Funky festival's first day largely sidesteps hiccups

Third year of underground music festival boasts good weather, few troubles.

By Joe Gross
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Sunday, November 09, 2008

Ah, November in Austin: A time for UT football, temperatures in the 70s and loud punk rock across Red River Street from the University Medical Center at Brackenridge.

Blessed with perhaps the nicest weather in modern Austin music festival history (even with the early evening dust clouds), the first day of the third annual Fun Fun Fun Fest proceeded nearly hitch-free Saturday in Waterloo Park.

Touring acts such as Bishop Allen and the National shared four stages with Austin acts such as Latin psychedelic rockers Brownout! , grindcore band Mammoth Grinder and sometime Austinites And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead .

Far smaller and aimed at a more specific demographic than the Austin City Limits Music Festival, Fun Fun Fun focuses on club-level punk, indie rock, hip-hop and electronic music. Think of it as the bands one might see over a month in the Red River club district packed into one weekend.

The vibe couldn't be more different from ACL Fest in other ways. ACL Fest sells out 65,000 tickets a day every year, packing Zilker Park for three days. Fun Fun Fun producer and Transmission Entertainment partner Graham Williams said he hopes to break 7,000 a day.

"The first year was around 3,000; last year was 5,000; this year I hope it's 7,000," he said, straddling his ever-present red bicycle, on which he tools around the park throughout the weekend.

While ACL Fest is clearly a major league festival, on par with Coachella, Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo, Fun Fun Fun retains a focused feel. Most of the crowd appeared to be in their 20s and 30s, hipsters in band T-shirts who looked more used to haunting clubs than seeing bands during the day.

There were a few hiccups. Like ACL in years past, dust, generated by thousands of feet stomping around all day, was a problem by the time the sun went down.

"I don't remember it being this bad last year," said Lauren Salsbury, sitting on the grass as Trail of Dead wrapped up its set, pulling her sweater over her face. Nevertheless, the 25-year-old Houston resident was looking forward to sets from the National later that night and Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears and Islands today.

And thanks to an 11 a.m. UT football kickoff, parking near Waterloo Park was nearly impossible to find until about 3 p.m.

"We knew this was going to happen," Williams said. "We sent out e-mails and MySpace messages telling people that if there was a particular band they wanted to see in the early afternoon, they should allow an extra hour to park."

Parking problems are not anticipated for today .

And like ACL, a food court and retail area drew a solid number of patrons, if on a much smaller scale.

Toy Joy owner Lizzy Newsome said tons of sunglasses were sold at her booth, but she was looking forward to pushing the glow-in-the-dark stuff. Scott Willimack owns Big Rig, a vintage clothing business that sets up during First Thursdays on South Congress. He said business had slowly picked up throughout the day, and he seemed pleased with how the festival was run.

"The bands seem better this year, and it feels like a better turnout," Willimack said.

The booth run by the Parlor , the North Austin pizza joints beloved by local punk rockers, kept running out of pies and refilling from their two restaurants.

The festival really kicked off Friday night with a packed party that spread over the Mohawk and Club DeVille , both owned and booked by Transmission Entertainment. Following a panel on music blogs, bands such as Brothers and Sisters and the foot-fetish funk band Foot Patrol played to South By Southwest-sized crowds. A Saturday night aftershow and record release party by the Austin buzz band White Denim was expected to be as crowded.

Tickets for today are available at the gate.

jgross@statesman.com; 912-5926