ACL: Where The Streets Are Paved With Vomit

We watched four appetizers before the Real DMB kicked things off in earnest: Adam Hood surprised us as we entered the grounds, Jesse Malin ranted about this generation’s apathy with no clear point, The Gospel Silvertones praised Jesus on their way to blasting some kickass soul in the WaMu tent, and Cincinnati’s Heartless Bastards provided an awesome soundtrack while we waited for Del and the boys to start playing.

Heartless Bastards

Photo by Danfun

Del, well, that’s just how it’s done. The consummate professionalism this bluegrass ensemble exudes is simply untouchable. The suits, the old-school mikes, the way they all stand together, it’s like these guys walked off stage in the 1940s and wound up in 2007 Texas. It’s always nice to see a family affair: Del’s sons Ronnie and Rob have been band members for decades, the former ripping up the mandolin, the latter pickin’ the banjo with the best of them. I thought it appropriate at the end of the set for an organizer to announce, “Let’s hear it for Del McCoury’s balls!”

Del

Doesn’t Ronnie, second from left, kinda look like a combination of a skinny Oliver Platt and Sue from Swingers? Click to enlarge

The five-piece broke out some old DMB hits and plenty of covers like Lovin’ Spoonful’s Nashville Cats, Bob Dylan’s Walk Out in the Rain, Hank Williams’ You Win Again, and by request from the awesome lady behind me who I could have kissed on the tit for yelling so loudly, Richard Thompson’s 1952 Vincent Black Lightning.

Del

Photo by Danfun

Here’s a quick clip of the intro to one of the best songs ever penned, though I stopped recording 36 seconds in so I could, ya know, actually enjoy what I’ve been waiting a long time to hear.

[youtube]XrfTg92Jark[/youtube]

I wasn’t sure anything could equal the Del set for the rest of the day (it still may have been my favorite, or at least one of), but we stayed in the bluegrass genre and the notion of professional musicianship and hit up Bela Fleck & the Flecktones. I’ve now seen Bela more times than A-Rod’s gone yard, but they just have that knack for putting on an excellent show each time out. Today’s hero: wind instrument maven Jeff Coffin, who broke out the wah-wah pedal on the soprano saxophone, something I’ve never seen Kenny G’s punk ass do.

Bela

Photo by Danfun

FutureMan

Photo by Danfun

The most interesting part of the day came at this point, when black smoke arose from an area of Zilker Park that screamed “Um, that’s a pretty serious fire.” Turned out it was, and four people were injured, two critically. It was a semi-surreal moment, but if my mom is reading this dispatch from the field, rest assured your baby is okay. We’ll have more on this later.

Fire

Photo by Danfun

We made our way over to Pete Yorn‘s set about halfway through Bela’s 19,134st festival performance, and I noticed something weird right away. Is he playing Peter Bjorn & John‘s Young Folks right now? Wait, does he know they’re playing in like 10 minutes? Does he know something, and as such is he auditioning to be the new Peter in the band? This installment of Peter Yorn & John did an excellent job with the cover, and his set ended with an inspired version of my favorite karaoke tune, Suspicious Minds.

A quick note here about the grounds, which are as immaculate as well-designed and laid-out. Job well done, from the stage set-ups to the shuttles to the exhibits to the art installations, like the giant guitars on once side of Zilker Park:

Guitars

From there it was on to PB&J proper, who put on what I can only describe as a “meh” performance. Maybe it’s just a case of musical taste, but their set lacked the complexities I find most appealing in a band. Their sound is appropriately raw, yet it lacked a fullness that a festival usually requires. We took off before they had a chance to lead the crowd in a sing-along of the second Young Folks of the young afternoon.

PBJ

Photo by Danfun

PBJ

Photo by Danfun

We stumbled back to the WaMu tent and accidentally caught an incredible set from The Dynamites featuring Charles Walker, a deep funk/soul 10-piece ensemble from Nashville that had the crowd up out of the seats provided in the tent. These guys came out of nowhere to floor a whole bunch of unsuspecting white folks, and their near-closing medley of Wilson Pickett > Otis Redding…well, I’d say it poured kerosene on the set’s fire, but that doesn’t exactly seem appropriate now.

Dynamites

The Manchester Orchestra played a bit more hard and heavy than had been properly explained to me beforehand, and we watched about 20 minutes before stepping back into the tent for the Set of the Day: Big Sam’s Funky Nation, come on down, you’re the next contestant on Melt My Face. The New Orleans six-piece supplied the backdrop for a full-on dance party, igniting the crowd from the first second and never letting stepping off the pedal.

BigSamsFunkyNation

The Nation was the anti-Del McCoury Band — while DMB plays within inches of each other, Big Sam’s outfit spread themselves all over the stage, as if they didn’t want to catch a nasty cold. It didn’t matter, though, and Big Sam’s band brought the N’awlins spirit to Texas (much like the relocated post-Katrina folk), building funky jams and offering solos for every member of the band. Sam’s very interactive, and he’s constantly concerned about us, whether we’re having a good time, whether we should put our hands in the air or clap them together — we should be more concerned for him, because the way he blows that trombone, he seems like he can burst a lung at any point.

BigSamsFunkyNation

This guy was hula-hooping on the Zilker Park grounds. Um, dude, String Cheese broke up and this ain’t the place for that. No nitrous, no hula hoops.

Hula

Sadly, as the conflicts were horrendous at this time slot, we missed both Joss Stone and Crowded House, the latter of which I really wanted to see after Scotty gave them such a rave review after July’s show in New York. Alas, I dreamed it was over, hey now hey now, and it wasn’t meant to be. Dan managed to catch a part of the set, and he snapped these cool shots:

CrowdedHouse

Photo by Danfun

CrowdedHouse

Photo by Danfun

The dramatically underrated JJ Grey & MOFRO played the AustinVentures stage straight after, and the Jacksonville natives played another fine set for a smallish crowd — everyone and their mother seemed to be at LCD Soundsystem at the same time. Grey’s band has been transformed since adding a pair of horns to the traveling band, and their brand of Country Ghetto southern, bluesy rock is not to be missed when they roll through your town.

JJGreyMOFRO

Photo by Danfun

JJGreyMOFRO

Photo by Danfun

We tried to do the LCD Soundsystem thing, but there were way too many people there — you couldn’t get close. And since this is a band that should be enjoyed in some sort of dance hall, it wasn’t the most enjoyable set of the day by any means. It’s also quite discomforting to see a dance band with not too many people dancing — a deadly combination of extreme heat and hipsterism taking over the proceedings and turning the crowd into passive watchers.

LCD

Photo by Danfun

LCD

Photo by Danfun

So we took off for Andy Palacio and the Garifuna Collective (not to be confused with the oh-so-similar Animal Collective) before heading over to Spoon. Palacio kept the streak of awesome, unheralded bands in the tent alive, and the Buena Vista Social Club clones impressed me for the few minutes I stood there admiring the first Belizian band to ever play ACL.

Austin natives Spoon came next on the AT&T stage, and I liked their performance far greater than the less-than-inspired one I saw them turn in at Webster Hall after Christmas. Spoon’s an anomaly in my world, a band whose albums are fucking amazing but whose live performances leave me far less than impressed. This time out, though, they put in fantastic effort, adding a horn section on a handful of songs that added to the sound.

Spoon

Photo by Danfun

Spoon

Photo by Danfun

Israeli Flag Dude appeared several times in our story today, first at Bela and for the last time in the crowd at Spoon. Neddy and I are in a race to use the related phrase Lone Star of David in a post, and I think I just won. Israel and Texas, what a couple.

IsraeliFlag

The Kaiser Chiefs played a few hundred yards away while we snagged some prime seats for The Killers, an overexposed, over-hyped band I don’t really care too much about but thought they would bring the heat at a nighttime festival performance. And, man, did they ever — these guys have added a much more My Morning Jacket vibe and turned in a heck of a show. Had the crowd had all its energy left, the place may have been complete mayhem. One of my friends turned to me at one point and said, “That might have been the best first four songs I’ve seen a band play.” I wouldn’t go that far — not even close, actually — but it was a damn fine piece of craftsmanship.

We departed the grounds before Bjork got started, but Dan waited around for her to deliver the goods. Check out some of his photos here:

Bjork

Photo by Danfun

Bjork

Photo by Danfun

We’ll be back late Saturday night/early Sunday morning with a full recap of ACL Day Two, so remember to check back later…maybe we’ll even have more shots of kids eating cheese fries on a 90-something degree day. That’s enticing, no?

CheeseFries

G’night for now. I’m just dead, and it’s time to dream of feet that don’t kill me.

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0 Responses

  1. That sounds like one of the most fun days a person could possibly have. While I’m bummed to be sitting in NYC right now, thanks for making me feel like I was in Austin during the 10 minutes it took to read your review.

    Can’t wait to read tomorrow’s report!!!!

  2. Thanks so much for your sparkling review of Big Sam’s Funky Nation! The boys of funk will be at the Lion’s Den (www.cegmusic.com/lionsden) in NYC on September 29 along with Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue. Both New Orleans bands; both great tunes. So get your funk on at the Lion’s Den!

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