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Friday, July 31, 2009
ACL not ready for Beyonce’s jelly
So there’s this Facebook page called “Draft Beyonce for ACL”. It suggests that her time to play the Austin City Limits Music Festival has come.
Through the great game of telephone that is the Internet, this somehow turned into “Beyonce is playing ACL.” (Thanks, Twitter!)
C3 principal Charles Attal said yesterday that Beyonce is not playing ACL.
The end.
(Or is it? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHahem.)
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Chicago critics on C3
Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune and Jim DeRogatis of the Chicago Sun-Times are two of the very best daily newspaper pop music critics in America. Their mix of passion for music and reporting chops are mighty impressive. Like Siskel & Ebert, they’re friends, co-hosting the “Sound Matters” radio show, but they’re also competitors, make no mistake.
In their coverage of Austin-based C3 Presents, which somehow bought Lollapalooza as a destination festival to Grant Park five years ago, I think the quest for one-upmanship has made DeRo slant a little more negatively than called for. For instance, he’s repeatedly slammed C3’s radius clause, which contractually prevents bands playing Lolla from doing gigs at Chicago clubs for 60-90 days in each direction. But the radius clause is an industry standard and C3’s Charles Attal has been reasonable in letting local bands skirt. Last year, for instance, Alejandro Escovedo and the Jones Family Singers played free shows at Shady Grove the day before their ACL Fest sets and no one from C3 objected.
I mean, you don’t want a band like Kings of Leon playing Cedar Park before ACL, but Bob Schneider’s still going to play every night of the week whether he’s signed a radius clause or not.
Also, bands that play festivals always draw better at the clubs next time through, according to Grace Potter of the Nocturnals (at a panel last year). So it’s not like the clubs totally lose out.
DeRo basically blamed C3 when Rage Against the Machine fans nearly rioted last year. The only way C3 could’ve prevented that craziness would’ve been to not book Rage. Another thing DeRo’s been hammering C3 about is that their legal rep in Chicago is Mayor Richard Daley’s nephew. C3’s Charlie Jones has said that the Bossette’s neph was not involved in bringing Lolla to the sacred fields of Grant Park.
But it’s good that DeRogatis is watching C3. If they ever truly do something questionable in Chicago, he’ll pounce. But I don’t see where they’ve done a thing wrong.
I think this article by Kot is pretty fair about C3, and if you read it the way I did, you can understand why Chi-Town has not wrapped its big shoulders around C3. Chicago is the most agoraphobic town I’ve ever been to. It has a natural mistrust for outsiders. If you haven’t lived there at least 10 years, you might as well be a tourist in a Cardinals cap who stranded from the group going to the Field Museum.
Kot knocks C3 for not embracing Chicago, but’s not easy to hug an ice sculpture.
Personally, I love that a trio of Austin guys has taken the Windy City by storm. C3 co-manages Soldier Field and books the Congress Theater, in addition to hosting the biggest Chicago event of the year in Lollapalooza.
I lived in Chicago for three years (‘89- ‘92) and wrote a column for the Chicago Sun-Times, but to the locals I just got off the Greyhound last week. If you don’t speak in one of those Don McLeese accents that also helps scrape ice off your windshield, your words just don’t have much significance in Chicago. I felt so shut out there I took a job in Dallas just to be back in Texas.
So, go get’em C3. Order your beef sandwiches undipped, your pizza thin crust and have them hold the celery salt on your hot dogs. Put horns on your golf carts as you drive all over Grant Park the weekend of Aug. 7- 9. Get the gig staging the Olympics. Strut around as President Obama’s favorite promoters. Rub Chi-town’s face in your ability to get things done. Revenge is a dish best served with barbecue sauce and a side of beans.
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Live Review: The Great Hangover Tour at Stubb’s
Here is a lesson in getting the crowd on your side in about 15 seconds, the Asher Roth way:“When I say ‘Colt,’ you say ‘McCoy.’ COLT!”
“McCOY!”
“COLT”
“McCOY!”
“When I say, ‘Dan,’ you say ‘Buckner.’ DAN!”
“BUCKNER!”
And so on.
It doesn’t hurt if the crowd already relates to you, as nearly everyone at Stubb’s obviously did. Eminem might have been the first white rapper to become a commercial force of nature, but Roth, currently co-headlining “The Great Hangover Tour” with Kid Cudi, is a heck of a lot more like the middle-class kids who filled Stubb’s on Thursday night.
He’s the guy in your freshman suite in college, smoking weed out of apples and watching ESPN until he passes out in front of the TV. Roth’s onstage props included a giant joint and a guy dressed as a pot leaf — between that and his red hair, one could be forgiven for thinking Carrot Top was suddenly a rapper.
Roth is also the sort of fellow who inspires unchecked loathing in certain hip-hop fans, who bemoan, well, pretty much everything about him - his frat guy topics, his smug vibe, his delivery, his popularity. But none of them were at Stubb’s.
After a set from trio Pac Div, rapper Bobby Ray, the artist formerly known as B.o.B., nearly stole the entire show with a sharp set of forward-thinking dirty South hip-hop. Rhyming a capella, playing acoustic guitar, vibing with his backup singers, no wonder Ray’s a favorite for guest spots on songs by higher profile rappers (Big Boi, Killer Mike) and a budding mixtape messiah (check out the “B.o.B vs. Bobby Ray” tape for the full story). His debut album “The Great Adventures of Bobby Ray” is slated for release later this year.
Kid Cudi (say it: “cutty”), on the other hand, nearly bogarted the entire show by taking the stage 20 minutes late, which cut his set in half. (It’s a bad look when the crowd is chanting “CU-DI! CU-DI,” then eventually gives up and goes back to chatting.)
He just had time for demi-hits such as the compellingly menacing “Mr. Solo Dolo,” the skittering “Embracing the Martian” and “Day ‘n’ Nite” a song that leaked online in December 2007. It’s a measure of how fast hip-hop moves that Cudi referred to it as “the granddady of them all.” Invest your money wisely, man.
Roth, on the other hand, was pure showman, leaping around on stage, playing with props and generally acting like a guy goofing off in his dorm room. Dressed in a UT football T-shirt, shorts and no shoes, Roth was a doofus, but he was the crowd’s doofus. He occasionally hit Dr. Phil territory (“If you guys are taking advantage of being yourself, clap your hands”) and smashed into hits such as “Be By Myself” and “Sour Patch Kids.” Roth also made a whole mess of us feel all kind of old during his single “As I Em:” “I was in seventh grade when I heard the Slim Shady LP .” Which arrived in 1999. Ouch.
Roth, his hypeman, his DJ and live drummer even did some unfortunate choreography to Soul 4 Real’s “Candy Rain,” which one has no doubt originated to impress some drunk girls.
Speaking of girls and age, Roth invited a whole mess of them to dance on stage during “She Don’t Wanna Man.” Roth, son, I would check some of those I.D.s very carefully before the after-party jump-off. You aren’t in college any more.
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Guestlist giveaway: Mike Farris at Antone’s
We’re giving away tickets to see Mike Farris at Antone’s on Friday, August 7.
Email us at events@statesman.com before midnight to enter. You MUST include your full name, email address and daytime phone number in the email to win. Winners will be drawn randomly and notified tomorrow. For complete contest rules email events@statesman.com.
