Friday in the WaMu tent was good, but inside La Zona Rosa the show was bigger and better. Lewis and her band played mostly the same set as they did at the festival, starting off with “Jack Killed Mom” and “Rise Up With Fists.” Lewis’ chemistry with the rest of the band is one of her strong suits, as when she trades verses with guitarist Jonathan Rice on songs such as “Carpetbaggers.” The onstage collaboration of Ward’s set continued when Gillian Welch and David Rawlings made their second appearance of the evening to sing with the band on “Acid Tongue,” and later when Ward joined the band on “Pretty Bird.”
The crowd seemed fairly worn out by the time Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band came on after midnight, and Oberst joked that he “only thought he was going to die like three times” over the weekend. The set was more varied than Saturday night’s at the festival, with three different members of the band providing lead vocals at different points. In addition to songs off Oberst’s recently released self-titled album, such as “Moab,” “Get-Well-Cards” and “NYC-Gone, Gone,” the band offered up a bluesy cover of “Corrina, Corrina” with Jenny Lewis guitarist Blake Mills joining them on stage, as well as a fun cover of Paul Simon’s “Kodachrome,” which they also did on Saturday.
After finishing the set with “I Don’t Want To Die (In The Hospital),” Oberst returned to the stage with M. Ward for “Lenders in the Temple,” Ward’s “O’brien/o’brien’s Nocturne,” and “Smoke Without Fire” and a couple others before bringing out, you guessed it, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings. It was nearly 2 a.m. by the time the four closed with a cover of Lucinda Williams’ “Sharp Cutting Wings (Song to a Poet).”
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ACL aftershow review: The Black Keys
The ACL fest was in no hurry to die Sunday night, with hardly a place to stand in the yard at Stubb’s for the popular aftershow by the Black Keys.
After an opening Black Angels set that featured a two-song guest spot by Roky Erickson, concertgoers might have hoped for a bit of ACL synchronicity in which fest performer and “Attack & Release” producer Danger Mouse would make an appearance; he didn’t, though his Gnarls Barkley bandmate Cee-Lo Green was up in the VIP balcony for the whole show.
Instead, the band from Akron stuck to the basics: Heavy, loud garage blues in which singer and guitarist Dan Auerbach stalked one square of the stage while drummer Patrick Carney pounded away beside him on a kit decorated with a fake tiger-skin rug. Barely interacting with the crowd and allowing for little of “Attack & Release’s” sonic space (a cover of Captain Beefheart’s “I’m Glad” was among the few calm moments), the two-man group churned through a vigorous but slightly monotonous set.
Highlights included the new song “Strange Days” and older ones like “Everywhere I Go,” but the crowd seemed equally pleased by everything, bringing them back after an hour-long set for a short encore that included “Psychotic Girl.”
Photo: Jay Janner AMERICAN-STATESMAN
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ACL review: The Kills
Here’s a little tip: Texas, even in the fall, is pretty hot.
No great revelation I know, but it’s one London duo the Kills were unaware of heading into their early afternoon set Sunday and they weren’t shy about sharing their discomfort with the still-appreciative crowd.
Dressed in black (hello?) singer/guitarist Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince (guitar/vocals) started the day off with the tantalizing slink of “U.R.A. Fever,” from the band’s latest album, “Midnight Boom.”
Started in 2002 as a menacing garage blooz/doom pop outfit backed by a well-stocked sampler, the Kills have added glints of sunshine into their studio output in the years since. But in the Lonestar sun that good cheer was gone Sunday, with the duo’s guitars tangling like serpents against the clatter and bang on the sampler.
“We’ve never played a show in the sun before,” Mosshart said early on. “This was a terrible idea,” Hince lamented later.
Clearly this is music not made for sunlight, but at least all that angst and discomfort got manifested into the music and helped songs that are really pretty rudimentary gain a more dangerous edge.
“The bottoms of my feet are burning. So are the tops,” Mosshart laughingly shared after the relative calm of “Sour Cherry” as the sun warmed to somewhere in the mid 80s.
It was fun to humor them this time, but what would they have done in the hot dustbowl of ACL 2005? Stay in the smoky clubs, you two.
But thanks for trying.
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ACL review: Against Me!
Was that too soon?
Sorry, let’s move on.
Point is Against Me! found themselves at the front of the pack creatively after last year’s across-the-board winner “New Wave.” For their next trick, they’re trying to link up their earlier, less-nuanced output with fans inducted in the wake of the band’s newfound success.
It looks like they’re two for two based on their performance Sunday afternoon, blasting through anthems new and old without losing the sizable crowd one bit.
It was interesting to note throughout that even though many of the songs on “New Wave” such as “Stop!” or the title cut contain production touches and embellishments not found on many punk records, they stood just as strong when played stripped down, fast and loud like the older material, including “Cliche Guevara.”
Energetic and workmanlike the entire way — drummer Warren Oakes is in the running for the honor of most outwardly happy musician anywhere — that energy easily bled into the songs and let them shine.
The sweetest moment came when Tegan Quin of folk duo Tegan and Sara (also playing the festival) appeared on stage to accompany lead singer Tom Gabel on the swaying ballad “Borne on the FM Waves of the Heart.” The song, which features Quin on record as well, is one of the prettiest passages in the band’s catalog. Does that mean soon we’ll hear Against Me! blending folk-pop into its musical mix. Crazy as it sounds, at this point if they try it I wouldn’t bet against them.
Photo: Jay Janner AMERICAN-STATESMAN
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ACL review: Band of Horses
There are about a dozen things to nitpick with Band of Horses and the Seattle band’s set Sunday night.
Their songs routinely go on for about a minute too long and then the band doesn’t really know how to end them; most songs are generally one or two choruses and a verses repeated over and over; main cog Ben Bridwell (guitar/vocals) isn’t what you would call a strong singer and bass player Rob Hampton sounded like mud for roughly half the set.
You get the idea.
But here’s the thing, in spite of all that it’s pretty much impossible to not fall in love with this band and its more melodic if less experimental take on My Morning Jacket’s indie-roots rock. For all the missteps there were enough strengths — Bridwell’s raw emotion and honesty, the ability to pack three guitars into pop-like songs without sounding overstuffed — that the band’s after-dark set was a winner from the first notes of “The First Song,” from 2006’s “Everything All The Time.”
Loud, majestic and austere for pretty much the entire 60 minutes, Bridwell and his five-piece band played for the heavens and came within a few stars of reaching them on roaring gems like “The Great Salt Lake” and the celebratory (of course) “Weed Party,” among others.
Even if, as noted above, Bridwell’s voice isn’t technically sound, he’s got the strange ability to sound multi-tracked live and create thrilling harmonies that (to these ears) far surpass the supposed greatness of the pretty but lightweight Fleet Foxes.
It was all on display when the first notes of the almost-hit “The Funeral” teetered out of the speakers and Bridwell and company hammered it home for nearly six minutes. Afterward, Bridwell marveled at his place on stage and simply told the crowd, “I love you, you look beautiful!” and repeated a sentiment he shared after nearly every song.
For the vast majority of the thousands assembled, the feeling was mutual.
Photo: Jay Janner AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
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