ACL 2009: Day Three Review

So the rains stopped for the most part some time early Sunday morning. It rained pretty hard at times throughout Saturday and into Saturday night. When we left for the festival on Sunday, though, it was a bit cloudy but not raining. Couldn't be worse than Saturday, right? Except that when the rains and feet came and trampled upon the virgin lawn that was so alluring the day before, the result was that atop the grass there had settled a fresh, wet layer of mud comprised of yard trimmings mixed with treated sewage sludge. The whole place was wet, large portions were covered in stinky mud that was deep in bits, especially in front of the stages where the most energized fans are likely to wind up. So how does it compare with 107 degrees, no sun and a ton of dust like we got on day three of our first trip to ACL? It doesn't sound as bad, but we were able to hang in there a lot longer back on "Crazy-Hot ACL Sunday."


Hunkered down


Popular at ACL 2009: Rubber boots with funky graphics

We thought about trying to get there in time for the Alela Diane set that started before noon. Instead, we settled for arriving in time for the 12:30 set by Austin soul shouter Black Joe Lewis and his band, the Honeybears. Being early, getting close to the front was less about the thickness of the crowd than about the severity of the mud around the stage. After scoping things out and weighing the benefit of being close against the detriment of a dirty body, we picked a good "compromise" spot where the sound quality was high and we could see the band well.

We'd seen Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears before, but only in little bits. Last year at ACL, they played a lively set on the small Austin Ventures stage, where the music tends to get drowned out by the nearest big stages and the relatively narrow stretch of park becomes a choke point for the waves of people migrating from one end of Zilker to the other. We also caught the tail end of an opening set during Spoon's three-day residency at Stubb's several months ago. The little bits we saw and heard, though, were enticing. BJL has some of that front-man charisma, and the band is on-the-one without trying too hard to sound like they're a Stax house band from 1970. And how many bands out there really get funky nowadays? Let's not forget -- I was co-host of the funky funky "Loose Booty Show" on WMFO in the early 90s. While I'm not as obsessed with all things phunck to the degree that I was back then, hearing a band that really gets funky down-and-nasty always hits me in a sweet spot.

So back to ACL. BJL and his band tore into their set with a blistering rendition of "Sugarfoot," which it just played on its first big TV performance. The whole band sounded much more raw at last ACL. From the start and throughout the set, the band demonstrated that they had developed a good amount of polish over the last year. Not that polish is a necessary ingredient to being funky or soulful, but in this case -- trust me -- the shine was a good thang.


Black Joe Lewis & some Honeybears


The horns provide the spark to the group's engine

Showing off the tighter, more toned band, Joe sounded more confident. He and the crew pushed hard through a barrage of JB-centric hot tunes. Often when he shouts and screams, your mind tells you "James Brown," but at times Lewis sounded more like, say, Wilson Pickett. Toward the end, showing off his front-man star potential, the man definitely was Black Joe Lewis. He really owned the crowed during the humorous, build up-settle down R&B number "Get Yo Shit." Somehow, Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears manage to make you want to dance or at least shuffle your feet despite the stank mud, dreary skies and unfortunate time slot.


Credit: www.austin360.com
Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears performing "I'm Broke" at ACL 2009

After that, we thought about heading over to see Rodriguez toward the other end of the park. Problem was that the only paths involved walking through some pretty thick mud. Plus, who knew how bad things were on the other end of the park, where the ground is lower? Thinking we might want to see the B-52s coming up the next hour on the same stage that Black Joe Lewis had just played, we decided to stay close to home base and catch Here We Go Magic just over yonder. They were okay, not memorable.

The B-52s now tour with the four living original members who made up the band during their second wave of popularity at the end of the 80s and early 90s plus a few backing musicians. Sure, the foursome looked a bit more weathered than they did 15-20 years ago, but don't we all (and shouldn't we do so without shame)? Actually, drummer-turned-lead guitarist Keith Strickland looked fit and dapper. The vocalists sounded best when they weren't pushed, particularly Cindy and Fred. Kate's voice sounded better than I anticipated and her range is very well preserved. Early in the set, they mixed in a few things from 2008's Funplex album. I thought the group sounded pretty good on these numbers. The songs sounded to a degree like they had been crafted with the group's limits in mind. The crowd definitely got more into it as the band moved into more familiar territory, like early favorite "Private Idaho" and "Roam" from 1989 "comeback" album Cosmic Thing.

With the crap weather and mud, the audience was into it but still hesitant to get close or move too much. As the B-52s moved into the predictable closing numbers, the group sounded like it was going through the motions a bit. Fred said something about learning "Love Shack" at karaoke. I imagine that the poor guy's performed the song a few times too many.

(Okay, time for an admission. My siblings and I decided it would be fun to throw a 25th anniversary party for our parents back in 2003 at our house. One sibling wanted to get karaoke gear. I was not interested myself but decided to go with whatever the group decided. So they got it. And yes, my sister and I did "Love Shack." I did Fred natch.)

The band closed out its set with another number they've probably played a time or two, "Rock Lobster." Sure, it was predictable, and they did sound like they could sleepwalk their way through it. Still, watching the B-52s play such an iconic song live brought a smile to my face.

After the B-52s set, we caught a bit of White Lies. Like Here We Go Magic, they too weren't that interesting. Having seen Arctic Monkeys twice already, we looked further down the rest of the schedule, measured the stank and filth, and decided to bail. A festival that started with a bang was cut short of its full potential glory due to the weather and the ground conditions. Still had enough fun to make it likely, at least for now, that I'll be there in 2010. By the way, block October 8-10 off on your 2010 calendar.


ACL 2009 - by Jon