From Boston to Austin: ACL 2008: Day One Review

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

ACL 2008: Day One Review

Rachel, looking fresh at the start of Day One

ACL 2008 started off on a high note. The Friday lineup was pretty loaded, as described in my preview post. The weather was great, the crowd wasn't too thick, and the music definitely didn't disappoint.

Day One's Best Show: David Byrne

On a day with many good acts, our favorite performance was turned in by David Byrne. Anticipating a good one, we got there early and worked our way up through the crowd, ending up with great spots about 10-20 feet from the stage.

David and band came out in all white clothing, just like his hair. He may be more gray than he was during his Talking Heads days, but David Byrne's guitar playing and voice have not diminished (and I should throw in that while his hair is gray, he looks trim, fit and young). The set featured a mix of songs from his new collaboration with Brian Eno and old ones from the Eno-produced Talking Heads albums. The new songs are good, but the highlights for me were the classics like "Once in a Lifetime," "I Zimbra," "Crosseyed & Painless" and "Life During Wartime." His band and backup singers, while not the Heads, were tight and talented. The only thing I could have done without were the goofy dancers doing moves that looked like they were inspired by Spike Jonze and his troupe's performance in Fatboy Slim's "Praise You" video. That was a very minor bummer. The bigger one was that he couldn't play for another hour!

David Byrne and his pretty red acoustic guitar

Day One's Best Crowd: Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra

There are eight stages at ACL. All of them are outdoors, but one of them is covered by a large tent. For whatever reason, the organizers schedule a lot of non-rock/country acts in the tent. We've seen some great crowds pack the big top in years past to see groups like Beausoleil and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band.

Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra was a great pick for the tent. The textured, horn- and percussion-heavy rhythmic afrobeat sounds filled up the area and whipped the packed crowd into a dancing, chanting frenzy. Bandleader Martín Perna, who dubbed the WaMu-sponsored venue the "Washington Mutual Memorial Stage," was as energetic as any musician we saw all weekend. His song "Indictment" really worked well with the crowd, who were happy to damn Cheney, W and others in a long call-and-response segment of the song. We only caught about 20 minutes or so of the show, but I'm glad we didn't miss it.

Antibalas' Martín Perna egging on the crowd

What Else We Saw and Heard

We wanted to get to the festival in time for Vampire Weekend's set at 2:30. Since we were early, we got to hear some of Austin's own What Made Milwaukee Famous on a nearby stage. WMMF sounded pretty good and was a nice way to usher in the festival.
Vampire Weekend played at one of the two main stages to what I imagine was the first big crowd of ACL 2008. VW has some great songs, and while the band played quite faithful renditions of their material, it was still a fun, peppy set. "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" and "Oxford Comma," among others, were big crowd pleasers.
Del the Funkee Homosapien performed a set that was pretty similar to the one he did back at the free outdoor show during South by Southwest. He added some tunes from his earliest album, from way back in 1991, which proved to be highlights of the show: "Dr. Bombay" and "Mistadobalina!" The crowd was smaller than at Common's gig last year, but that was to be expected, given it was pretty early on Friday and some folks were still at work or in class. It was cool to catch a little hip-hop, but I wish there was more.
M. Ward played in the WaMu tent. I think he was a bit too big to be slotted in the tent. By the time we got there, there was no room left under the canvas. Sound outside wasn't very good, but after a while we managed to find a decent place to listen. He played most, if not all, of his latest release, Post-War. Great songs, but I wish they were played at one of the bigger stages where we could have gotten better viewing/listening spots.
The headliner on day one was Manu Chao. At the end of a week of work and a long day at the festival, we were only able to catch a little of the show. I liked his energy, and his band was good. His Latin-tinged reggae perhaps got a bit redundant though. Still a good choice for a nightcap.