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ACL Buzzmeter - Muse reigning. Black Keys surging. Phish phloundering?
Welcome to the 2010 incarnation of our Austin City Limits Fest Buzzmeter, where we go Freakonomics Lite with this year’s ACL Fest lineup using the schedule builder tool on the fest’s Web site. Every week or so, we’ll be looking at how many potential fans have added a band to their schedule for the three-day blowout at Zilker Park, and doing our best to trendspot and see how people are responding in a macro sense to this year’s slate of bands.
- Muse - 11,456
- The Strokes - 11,440
- Vampire Weekend - 11,027
- Spoon - 10,750
- The Black Keys - 10,198
- Flaming Lips - 9,732
- Eagles - 9,289
- M.I.A - 8,442
- Band of Horses - 8,361
- LCD Soundsystem - 7,683
- Broken Bells - 6,918
- Norah Jones - 6,442
- The xx - 6,078
- Phish - 6,030
- Blues Traveler - 5,943
- Pete Yorn - 5,913
- The National - 5,774
- Yeasayer - 5,602
- Matt and Kim - 5,320
- Miike Snow - 4,927
- Cage The Elephant- 4,584
- Deadmau5 - 4,256
- Beach House - 4,201
- Manchester Orchestra - 4,198
- Gogol Bordello - 4,197
Where else to start but with a bit of a head scratcher at the top, where British rockers Muse have an ever-so-slim lead over The Strokes. Muse pulling the top spot is almost a gimme; the trio have been an Austin favorite ever since they pinch hit as headliners at 2007’s ACL Fest in place of The White Stripes, they’re a consistently “wow”-worthy live act and you can hear roughly a half dozen of their songs on modern rock radio in most big markets across the country. So no big surprise there, but to have The Strokes - who are four and a half years removed from their last album and have been “this close” to calling it quits a couple times - nipping at their heels is intriguing at the least and “What the hell?”-inducing at the most.
Could just be nostalgia, since the New York combo is almost a throwback act at this point and the ACL bow - along with its well-received showing last month at Lollapalooza - has a faint wiff of a reunion. With no new product to keep them in headlines or on radio and playlists for the next couple months, chances are they’ll slide a few spots in these rankings but should still draw a large and hyper-fashionable crowd on Friday night opposite Phish (more on them in a bit).
A likely new entrant in the “oceans of fans” category is Ohio duo The Black Keys, pulling up in fifth place here and building the kind of momentum that could push them to heights no one imagined possible when they were banging around midwest clubs almost a decade ago. All reports from Lollapalooza had guitarist/vocalist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney as one of “The bands” of the weekend with the crowd to match, the single “Tighten Up” is pretty much inescapable at this point (man, now that darn whistled intro is stuck in my head… again) and the pair’s latest album “Brothers” has been entrenched near or at the top of the sales charts at Waterloo Records since its release.
That kind of buzz could put them neck and neck with Spoon and Vampire Weekend on this chart before too long, and with 4 p.m. on Friday pretty much all to themselves (apologies to Pat Green) fans wanting a good view might need to get positioned during Blues Traveler, a full two hours earlier at the AMD Stage.
Last item of business this week; what’s up with Phish and their lean showing thus far? Co-worker Matthew Odam posited that fans of the reunited jam band stereotypically aren’t heavy social media users and as such aren’t going to move the online needle much, so the 14th place showing here might be something of a false read. A fair point, but it’s still something to watch.
ACL Fest fest has typically been more “granola”-y than the other big multi-day fests with curfews, so if Phish is going to fit into any of them it’s here in Austin. But their inclusion this year has always seemed kinda dubious to yours truly, especially with just two hours on stage on Friday night. My gut tells me they’re not going to move a whole lot on this chart (through a combination of The M.O.’s theory and general ambivalence) but that could mean absolutely squat when it comes to showtime in October and non-Strokes fans start storming the Budweiser stage immediately after Slightly Stoopid. As in all things, time alone will tell.
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Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: ACL 2010, ACL Festival
Comments
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By Jethro
August 20, 2010 3:23 PM | Link to this
Don’t forget Disney’s The Sword. And now a word from our sponsors…
By Thomas
August 20, 2010 4:46 PM | Link to this
Broken Bells is playing the same time as Black Keys. That is the only conflict I have the whole weekend
By jordan thompson
September 23, 2010 8:47 PM | Link to this
is there a more current update on the buzzmeter ??? pleaseeee update! thank you.