Posted: Sep. 17, 10:19 PM
A lot of Tom Petty fans were trying to run down a dream Sunday night: seeing the veteran rocker perform for the first time (and possibly the last) as the big-deal headliner of the fifth ACL Fest. But that…
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Posted: Sep. 17, 9:33 PM
Tom Petty wasn’t the only grizzled rock veteran to play the ACL Festival on Sunday. The BoDeans were also making their ACL debut, 20 years after founding members Sam Llanas and Kurt Neumann began their ongoing love affair with big-chord,…
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Posted: Sep. 17, 9:23 PM
Envision a large, inflatable, transparent ball and frontman/bubble boy Wayne Coyne rolling around over the audience while trapped inside. If you can picture that, you’ll have a vision of one-tenth of the theatrics put on by the Flaming Lips….
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Posted: Sep. 17, 7:50 PM
Your songs have to be some kind of sturdy to withstand brutal festival sound mixes. But the New Pornographers’ tunes carry the load, and in spite of often atrocious sound, the Canadian septet knocked out nugget after golden nugget…
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Posted: Sep. 17, 7:00 PM
The hottest person at ACL Fest — literally — had to be Matisyahu, who was in full Hasidic dress during his Sunday afternoon set. His ensemble included a long black coat, long-sleeved shirt under which he wore his tallit…
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Posted: Sep. 17, 5:52 PM
Ween is not a festival band. That became apparent early in its set Sunday when the cult group from New Hope, Pa., pulled out its secret weapon, “Voodoo Lady,” and it didn’t pack more muscle than a bass-heavy disco-rock…
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Posted: Sep. 17, 5:45 PM
At about 2:40 p.m., I realized I’d already missed the beginning of Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley’s set, and I was quite frustrated. I knew I was missing what might be one of the festival’s daytime highlights. My body certainly…
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Posted: Sep. 17, 5:23 PM
It’s axiomatic that not all the world loves a winner. But it’s equally true that everyone loves a scrapper. Thus it was that Patrice Pike received a heroine’s welcome when she stepped onstage Sunday. Freshly returned from the pop…
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Posted: Sep. 17, 5:05 PM
If the enthusiasm of the fans and the quality of his material are any indication, San Marcos resident Randy Rogers is just a hit away from the big time. “Kiss Me in the Dark,” the single from his just-released…
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Posted: Sep. 17, 3:58 PM
KT Tunstall came to the ACL Festival and brought her best friends with her. No, not her bandmates (although they are undoubtedly great amigos), but her array of switches and foot pedals that enable her to sample and loop…
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Posted: Sep. 17, 3:02 PM
“Too bad it’s not raining right now,” said Black Angels singer Alex Maas, because although the heavy showers at Zilker Park had ceased, the humidity still left both the band and audience drenched. The Black Angels - an Austin…
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Posted: Sep. 17, 2:14 PM
The only previous time I’d seen Kathleen Edwards was when she taped an episode of “Austin City Limits.” She seemed, on that occasion, an inward-looking performer, almost tentative in her delivery. How, I wondered, would she translate to the…
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Posted: Sep. 17, 12:46 PM
Austin-based gospel group the Durden Singers got a huge attendance boost at 11:55 a.m. Sunday when the skies opened up and the rain brought scrambling throngs seeking protection in the “gospel tent” (officially known as the Washington Mutual Stage)….
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Posted: Sep. 16, 11:01 PM
Massive Attack was the definition of calm and collected class in a moment of would-be band crisis. The Bristol, England, band brought its sonic landscape of ethereal trip-hop to ACL’s AT&T Stage for a headlining slot that was nothing…
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Posted: Sep. 16, 10:12 PM
It’s the old forest-for-the-trees conundrum: Having seen Willie Nelson hundreds of times over the years, it’s hard for me to put myself in the shoes of the first-time visitor to Austin, standing in the heart of the city under…
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Posted: Sep. 16, 9:39 PM
Sometime when his original, indie nerd fan base wasn’t looking, Sam Beam, aka Iron & Wine, moved from the deeply intimate, lo-fi singer-songwriter, home-recorded folk gorgeousness to, well, becoming something that sounds awfully close to a jam band. Know…
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Posted: Sep. 16, 8:29 PM
One of the most anticipated sets of this ACL fest had to be that of the Raconteurs, the Jack White-Brendan Benson project that threatens to overtake White’s other band, the White Stripes, in popularity. And the musicians didn’t mess…
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Posted: Sep. 16, 8:18 PM
Austin (not Milwaukee’s) What Made Milwaukee Famous —- vocalist/guitarist/keyboardist Michael Kingcaid, guitarist/keyboardist Drew Patrizi, bassist John Farmer and drummer Jeremy Bruch —- has every little rock ‘n’ roll duck that a band needs to thrive lined up in a…
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Posted: Sep. 16, 7:14 PM
Guy Clark received a tumultuous welcome when he stepped onto the Washington Mutual Stage on Saturday afternoon —- courtesy of an audience that rose to its feet on the second song and never sat down. All in all, his…
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Posted: Sep. 16, 7:01 PM
As the old saying goes, where you stood on TV on the Radio’s Saturday afternoon set on the Austin Ventures Stage depended quite literally on where you sat. On either side of the stage, the sound was muddled, thin,…
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Posted: Sep. 16, 6:17 PM
By the time the Shins took the AT&T Stage at 5:30 p.m. Saturday, the park was really, really crowded —- so crowded that the AT&T audience reached almost to the Heineken Stage. Forget trying to negotiate your way through with…
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Posted: Sep. 16, 5:47 PM
“I wanna hear one song to see if he’s whiny.” That was the sentiment of at least one skeptic who queued up in front of the BMI Stage to hear singer-songwriter Elvis Perkins. I didn’t know much more about…
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Posted: Sep. 16, 5:43 PM
“Out here in the fields …” The rule for festival sets should be that each act has to play at least one cover. Something for casual listeners to grab ahold of. The Philadelphia rockers of Marah were tooling away…
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Posted: Sep. 16, 5:34 PM
Ian McLagan made an incredible announcement midway through his Saturday afternoon set at ACL: his Austin-based Bump Band will be opening for the Rolling Stones at Zilker Park on Oct. 22. But as the four-piece band, led by McLagan’s…
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Posted: Sep. 16, 5:23 PM
New York via Dallas’ the Secret Machines have finally redeemed themselves in Austin. During SXSW in March, the Machines —- bassist/vocalist Brandon Curtis, guitarist Ben Curtis and drummer Josh Garza —- had the unfortunate luck of going on late, at…
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Posted: Sep. 16, 4:07 PM
Just as at this year’s South By Southwest Music Festival, audiences at ACL have embraced musicians from New Orleans with a special warmth. That certainly proved to be the case with Galactic, the quintet that has taken the Crescent City’s…
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Posted: Sep. 16, 3:39 PM
Austin’s most beloved electronica/dance band, Ghostland Observatory, is lit to pop, and its Heineken Stage performance was like a sonic countdown on its liftoff to stardom. The duo —- multi-instrumentalist Thomas Turner and vocalist/guitarist Aaron Behrens —- are the…
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Posted: Sep. 16, 2:27 PM
Another cute young guy with a mess of curly hair, Argentina’s Frederico Aubele has a pleasant voice for making sexy mood music. Like the best light, laid-back reggae-influenced music, it doesn’t require knowledge of the language — just a…
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Posted: Sep. 15, 10:57 PM
It is one small measure of Van Morrison’s longevity that the last time I saw him was 27-odd years ago at the inevitably-referred-to “late-lamented” Armadillo World Headquarters. Back then, he stayed over and played a night for free, so…
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Posted: Sep. 15, 10:40 PM
It wasn’t until his appearance on “The Dave Chappelle Show” that John Mayer finally persuaded the world (or the Comedy Central audience, at least) that he had some serious guitar-playing mettle, and now, audiences are happy to let him…
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Posted: Sep. 15, 10:13 PM
I am a gi-normous fan of Sparklehorse. That said, I became a little worried when the band started its set with a very shaky version of “Gold Days,” one of the best songs from its now-classic album of the…
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Posted: Sep. 15, 8:06 PM
Los Lonely Boys have had a string of bad luck lately. Like on Friday just before dusk, when they played on a stage where the sun was shining directly in fans’ eyes. The band sounded fuller, meatier than ever…
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Posted: Sep. 15, 7:45 PM
Maybe it was too hot, but there wasn’t much noodle-dancing going on during Gomez’s set, even though the British group is known as a jam-band favorite. The sun beamed straight on the audience from high in the late-afternoon sky,…
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Posted: Sep. 15, 7:39 PM
Lately, Austin has been the beneficiary of a host of Hispanic bands working across the pop/Latino spectrum —- think Los Lonely Boys, Patricia Vonne, Grupo Fantasma. But as Austin fans know —- and ACL visitors learned Friday —- Del…
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Posted: Sep. 15, 7:32 PM
“Hello. We’re John Nash and the Beautiful Minds,” announced Cee-Lo Green as his band, Gnarls Barkley, strutted out in lab coats and bow ties, dressed more like mad professors than musicians. Gnarls Barkley (Green, along with Danger Mouse), with…
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Posted: Sep. 15, 7:20 PM
Chan Marshall, aka Cat Power, either knows her fan base, reads her press or figured out something about old-school showmanship. Known for onstage meltdowns, disturbingly introspective performances and the occasional no-show, she seems determined to mess with her audience,…
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Posted: Sep. 15, 6:31 PM
Montreal’s exquisite indie/electronica/pop band Stars is just too good on record. Its 2004 album “Set Yourself On Fire” is such a well-crafted studio masterwork that the band had a hard time re-creating it note for note live during its…
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Posted: Sep. 15, 5:45 PM
New Jersey’s Danielia Cotton has the sort of voice for which the phrase “force of nature” was coined. Perhaps she comes by it honestly —- her mother was a jazz singer and her aunts sang in church —- but…
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Posted: Sep. 15, 4:53 PM
Guster frontman Ryan Miller is a funny dude. His steady stream of onstage quips included such bon mots as, “I smell pot. Did you guys bring any weed?” Ha ha. He didn’t have to sniff too hard — this is…
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Posted: Sep. 15, 4:22 PM
Every big outdoor festival needs a dose of reggae and Mishka, a white kid from the West Indies who sounds like an adult contemporary Bob Marley (even when he speaks, which is a little annoying), and his in-the-pocket band…
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Posted: Sep. 15, 4:04 PM
The postcard-perfect puffy white clouds and a pursed-lips push of a gentle, cool breeze were blessed gifts from Mother Nature for the 1:30 p.m. set by the Dears. The Dears — bassist Martin Pelland, keyboardist Valerie Jodoin-Keaton, drummer George…
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Posted: Sep. 15, 3:45 PM
It seems pretty likely that Ted Leo was the only guy at ACL to use the words “DMZ,” “Telemachus” and “Daedalus” all in one song. (It was his opener, “My Vien Ilin.”) Actually, he was probably the only guy…
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Posted: Sep. 15, 1:36 PM
Beto and the Fairlanes suited music to mood at noon on the Austin Ventures Stage, their mixture of salsa, cumbia and jazz an apt aural compliment to the steamy, sunny weather that greeted the early birds at Zilker Park….
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Posted: Sep. 15, 1:25 PM
Bojones is what you get when you throw a pair of young rockers raised, quite literally, at the feet of Aerosmith and Van Halen (drummer Louis Messina and guitarist Chris Messina are the sons of a prominent Houston concert promoter)…
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Posted: Sep. 17, 9:10 PM
With Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers about a half-hour into their set, the rain that had doused the ACL Festival early Sunday returned in full effect, with many in the crowd bolting for the exits. The downpour forced a…
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Posted: Sep. 17, 8:23 PM
A surprise guest joined the New Orleans Social Club on the Washington Mutual Stage on Sunday night: Buddy Miles, a member of Jimi Hendrix’s legendary band. Of course, the Social Club played one of Miles’ legendary tunes, “Them Changes.” Though…
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Posted: Sep. 17, 8:14 PM
Business at the retail stalls reportedly is up from last year. Troy Wright, owner of the always popular Texas Headgear, said he moved more than 2,000 hats. “It was a definite improvement over last year,” Wright said, adjusting a hat…
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Posted: Sep. 17, 8:09 PM
It was tough to find anyone who wasn’t having a good time Sunday evening. The brief storm in the early afternoon created some mud, but it also eliminated any chance of dust, which was a late-evening annoyance on Saturday…
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Posted: Sep. 17, 8:04 PM
Austin Mayor Will Wynn came to the festival on Sunday, the only day he attended this year. “I was stuck in Santa Barbara, California, at a United States Conference of Mayors … meeting,” Wynn said, heading toward the main stage…
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Posted: Sep. 17, 7:04 PM
While Barton Springs Road turned into a virtual swap meet of head shops and bottled-water merchants during ACL weekend, several residents of the Mobile Manor RV Park took it upon themselves to provide free water, food and a cooling station…
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Posted: Sep. 17, 5:27 PM
Carol Young of the Greencards (Sunday, 6:30 p.m. Austin Ventures Stage) arrived as the rain was falling and took it in stride. “It’s a bit of a bummer,” she said, “but it could be a good thing. It changes the…
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Posted: Sep. 17, 12:34 PM
Austin City Limits Festival organizers Charlie Jones and Charles Attal, along with performer G. Love — who has played four out of five ACL Festivals — held a press conference at 11:30 a.m. Sunday to talk about attendance, and…
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Posted: Sep. 17, 11:16 AM
The big buzz in the ACL Fest’s artist compound over the weekend was that ZZ Top had sacked its manager of 37 years, Bill Ham of Austin-based Lone Wolf Management. Sunday, the rumor was confirmed by Lone Wolf publicist Bob…
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Posted: Sep. 16, 5:00 PM
Matt Costa and G. Love played unannounced sets at the Austin Kiddie Limits Stage on Saturday afternoon. Which makes more sense than one might first think, as both contributed tracks to the “Curious George” soundtrack. The kiddies seemed to love…
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Posted: Sep. 16, 4:55 PM
Austin police officers were making their usual rounds, keeping ACL festival patrons safe at Zilker Park, but today, they had their decibel machines to ensure the safety of everyone’s ears. An officer who asked not to be identified said, “As…
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Posted: Sep. 16, 4:32 PM
Poor Ben Kweller. Just before he came onstage, he got a double nosebleed, delaying his Saturday AT&T Stage set for 10 minutes. And it didn’t stop once he started performing. Grabbing a towel, the Texas-raised 25-year-old declared, “I feel…
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Posted: Sep. 16, 12:19 PM
Despite the fact that ACL fest advertises the child-friendly “Austin Kiddie Limits” area and lets kids younger than 10 in for free, the question has to be asked: What possesses parents to bring small children — and strollers and have-to-be-hot…
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Posted: Sep. 15, 6:37 PM
Psst! Pass it on: John Mayer has a hair and makeup person. For ACL. In 96-degree weather. Or maybe it was just for a VH-1 interview. Either way: John Mayer = hair and makeup. Lance Armstrong — he of…
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Posted: Sep. 15, 6:06 PM
This weekend, we’re thinking of the festival even in our dreams, apparently. The ATX Mattress Outlet at 3800 S. Congress Ave. — quite a ways out of earshot from Zilker Park — has a sign out front advertising ACL specials…
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Posted: Sep. 15, 5:31 PM
Word has it that Danger Mouse of Gnarls Barkley liked the tank tops that members of the ACL staff were wearing so much that he asked for a bunch in every color they had. Only problem: They were womens’ shirts….
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Posted: Sep. 15, 5:26 PM
In the “My Kid Could Do That” department, fans of seriously avant-garde, free improvisation owe it to themselves to check out the Austin Kiddie Limits “petting zoo.” It’s a little pen with instruments, some full-size, some half-size, some toyish, that…
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Posted: Sep. 15, 4:35 PM
The staff at Shady Grove on Barton Springs Road on Thursday night was, not to put too fine a point on it, atwitter. Someone had phoned in a reservation for a table on the patio in the name of Lance,…
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Posted: Sep. 15, 3:50 PM
The only traffic spotted on Barton Springs Road today has been a stream of pedicabs, possibly a response to the overall traffic snarl going on in the central city. Another possibility? This is when the men and women who pedal…
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Posted: Sep. 15, 2:13 PM
The first of what will no doubt be many, many renditions of the already-classic Gnarls Barkley tune “Crazy” came just two hours in to the festival, when young hunk Paolo Nutini, thinking he was done with his 12:30 p.m. set…
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Posted: Sep. 15, 1:14 PM
Charles Attal was spotted backstage chatting with Scottish singer-songwriter Paolo Nutini and Channel 8 personality Andy Langer before Nutini’s 12:20 set on the AT&T Stage, one of the festival’s main venues. Nutini said he was a fan of What Made…
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Friday highlights

• Ted Leo + Pharmacists
  Heineken Stage, 1:30-2:30 p.m. | Web site
• Guster
  AMD, 2:30-3:30 p.m. | Web site
• Stars
  Heineken, 3:30-4:30 p.m. | Web site
• Gnarls Barkley
  AT&T Stage, 4:30-5:30 p.m. | Web site
• Okkervil River
  Austin Ventures, 5:15-6 p.m. | Web site
• Cat Power and the Memphis Rhythm Band
  AT&T blue room, 5:30-6:30 p.m. | Web site
• Thievery Corporation
  AT&T, 6:30-7:30 p.m. | Web site
• Sparklehorse
  AT&T blue room, 7:30-8:15 p.m. | Web site
• Ray Lamontagne
  Heineken Stage, 7:30-8:15 p.m. | Web site
• Van Morrison
  AT&T, 8:30-10 p.m. | Web site
• Full Friday schedule

Saturday highlights

• Calexico
  AT&T blue room, 5:30-6:30 p.m. | Web site
• Aimee Mann
  Heineken, 5:30-6:30 p.m. | Web site
• Guy Clark
  Washington Mutual, 5:45-6:45 p.m. | Web site
• String Cheese Incident
  AMD, 6:30-7:30 p.m. | Web site
• The Raconteurs
  AT&T, 6:30-7:30 p.m. | Web site
• Brazilian Girls
  Washington Mutual, 7:15-8:15 p.m. | Web site
• Kings of Leon
  AT&T blue room, 7:30-8:15 p.m. | Web site
• Iron & Wine
  Heineken, 7:30-8:30 p.m. | Web site
• Explosions in the Sky
  Austin Ventures, 7:45-8:45 p.m. | Web site
• Willie Nelson
  AMD, 8:15-9:15 p.m. | Web site
• Massive Attack
  AT&T, 8:30-10 p.m. | Web site
• Full Saturday schedule

Sunday highlights

• Jones Family Singers
  Washington Mutual, 1-2 p.m. | Web site
• Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley
  AMD, 2:30-3:30 p.m. | Web site
• KT Tunstall
  AT&T, 2:30-3:30 p.m. | Web site
• Jose Gonzalez
  AT&T blue room, 3:30-4:30 p.m. | Web site
• Patrice Pike
  Austin Ventures, 4-4:45 p.m. | Web site
• Ween
  AMD, 4:30-5:30 p.m. | Web site
• Matisyahu
  AT&T, 4:30-5:30 p.m. | Web site
• Los Amigos Invisibles
  Washington Mutual, 5:30-6:30 p.m. | Web site
• The New Pornographers
  AT&T blue room, 5:30-6:30 p.m. | Web site
• Son Volt
  Heineken, 5:30-6:30 p.m. | Web site
• The Flaming Lips
  AT&T, 6:30-7:30 p.m. | Web site
• Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals
  AMD, 6:30-7:45 p.m. | Web site
• Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
  AT&T, 8:30-10 p.m. | Web site
• Full Sunday schedule

Bests from the Fest

Friday

Best timeless tunes - Van Morrison

Best hair - John Mayer

Best costumes - Gnarls Barkley

Best reborn chanteuse - Cat Power

Best famous friend - Mishka

Best vocabulary - Ted Leo & the Pharmacists