Austin City Limits Music Festival 2009

Hell yeah! Bird, Shawn and myself rockin' out to Flogging Molly.

Our trip to Austin, Texas in 2009 for Austin City Limits Music Festival would be the first of what has become an annual tradition of sorts. Each fall, me and my friend Bird, and a revolving cast of characters take a trip to a music festival in different cities around the country. This particular trip began with 4 of my buddies from work: Keegan, Big John, Shawn, and of course Bird. Keegan also brought along his longtime friend Matt who was from Portland, OR.

As one point of clarification, ACL the music festival, should not be confused with Austin City Limits the television show, though they are obviously related. The program on PBS showcases a number of bands every year, while the festival is an annual event which hosts 130 bands over 3 days.

With 130 bands to choose from everybody's experience at an event like this is going to be very different. I found myself spending most of my time with Bird and Shawn, mostly because we all had very similar musical tastes.

Keegan's busted up toe

At the end of each day we would walk back to the house we had rented and sort out what had happened to everyone else. Specifically Keegan, who didn't seem to be able to leave the house without sustaining some sort of injury. On day 1, he had managed to trip and fall down on top of some girl who was sitting in the grass in between shows and  cracked a couple of his ribs (and probably put that poor girl in the hospital in the process). On the second day he was running at full speed across the street and stubbed his toe on a traffic island, breaking his toe and flying out into traffic and was nearly hit by a cab. In retrospect, I suppose we're lucky that Keegan survived at all.

THE LINEUP

Kings of Leon, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Thievery Corporation, John Legend, Them Crooked Vultures, Coheed and Cambria, Andrew Bird, Phoenix, Bassnectar, Medeski Martin and Wood, Avett Brothers, Reckless Kelly, Raphael Saadiq, Los Amigos Invisibles, The Walkmen, Asleep At The Wheel, Poi Dog Pondering, Dr Dog, Blitzen Trapper, The Knux, Daniel Johnston, School of Seven Bells, Robyn Hitchcock & the Venus 3, Todd Sneider, Walter "Wolfman" Washington, K'Naan, The Greencards, The Wood Brothers, Sara Watkins, The Parlor Mob, The Low Anthem, Mishka, Leatherbag, Prescott Curleywolf, Jonell Mosser, Sara Siskind, Nelo, Dave Matthews Band, The Levon Helm Band, Ghostland Observatory, Mos Def, The Decemberists, Flogging Molly, Citizen Cope, STS9, Bon Iver, Mutemath, !!!, And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead, Devotchka, The Airborne Toxic Event, The Scabs, Grizzly Bear,

The Ravonettes, The Felice Brothers, Federico Aubele, Eek-A-Mouse, Henry Butler, John Vanderslice, Zac Brown Band, The Virgins, Alberta Cross, Sam Roberts Band, Bell X-1, Deer Tick, The Henry Clay People, Cotton Jones, Papa Mali, Johnathan Tyler & the Northern Lights, Mimicking Birds, Sarah Jaffe, The Soul Stirrers, Jeffery Steele, Damien Horn, Pearl Jam, Ben Harper & The Relentless 7, The Dead Weather, Toadies, The B-52s, Arctic Monkeys, Clutch, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Girl Talk, Passion Pit, Dirty Projectors, Heartless Bastards, White Lies, Dan Auerbach, Raul Malo, Brett Dennen, The Dodos, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, State Radio, Here We Go Magic, Neon Indian, David Garza, Rodriguez, The Rebirth Jazz Band, Alela Diane, Mike Posner and the Braintrust, Ben Sollee, LAX, Suckers, Matt Morris, Sons of Bill, Jypsi, Danny Brooks, Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band, The Durdens


DAY 1

A little bit of breakin' on stage with The Knux

As we walked down to Zilker Park for the first day of the festival, we weren't entirely sure what to expect. The weather on the previous day was oppressively hot, but the forecast had been calling for rain. As we entered the park, we caught the tail end of Nelo performing at the stage nearest the entrance, whom I really enjoyed. We spent the first couple of hours just getting a lay of the land (i.e. mapping out where the beer tents were located), and heard a little from Bright Lights Social Hour along the way. They had won a local battle of the bands to get a spot at ACL. We also heard from School of 7 Bells. . . meh, and from Asleep at the Wheel, who traditionally open the festival, and saw a little of Blitzen Trapper as well. With our exploring done we got some food and collected ourselves watching The Knux from the back of the crowd. The New Orleans rap duo (comprised of brothers Kentrell  "Krispy" Lindsey and Alvin "Joey" Lindsey) definitely knew how to work the crowd and their act showed a lot of promise.

The Parlor Mob

Now, refreshed and fed, we were ready for a band that I had expected to be pretty good, The Parlor Mob. I love it when you have high enough expectations only to have a band step up and completely overwhelm those expectations. The Parlor Mob was a fantastic act! Easily among the top 5 bands we saw at the entire festival. Mark Melicia's voice is an absolute force of nature. To this day, I don't know how this band has continued to remain under people's radar, but they have somehow managed. Expect to be hearing from this band in the future. By the way, check out the video, it was shot by a guy standing right in front of us at the show, and you can even hear Keegan whooting in the background!

Bird and I at Poi Dog Pondering

At this point we all split up for a bit; Bird and I went to watch Poi Dog Pondering, who was an intriguing mix of funk, rock, folk, and electronic music, and pulled together with the chops of a veteran touring act. It's admittedly an eclectic sound that's maybe not for everybody, but we enjoyed them.
Then we headed over to watch K'Naan who we'd been really looking forward to. If you haven't heard of the Somali-born rapper, put him on your "to download" list. His flow is smooth and his lyrics are both intelligent and inspired.
Bird and I met back up with the others, and we all found our spots for Them Crooked Vultures. This would be the coming out party for the supergroup comprised of Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters, Nirvana), Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age), and John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin) who had played a few small shows together in Chicago and in Australia, but this would be their first big concert together and everyone was excited to see what their sound would be like. And from the first funky baseline of "Gunman" you knew that something special was happening. Everyone knew going into it that the combination of Grohl and Jones would make a rockin rhythm section, but by the end of the show I was starting to wonder if Grohl was going to have the endurance to keep up the pace that he had set. That was a lineup and a show to be remembered!

The Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs had a great stage

Surprisingly, Them Crooked Vultures were not the final show of the night. There were still two headliners to choose from and I went with John to get good seats for the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs rather than walk all the way across the park to get a mediocre view of Kings of Leon. It was a better choice I feel, as that I knew more or less what KOL was all about and being at a music festival is all about seeing new things. The Yeah, Yeah, Yeas were a bit of an unknown to me so I was a little more jazzed about their show.


DAY 2

MuteMath

After starting the day with Keegan's special skillet breakfast, we made it down to Zilker Park in time to see The Virgins, which turned out  to be a quality early day band. I guess that the highest praise that I can give a band from a music festival is that of the 30-odd bands we saw over the weekend, and the 130  bands that performed at the festival, I only purchased 7 albums at the music tent, and The Virgins was one of them.
Once The Virgins had gotten us all in the mood (sorry, I couldn't help myself) Shawn, Bird and myself made our way across the park to see Mutemath, with a stop off for some Tecates along the way. The skies were beginning to darken in Austin a little at this point and a misting rain had begun, but it didn't seem to be getting the crowd down at all. Mutemath was far far better than I had expected. Their drummer, Darren King, is absolutely insane. Seeing the band live really showed how much of King's immense talent has been lost in translation during their studio work.

From there, the drizzling rain let up a bit, and we trekked to a new stage to see one of my favorite bands, The Airborne Toxic Event. This band is a wonderful blend of smart, well crafted lyrics and undeniable musicianship. If you are not familiar with this band. . . get familiar. They do put on an entertaining live show, but their strength is their studio albums which are awesome.

Flogging Molly, undeterred by the downpour

Bar none, the best show, not only of the day, but of the entire festival was Flogging Molly! As the band took the stage to perform their opening song, Drunken Lullabies, the skies opened up an let loose a fantastic warm Texas rainstorm. The crowd erupted with dancing and singing and playing in the rain. I've seen many concerts before and since this, but I have never seen a crowd turn to bedlam quite like this one did! It was fantastic, just fucking fantastic!

Mos Def

It was ironic that we should follow up the best show of the weekend with one of the most disappointing. Mos Def showed up on stage 20 minutes late for his 1 hour set, and spent the first 3 songs of his set behind a drum kit, therefore remaining unseen by the audience for the majority of his show. It was really sad, too, because I like Mos Def, and was rather surprised to see him not put out a better effort. We left early to get some fresh beers and a better vantage to see Dave Matthews.

Dave Matthews

The decision to see Dave Matthews was interesting as well, because I kind of viewed Dave Matthews Band as a known commodity and would have rather seen Austin locals, Ghostland Observatory, much the same way I felt the previous day about not seeing Kings of Leon. Nevertheless I ended up getting beers from a vendor very near to the DMB stage and figured what the hell. I later reflected, "How many people can honestly claim that they SETTLED for seeing the Dave Matthews Band." Not a bad problem to have I suppose. As expected, DMB was a great show, and Dave Matthews himself had a much more charming stage presence than I expected.

DAY 3

The rain turned the park into a slimy mudhole.

Day three at Zilker Park was hot, and muggy, and muddy as hell after the previous day's deluge. It wasn't just any mud either, it was a slimy, silty mud that had my feet trying to slip out from under me all day long, to the point that when the day was finally over all of the stabilizer muscles in my lower calf were aching for a week afterward.

Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears

The good news is that the humid air was a nice offset to the first band we saw, Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears, because all good funk should be hot and sweaty. Any of you who like the brassy, throwback sound of James Brown style funk will love Black Joe Lewis. He played a bombastic set which included a new song, She's So Scandalous. The song would become the title track of his next album which wasn't released until early 2011.
Other than seeing Black Joe Lewis, my friend John and I spent a good part of the third day wandering around, getting short glimpses at a lot of new music. Danny Brooks. . . meh, David Garza. . . pretty good, White Lies. . . overhyped, Dirty Projectors. . . more meh. John and I finally met back up with everybody late in the afternoon to see Arctic Monkeys, who are one of those bands who are far better live than their studio work would lead you to believe. Having heard their stuff on the radio I could have taken or left this show but they had a solid live sound and I'm glad that I went.

Ben Harper

Next up was a personal favorite of mine, Ben Harper and the Relentless 7. I knew that I would enjoy that show, and wasn't disappointed. You wouldn't think that a guy who plays lap guitar could have much of a stage presence but then you be wrong, because Ben Harper has a great stage show and is an amazing musician to boot.
After Ben Harper we met back up with Bird at a stage near the main entrance where a talented singer/songwriter named Matt Morris was playing. Interestingly, Bird's cousin, John Powers, was playing the drums, so we stuck around and watched the show, which was actually quite good.

Michael Franti and Spearhead

From there we squished our way through the muck to a nearby stage to see Michael Franti and Spearhead. Michal has an energetic stage show with tons of audience participation. While some of his older music is very much political, his newer stuff is all about the love. Love ever, hurt never. . . share the love, Michael!

street dancing in Austin

While the previous two days of the festival had 2 main stages to choose from, the final day had only one headliner, Pearl Jam. We had chosen to get good seats for Michael Franti and had therefore sacrificed the chance to get up close for the biggest show of the festival. That's okay though, even from far away the sound was good and we met up with some locals and partied it up in the wayback section. There were several very cool special guests who showed up on stage with PJ including Ben Harper, and Perry Ferrell which was very cool. After the show was done, the party continued on the walk home, as The Gourds were playing on the patio at Emo's and a street dance had formed outside the club. Good times had by all.

THE PLAYLIST


1) Heads Will Roll  Yeah Yeah Yeahs
2) Electrify  Mutemath

3) Gunman  Them Crooked Vultures
4) Wavin' Flag  K'Naan
5) One Week of Danger  The Virgins
6) God's Hands  David Garza
7) Drunken Lullabies  Flogging Molly
8) Shimmer & Shine  Ben Harper
9) Use Somebody  Kings of Leon
10) Unthought Known  Pearl Jam
11) Thieves in the Night  Mos Def
12) Yell Fire  Michael Franti & Spearhead
13) Carnival of Crows  The Parlor Mob
14) Bang! Bang!  The Knux
15) Treat Me Like Your Mother  The Dead Weather
16) What Would You Say  Dave Matthews Band
17) Wishing Well  The Airborne Toxic Event
18) Sad Sad City  Ghostland Observatory
19) All Gone To Nothing  Nelo
20) She's So Scandalous  Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears

Keep it weird, Austin!