Home > Austin Music Source > Archives > 2009 > October > 02
Friday, October 2, 2009
Live review: Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Karen O is a strange and complicated frontwoman. This is, of course, a large part of her band’s genius. Their headlining set was just an hour, but it was easily one of Friday’s most riveting hours. The trio-plus-hired-multi-instrumentalist Dav Pajo (Slint) played a hi-octane set part chunky noise rock, part club-ready dance fevers that made a case for them as one of their generation’s truly excellent live bands. (Giant eyeball beach balls, much like the giant eye that has become their on-stage prop this year, bounced around the crowd. This is the only way beach balls should ever appear at a festival. The end.)
At once mannered and raw, distanced and immediate, O owns whatever stage she’s on almost by default, whether it involves opening the show in a kimono covered in stylized eyes, looking every inch the fashion Jedi while singing the spare, melodramatic “Runaway” or bouncing around the stage to their brilliant single “Zero,” one of the year’s most infectious slices of neo-New Wave dance rock. She makes the most of small motions (cradling the mic, gesturing with her hands) or cheap-seats moves (spitting water into the air, stuffing the mic in her mouth). Her vulnerability during “Maps” should still make everyone with a heart a little verklempt, even if it is more acting that open-vein heartache.You want to roll your eyes one minute, dance wildly the next and give her a hug by the next song.
But she also seems to feel the need to roar out the end of every sentence - it’s her shtickiest move and serves to add another, obfuscatory layer to her performance.
Guitarist Nick Zinner and drummer Brian Chase are perfect foils, Chase with metronome drumming and Zinner with spare riffs that sketch out the song without over-playing it. He’s the Edge of New York noise rock - his music is filled with simple riffs, be they on guitar or jeys, that giver his singer’s outsitzed persona something to hang on.
The set leaned heavily on this year’s “It’s Bliz!” (“Dull Life,” the crowd-moving “Heads Will Roll,” the moving “Skeletons”) and a few older, poppier songs (“Gold Lion”). She headed into the crowd for some sing along choruses during “Cheated Hearts.”
Maybe her days of public emotional exhaustion are gone. But we still have the music. And she’s still an amazing entertainer.
Jay Janner photo
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Live review: Kings of Leon
Are Kings of Leon, who played the 4,000 capacity Austin Music Hall a year ago, a true headliner at ACL Fest?
Yes.
With Caleb Followill’s vocals and the band’s steady step forward, the band was pretty terrific at ACL, especially with ‘On Call,’ with its steady bass and drum communication, and opening number ‘Crawl.’
But the band whiffed on ‘I Want You,’ the recent album’s most engaging number, sending a bunch of folks headed for the exits. Too slow and grooveless, it was.
But ‘Use Somebody’ was exquisite, perhaps the theme song of ACL. He’s got the worst haircut in rock history (Flock of Seagulls laughs), but Caleb is a tremendous singer. The people next to me were singing along at the tops of their lungs, but all I heard was Followill.
It wasn’t magic, but it got the job done.
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Scene report: Thievery Corporation
Though the core of Thievery Corporation is comprised of the DJ/producer duo Eric Hilton and Rob Garza, their stage performances flesh out the group’s complex songcraft with a supporting ensemble a dozen members deep. Garza and Hilton presided over the group’s ACL performance on a platform above the stage, while the diverse cast of international musicians and vocalists took center stage.
Thievery Corporation’s music is best categorized by a term coined by local DJ Chicken George (who first turned me on to the group several years back): ‘jazztronica.’ They experiment with global polyrhythms, sultry South American vocalizations, sitar lines and dancehall chanting all within the context of midtempo loungey electronica. It was an apt soundtrack for the setting sun on the first day of a beautiful ACL Fest. The crowd was thick and fairly diverse. Young girls in hippie skirts snaked their way to the front, dredlocked boyfriends in tow. Well-coiffed blondes tied bellydance scarves on their hips to shimmy to the rhythms. Baseball-capped frat boys nodded their heads to the beat. Clouds of smoke wafted over the whole scene.
The subject matter in Thievery Corporation’s music is deeply political. When I interviewed Garza and Hilton in the afternoon they said that Austin was one of the smaller cities that really gets their music. Throughout the performance political references cropped up. The song “Numbers Game” was introduced as an explanation of what’s really going on with the current financial situation before kicking into a funk groove. At one point Brazilian singer Karina Zeviani bounded onto the stage chanting, ‘The people united will never be defeated.’ Austin was referenced as “an island of tolerance and peace” as the lead to the outcry for global justice on the track ‘Vampires.’
Did the ACL crowd get the higher messages and catch the revolutionary spirit of the group? I suppose its possible. Did the densely layered rhythmic grooves laced with smokey melodies make them move? Absolutely.
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Live review: Raphael Saadiq
Raphael Saadiq is one smooth cat. Rocking a black tie and a suit coat rapidly shed in the setting sun, he easily won the Xbox 360 crowd over with retro soul grooves complemented with Temptations-esque dance moves. A soul lifer who cut his teeth in the groundbreaking 80s act Tony! Toni! Tone!, his work in the years following the group’s break-up has been met with widespread critical acclaim, but limited commercial success. His 2008 release ‘The Way I See It is changing that scenario. With an old school sound that’s straight up Motown and a style crafted to match, Saadiq seems to have hit his stride.
The ACL audience was clearly sold grooving right along with Saadiq, who was backed by female and male singer/dancers as well as horns and guitar, bass and drums. When he ripped off his tie and segued into harder grooves delivering a screeching, electric guitar-driven cover of Iggy Pop’s ‘Search and Destroy,’ the crowd screamed along with him.
A consummate performer, Saadiq knows how to work a riff. He brought in the sensual love song ‘Let’s Take a Walk’ with a prolonged intro full of lengthy flourishes and pregnant pauses before sliding satisfyingly back into the horn accented old school soul.
His pipes were pure and when he picked up the guitar the man proved he could shred. But the most striking thing about Saadiq’s performance was his ebullient spirit. It was an infectious vibe that spread from the stage across the field. He introduced the song ‘Faithful’ by crying out, ‘Do you love me tonight? Do you love me tonight, Austin, Texas?’ Then he answered the responding screams: ‘I sure hope you mean it.’
There was no doubt we did.
Ricardo B. Brazziell photo
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Live review: John Legend
This correspondent, for one, was curious to see how John Legend’s boudoir-friendly R&B/neo-soul translated to the cowboy-hatted al fresco environment of ACL. Seems I wasn’t the only one.
‘I know you don’t get a lot of R&B acts here,’ Legend said toward the end of his hour long set. ‘But I feel very much at home tonight.’
Certainly he made himself at home. Legend began his set standing on a box in the middle of the runway between the stage and sound board, serenading the rapturous crowd with a heartfelt version of Bob Marley’s ‘Redemption Song.’
Bounding back up to the stage, he cranked up the big hit-making machine — horn section, girl singers, subterranean rhythm section and all. And the hits, culled from his three chart-topping albums, kept coming. ‘When I Used to Love U’ yielded in quick succession to the hip-hop inflected ‘All Right,’ which segued to the creamy, seductive ‘Satisfaction’ and the glossy pop/soul confection ‘Save Room.
No matter the tempo, the number of dreamy, doe-eyed female fans following every swivel and inflection showed no signs of going anywhere for anything short of an air raid.
Legend took advantage of the open-air setting to breathe some fresh air into his ‘PDA (We Just Don’t Care),’ beefing it up with live samples of the Blackbyrds’ ‘Rock Creek Park’ and Roberta Flack’s ‘Feel Like Makin’ Love.’
Not every digression was successful. His overbearing take on the Beatles’ ‘I Want You (She’s So Heavy)’ seemed like a gimmick, and the swoony ‘Good Morning,’ with its annoying peeps of synthesizer, felt like a Hallmark card writ large.
Well, never mind. Legend was engaging and outgoing, resisting the tendency of letting the big production reduce him to just another gear in the clockwork action.
After a confessional and intimate turn on ‘Everybody Knows’ (with it’s great line, “I wish you the best…I guess.”) and ‘Ordinary People,’ Legend finished big, stripping down to a black tank top and romping through his devilishly infectious hit ‘Green Light. It was a genuinely exhilarating conclusion to a show that demonstrated conclusively that a velvet-voiced R&B hitmaker from (go figure ) Ohio could indeed get over deep in the heart of Texas.
Ricardo B. Brazziell photo
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Live review: Poi Dog Pondering
Chicago house music (aka gay disco) at ACL? Poi Dog Pondering was suffering with a poor vocal mix at the Wildflower Center stage, but when they pulled out Marshall Jefferson’s ‘That’s the Way Love Goes,’ it got the crowd jumping up and down. Then the former Austin band followed up with ‘Natural Thing’ to keep the groove going.
It’s not like the early going didn’t have its moments; the seque from ‘Jackass Ginger’ into the rock number ‘Lemon Drop Man’ was brilliant. But due to sound problems, the set started 15 minutes late and took awhile after that to kick into gear. Guitarist Dag Juhlin was on fire, though, and his enthusiasm seemed to fuel the others.
One plus on the late start was that there was no empty space between songs, making for a wall-to-wall jam. ‘Pulling Touch,’ with guest vocalist Abra Moore, harked back to Poi’s Austin years. But the best stuff was electrified and funkdafied.
If you feel left out of ACL, you’ve got a chance to get your fill of one of the first day’s highlights. Poi Dog plays the Speakeasy tonight at 11;30 p.m. Public’s invited.
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Live review: The Wood Brothers
Chris Wood definitely wins this year’s ‘Most Versatile ACL Musician’ award, along with ’ Festival’s Biggest Hustler’ (as in ‘hustling around,’ not ‘ripping people off’).
Just over an hour after leaving the Livestrong stage following his set with Medeski, Martin and Wood, the bass player appeared on stage with his guitar playing brother Oliver.
Chris made the switch from improvisational jazz to blues & roots with apparent ease. The brothers got the crowd into a bluesy gospel revival mood with a stirring rendition of the almost-100-year-old ‘Lil Liza Jane,’ a song made famous in the 1940s by Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys. The song was punctuated beautifully by the brothers’ harmonies. Oliver has a rich, booming but syrupy voice, and for a jazz bass player, Chris is no slouch on the vocals. In fact, the qualifier ‘for a bass player,’ isn’t fair. The guy can sing.
With the brothers slapping their stringed instruments while wailing, ‘I know what it means to be senseless,’ and Oliver dancing his slide up and down the fret of his acoustic guitar, the small grove of trees in which the brothers were holding court felt like it could have been in the Georgia pines.
Oliver, with a nod to the wafting scent of marijuana, acknowledged that ‘it sure smells good out there,’ and then launched into ‘One More Day,’ with a bayside bass line that sounded like the theme to ‘The Wire.’
With the boys throwing down the blues while the young crowd up front danced along, the scene was taking on a real New Orleans JazzFest vibe. And just when you thought the brothers couldn’t take us any further down South, Chris broke out his train-chugging harmonica and Oliver put his slide through the paces for the blues tune, ‘Where My Baby Might Be.’
On this breezy afternoon, the two brothers from Georgia looked like two happy towheaded little boys with old souls sitting out on the front porch without a care in the world. As one of their songs put it, ‘the older I get, the less I know and the more I dream.’
Matthew Odam photo
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Live review: Walter ‘Wolfman’ Washington
Back in his hometown of New Orleans, one of the fun things to do is to go see Walter ‘Wolfman’ Washington play a little uptown bar called the Maple Leaf. The stage fronts on a big bay window, and when Washington and his band, the Roadmasters, crank it up, you can look through the window and see people dancing on cars up and down the street.
Washington didn’t excite quite that level of fervor on Friday, but it wasn’t for lack of trying. A journeyman guitarist and vocalist whose professional affiliations go back to Johnny Adams (‘The Tan Canary’), Lee Dorsey and Irma Thomas, Washington has created a solid and durable body of work as a leader based on an elastic fusion of blues, soul, funk and an ineffable Crescent City groove. All of those qualities were on display during his ACL set, which hopscotched from a scorching instrumental funk track that opened the show to a sugar-sweet quiet-storm style ballad, ‘Sada’ and a nimble cover of The Delfonics’ ‘Start All Over Again.’
Playing guitar lines that managed to sound both stinging and sweetened (he’s from the T-Bone Walker/Gatemouth Brown school), Washington also took home sartorial style points, looking downright demonic in head-to-toe scarlet, from his red Kangol cap to the incarnadine patent leather shoes — and flame-red Gibson Chet Atkins guitar, of course.
One could see the band lock into place from the opening bars of the first song, tossing one another looks as the pieces jigsawed into place. At one point, a little guitar figure Washington played pleased him so mightily that he said, ‘I gotta do that again’ — and proceeded to do so. It was an oddly engaging moment, an interlude where a guitar lifer can still discover, almost by accident, why he still finds himself onstage night after night.
Larry Kolvoord photo
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Scene report: Trouble for vendors along Barton Springs Road
As I was making my way down Barton Springs Road today around 2 p.m., there were fewer vendors than normal. Turns out some city employees were patrolling the streets and shutting down the operations of people who did not have the proper permits.
At least one business had rented out its road-fronting parking spaces to vendors, and they too were told to stop until the proper permits were required.
I didn’t talk to the officials doing the closing, so I don’t know if the crackdown has come as a result of the neighborhood association or C3 intervening or the city simply deciding to play hard ball.
It will be interesting to see if the usual assortment of food, glassware and beverage vendors line the streets this evening as they have in years past.
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Live review: Phoenix
In a year filled with synth-heavy pop rock, French pop rock group Phoenix, who reportedly flew in from Paris this morning, released one of the most celebrated albums of the year, ‘Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix.’ Their set this afternoon on the AMD stage was more rock than pop, packed with pregnant pauses and heavy guitar licks. After starting out with an energetic “Lisztomania,” The band was sidelined by what frontman Thomas Mars deemed technical difficulties, which he tried to compensate for with a cover of fellow French band Air’s ‘Playground Love,’ which fell flat with Mars’ vocal backed by a single guitar.
They recovered with groove-heavy version of ‘Fences,’ and ‘Run Run Run,’ where a dark beat dropped into even darker rock. Guitars gave way to keys on ‘Too Young,’ which also showcased drummer Thomas Hedlund’s energy. Mars repeatedly expressed how grateful he was to be playing to the audience, which he said was the group’s largest ever. Closer ‘1901’ was a highlight, complete with Mars jumping into the audience and a false ending that gave way to a raucous conclusion.
Ricardo B. Brazziell photo
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Live review: Medeski, Martin & Wood
In the documentary ‘Icons Among Us,’ which aired on TV earlier this year, keyboardist John Medeski said that jazz musicians are never going to be given anything. They’re going to have to go out there and take it.
Medeski, Martin and Wood have been going out and taking it for the better part of two decades now, and today at 2:30 p.m. on the Livestrong Stage was no different.
The band took the stage to a small but appreciative crowd and proved to be the perfect vessel for many fest goers to set their weekend off to sail.
After an opening tune that featured Medeski playing a claviola and had the band building to a crescendo then backing off to settle into some quiet spaces, the band lit into some swampy funk on their second tune. Bassist Chris Wood switched from lilting sounds reminiscent of Jaco Pastorius to the electric-guitar-sounding root notes he played high on the neck of his bass.
That gave way to some playful Sesame Street funk, not a surprising milieu, as the band recently recorded a children’s album.
When Wood switched to upright bass, his deep notes conjured a soft breeze, and with Billy Martin toying with bells, the jam took on a Charles Mingus/late John Coltrane vibe that let people slide into the day’s proceedings.
Not surprising for a band who’s last album was titled ‘Let’s Go Everywhere,’ the guys spent the rest of their set sliding easily from New Orleans funk to Chicago blues and zydeco. The set highlighted each member’s strengths and versatility, all three playing with precision and power, not afraid to go to quiet spaces or erupt in combustible fury.
The only drawback was the longing it evoked in those of us who would like to see the trio play an aftershow at a small, dark club.
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Live review: Jonell Mosser
Singer/songwiriter Jonell Mosser might not be the biggest marquee name in Nashville, but the last thing you could call her is ‘unsung.’ Mosser, who enlivened the first day of ACL, is the possessor of a rich and soulful voice with an afterburner mode that crisped the speakers on the BMI Stage when she popped the clutch. No surprise, that, considering she has made a name for herself as a backup singer for the likes of Waylon Jennings, Etta James and Keb Mo’.
Perhaps best known in these parts for a tribute album she recorded of Townes Van Zandts’ songs a decade or so ago, Mosser is also a fine writer and interpreter, as was on display during her mid-afternoon set.
Kicking off with ‘Trust Yourself,’ a slapback rocker (and the title track to her latest album) that owed more to Memphis than Nashville, Mosser’s soulful voice (think Bonnie Bramlett or a younger Bonnie Raitt) immediately turned the heads of passers-by.
Moving between original material (the irreverent ‘Richest Daddy,’ ‘Know Who You Are’ and ‘Blessing’) and some well-chosen covers (Nick Lowe’s “When I Write the Book”and Van Morrison’s ‘Into the Mystic’), Mosser leavened her set with shout-outs to audience members and irreverent intros. ‘This song is for a man who really liked to date beautiful women,’ she said at one point. ‘Unfortunately, they were the kinds of women who like to stick nail files into his truck tires.’
Songs like ‘Boney Man’ (an homage to Van Zandt) and the rocking ‘Bang, Bang, Bang’ ran the gamut from serious to abandoned, and Mosser navigated the stylisic and emotional changes with aplomb. She deserves a wider hearing next time she comes to town.
Larry Kolvoord photo
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Live review: The Avett Brothers
Though we reviewed the North Carolina-based Americana trio the Avett Brothers’ new album, ‘I and Love and You,’ earlier this week, it’s worth mentioning their live show, as the stage is where they really excel. The two brothers, Scott and Seth Avett, as well as bassist Bob Crawford and cellist Joe Kwan, are as about as animated as a mostly acoustic outfit can get, yelling, jumping and dancing their way through songs from their two most recent albums as well the the ‘Gleam’ EPs.
They stretched things out instrumentally as well, including a raucous bluegrass coda on ‘Laundry Room’ and an extended cello solo on ‘Salina.’ The band also took a couple rock turns, with Seth Avett plugging in on ‘Slight Figure of Speech.’ The brothers stood alone on stage for the slightly sappy, mostly moving ‘Murder in the City’ and closed with the climactic ‘Perfect Space.’ While the music isn’t exactly charting any new territory, the band is very good at what they do—tight harmonies, dance-along country numbers and big ballads.
Jay Janner photo
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Scene report: Yes, you can find ponchos at Zilker Park
Cory Davis is one of the owners of LocoStyle, a Leander-based company that sells mostly guayaberas. They’ve had a booth in the art market/retail area for the past four ACL fests. They sell some shirts, see some bands, make some new customers. This weekend, they are in the $10 poncho business. And business is good.
“We brought about 300 with us,” Davis says. “We cleaned out two Academy Sports and Outdoors stores last night.”
By 2 p.m. Friday, with 76 degree weather and harmless-looking clouds, she had already sold 60 or 70.
“People tell me they’re going to come back tomorrow,” Davis said. “I tell them, “Um, you might wanna buy one now.’”
Weekend weather predictions have yo-yo’ed all over the place over the past 24 hours, but most forecasts are now calling for a 70 percent chance of rain Saturday and Sunday, with highs in the 70s Saturday and the low 80s on Sunday.
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Live review: School of Seven Bells
Opening up the massive Livestrong stage on the eastern end of Zilker Park can be an imposing challenge even for the most energetic of bands, making it doubly difficult for a group like New York electronic shoegaze trio School of Seven Bells.
Benjamin Curtis and identical twins Alejandra and Claudia Deheza play the kind of sweeping dream pop that can be atmospheric and fascinating in the intimate setting of a club but somewhat muddled and difficult to parse early in the day at a large outdoor festival. Curtis — looking the embodiment of an emo guitarist with wispy hair and a black outfit — and the Deheza sisters seemed to savor the challenge, purposefully opening their set with some of the band’s slower, more ambling tunes, including an emotionally delivered “Connjur.” Despite a clearly engaged band — vocalist and bassist Alejandra alternated between grinning ear to ear during the lengthier solos and adopting a genuine look of concern during the songs’ angst-filled moments — the set was light on banter and frequently lost in its own waves of synths and reverb-heavy vocals.
Which is too bad, because when the School of Seven Bells managed to pair their technical virtuosity with their more rocking instincts — as on an excellent abridged version of “Sempiternal/Amaranth,” the closer to their set and a highlight from last year’s debut album “Alpinisms” — they demonstrated that they had the chops needed to thrill a large audience.
Jay Janner photo
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Scene report: Ray Benson helps get ACL started
Walking under cloudy skies amidst temperatures in the low 80s, music fans trickled into Zilker Park this morning to catch the first day of the Austin City Limits Music Festival.
Austin icon and perennial ACL favorite Ray Benson helped kick off the fest with an energetic performance of “Miles and Miles of Texas.”
“Good morning, everybody,” he boomed from the stage. “We’re all a little Asleep at the Wheel, aren’t we?”
In his eighth ACL appearance, Benson said he likes having the early time slot. The nine-time Grammy winner was one of the first artists to appear on the Austin City Limits television program.
“It’s just the best - nobody’s sunburned yet, nobody’s worn out and everybody is still full of excitement,” Benson said. “Once you kick off seven or eight times, you’re kind of a tradition, right?”
Benson said festivals like ACL and SXSW, in which he also appears each spring, are important because they keep the spotlight on Austin, specifically on Austin music. Headed to Snyder, Texas, for a show this evening, Benson will head back to ACL on Sunday to catch some entertainment himself. He said he likes the fact that ACL brings in a hefty number of young musical artists.
“Young folks are the percolation of what’s going to happen to music 20 years down the road,” he said. “It’s important that we all do what we can to make an environment that is going to continue to be conducive to music.”
After Sunday, Benson goes back on tour across the country. His next show in Central Texas will be at Gruene Hall on Oct. 11. And after Thanksgiving, he will begin a tour with friend Willie Nelson to promote their CD, “Willie and the Wheel.”
Benson said he is happy to see many of those young musicians he feels are so important to music turning a keen ear to Asleep at the Wheel and swing music in general.
“I was a 16-year-old kid when I discovered swing,” he said. “I figure there are 16-year-old kids out there now that are interested. I’m not trying to reach the masses with my music; I’m just trying to give people some interesting music— something different.”
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Live review: The Low Anthem
It’s easy for groups playing folk/Americana/roots (or whatever label people use to characterize the music) to sound very similar. Providence, Rhode Island-based trio the Low Anthem for the most part avoid that trap, elevating their well-written but not terribly notable Dylan-inspired songs with a focus on varied instrumentation. Band members Ben Miller, Jeff Prystowsky and Jocie Adams took turns on keys, drums, stand-up and electric bass and clarinet. On one song, Miller not only played a baritone horn, but made use of feedback from two cell phones, while Adams’ clarinet kept the music grounded, especially on “The Ballad of Broken Bones.” Unfortunately, sound from other stages drowned out several songs, including the quiet “Ticket Taker.”
Jay Janner photo
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Scene report: Hudson’s cone off to ‘Mighty’ start
At last year’s ACL Fest, Hudsons on the Bend sold just under 20,000 chicken or shrimp cones. Chef-owner Jeff Blank and the crew had the briskest early sales at the ACL food court, with Wahoo’s fish tacos and Belmont’s pressed Cuban sandwiches also getting good business.
Hudson’s Mighty Cone was born at the second ACL Fest in 2003 and was an instant hit. Blank said he opened a trailer on South Congress because of the cone’s success at the fest.
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Amy Farris obit from the Los Angeles Times
We’re still saddened by the death of the longtime Austin musician who moved to L.A. in 2003. Here is the obituary from the Los Angeles Times, who talked with Exene Cervenka and Dave Alvin about this talented fiddle player.
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Raveonettes stuck in Denmark?
Our friends at Austinist alerted us to a posting on the band’s MySpace:
VERY BAD NEWS!!! Due to the bidding on the 2016 Olympics, Copenhagen has transformed itself into a celebrity hot-spot. This, unfortunately means that our drummer and bass player has not been able to get an appointment at the American Embassy in Copenhagen cause the embassy is busy dealing with Obama, Oprah, etc…
We are forced to cancel our Austin City Limits performance and our pre-show at The Parish. We’re so incredibly sorry but I’m afraid celebrities and sports are more important to some people …..
We’ll post more information as it becomes available. (The band was schedule to play Saturday at the fest and tonight at the Parish.)
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ACL taping: Mos Def and K’Naan
Thursday, October 1 marked a day in Austin City Limits history on two fronts. First the 34-year-old television show was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in an afternoon ceremony. Later in the evening the show welcomed rappers K’Naan and Mos Def to the stage in the first hip-hop show ever to be recorded in the show’s history.
It was a memorable evening indeed. I’m still processing. But here are a few thoughts.
K’Naan:
In my opinion, the Somali-Canadian rapper, who fled his wartorn homeland at age 13, is one of the deepest artists working these days. He opened his set explaining “I write the experiences that were given to me. I write between the line of tragedy and beauty.” Then he spent the next hour delivering both. Launching his performance with a drum and a handclap, he proceeded to blend traditional East African sounds with everything from hip hop to thrash in a whirlwind tour of songs about his homeland, at times marked by brutal fury and in other moments full of wistful longing. Highlights include a haunting a Capella version of the song “Somalia.” The heartbreaking yet celebratory memorial to a fallen friend “Fatima.” And, of course, the infinitely triumphant closing track, K’Naan’s signature, “Waving Flag.”
Mos Def:
The Mighty Mos was in the house! With timpani-flanked drum kit onstage and a pair of turntablists at his back, the rapper threw down. Hard. The venue suited him, an actor/musician who knows how to play to the camera as well as crowd. From the thunderous drums woven with Eastern samples of opening track “Ecstatic,” the title track of his latest album, through the throwback conclusion with his 1999 track “Umi Says,” the rapper was riveting. Explosive. Whether pounding the drums while performing or laying himself bare in the center of the stage he commanded the room. He threw down rhymes, he danced a samba, he wailed for god. He vamped, playing a crazy lounge singer. He paid tribute to Michael Jackson with his own rendition of “Billie Jean”. He moonwalked. Heart on sleeve, his performance bled passion. Highlights include throwback track “Don’t Push Me,” a ferocious version of the new album’s “Quiet Dog” and the collab track with K’Naan “America.”
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Scene report: ‘Star Wars’ and playin’ hooky … NOT
One of the coolest moments of ACL Fest is the first, when the gates are opened at 11 a.m. and the crowd runs for prime viewing spots as the loudspeakers play the theme from “Star Wars.” This year the throngs were sprinting on grass that was as velvetty as the fairways at Fazio Canyons. The difference from last year was noticable.
The eight St. Andrews Episcopal School eighth graders who were among the first through the gates Friday were not skipping school: they had the day off for a parent- teacher conference. Wonder why more schools, such as Austin High, where the ACL flu is prevalent each year, don’t schedule an off day on the Friday of the fest.
Austin attorney Richard Suttle was chaperoning the group from St. Andrews, which included his 14-year-old daughter Molly. “They’ve been talking about Nelo all the way here,” said Suttle, as the kids, each wearing tie-dyed shirts, staked out a front row seat at the BMI stage.
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Lollapalooza 2016 is back on
Despite some last minute lobbying from President Barack Obama, Chicago didn’t get the 2016 Summer Olympics, it was announced Friday morning from Copenhagen, Denmark. Austin-based C3 Presents, which co-manages Soldier Field and was poised to handle Olympics production, had agreed to bypass Lollapalooza in 2016 to make room for the Olympics if Chicago won.
None of the three Charlies could be reached for comment, but let’s just say their ACL Fest started off on a bummer.
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Umbrellas - yes you can
No reason to panic, festival-goers. With rain looming in the weekend forecast, there seems to be some confusion about umbrellas. Bottom line: Small, handheld umbrellas are just fine, organizers say. But leave the large golf umbrellas at home. If it can fit in your bag, you should be fine.
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Scene report: Scalper prices: $250 a three-day wristband
Scalpers are not as plentiful as in past years, but it’s still early. The going price seems to be $250 for a three-day and $125 for a single day.
This being a trailer-food town, there were a lot more food choices enroute on Barton Springs Road, including a stand for Kerbey Lane.
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Live review: Blitzen Trapper and the Walkmen at Emo’s
To a certain extent, Blitzen Trapper and the Walkmen made names for themselves by merging disparate elements to create music that stood out; after an album or two, both bands evolved away from their beginnings to a more focused, mature spot.
On 2007’s “Wild Mountain Nation,” Blitzen Trapper won new fans and positive reviews by placing noisy, lo-fi indie rock on equal footing with country-infused classic rock. They left the fuzz behind with their follow-up, the well-received “Furr” and the “Black River Killer” EP. The band’s evolution was on display Thursday night at Emo’s. Though briefly taking forays into darker hard rock on “Love U,” they were at their best when they found the groove, especially on the organ-driven “Sleepytime in the Western World” and “Fire and Fast Bullets.” Lead singer/guitarist Eric Early similarly shined in folk-rock troubadour mode on “Furr” and a few others where he donned a harmonica as he strummed and sang.
Like Blitzen Trapper, the Walkmen won at lot of fans with their 2004 album “Bows and Arrows,” on which the band showed they are capable of weaving together a harder, more abstract sound with a pop sensibility. They have mellowed since then, with the release of “You and Me,” which might be their strongest to date, in 2008. On Thursday night the band’s setlist drew from several of their albums, going big with “Little House of Savages” bringing out a horn section on “Red Moon,” which, like many of the other songs in the set, served as a reminder that frontman Hamilton Leithauser can really, really sing. They threw in “The Rat,” too, which is fun and gets the biggest response, but is no longer necessary.
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Review: Them Crooked Vultures at Stubb’s
Can we maybe think about retiring the term “supergroup”? It’s such a slippery superlative, one that clumsily and inadvertently confers greatness onto any group of previously unaligned but accomplished musicians.
Take the new and buzzy as hell Them Crooked Vultures, for example. Throw Foo Fighter/drum god Dave Grohl, Queens of the Stone Age honcho Josh Homme and John Paul Jones (no intro needed) onto a stage and you’ve instantly got one of the coolest and most interesting groups out there rocking faces off. But super? Not yet.
Not that such hair splitting mattered much Thursday night when the three principals and utility musician/QotSA bassist Alain Johannes took the stage at Stubb’s, one night after taping an episode of Austin City Limits and 20 or so hours before playing in Zilker Park for Pt. III of their ACL ‘09 hat trick. Just the sheer star power under the lights was enough to draw cheers as TCV kicked off with a full-speed guitar assault before easing back into a seven-minute, five-movement workout that approximated Homme’s primary group with bluesy, fuzzier accents in most of the right places.
Throughout the 75 minute performance there were continual glimpses of the fun each member was having; Grohl as the perfectly evolved hard rock drummer in his ideal environment, Homme as the frontman of a muscular group that can push him stylistically (even if it doesn’t as much as it should) and Jones as the old timer hero once again playing in a group that matters.
Those ancillary attractions made up for the fact that the first hour or so lacked for engaging, distinct songs, which is one of the eternal drawbacks of these kinds of side projects.
Things took a turn, however, after Jones broke out a keytar as the primary accompaniment to Homme on an ultra-weird, funeral home lounge number called “Interlude With ‘Ludes.” Essentially saying, “We’re just following our whimsy up here and having fun,” it let the band get to the heart of what TCV is all about and unlocked a groove that gave the show’s final 15 minutes an undeniable upswing.
With band and audience in sync and seemingly having a grand time, there’s reason to hope the day this supergroup lives up to its billing isn’t too far off.
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