So no 107-degree record setting days like we had the Sunday of our first festival in 2005, no brief but severe rains like we had during Tom Petty's close in 2006, and none of those dry, dusty days leading many to don masks we've encountered a few times before. But we did get some wet, funky earth. Enough to entice some people, probably not aware of the seemingly biotoxically-shady nature of the mud, to jump in it, dance in it, or roll around and cover themselves in it, as did some small shaved-headed feller that Rachel and I agreed was "rocking it Smeagol-style." So we got a little less music in during this festial, although not that much given our Thursday night pre-festival show. Still, there were plenty of highlights.
Oh, by the way, this year's reviews are probably going to be a bit light on the photos. On account of the rain I only took our good camera on Friday. My battery was low, so I didn't take that many pictures. We also took few pix on Saturday and Sunday due to the bad weather.
Friday - Day One
Gloriously cool weather greeted us on Friday morning. Very un-ACLish, but that's more than fine with us. We ended up heading down to the festival at almost noon and killed a few precious minutes finding parking. We got there and saw the bulk of the 12:30 set by School of Seven Bells, and hung in there for a good chunk of the closing set by Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Ate a decent shrimp po' boy from Aquarelle and a good trailer park taco from Torchy's - a delicious mess of fried chicken, green chilies, lettuce, pico de gallo, and cheese. Got some t-shirts. Friday was up there with just about any festival day we've had.
School of Seven Bells had just started their set on the festival's main stage when we arrived. As a trio with just a couple of guitar players and a keyboardist (no drums), playing on the big stage might seem like trouble. What you do get if you're booked in such a slot, though, is the kick-butt sound system, and SVIIB took full advantage of the great audio at the "Livestrong" stage. While their textured musich and dreamy, atmospheric vocals probably sound better in a dark club late at night, the trio -- former Secret Machine Benjamin Curtis on guitar and the Deheza twins on vocals and guitar (Claudia) and keys (Alejandra) -- filled up the big open space with swirling, pretty, shoegazey electronic pop. The sisters might not be the greatest voices, but their voices fit together perfectly, like a couple of -- well -- twins. The Cocteau Twins comparisons seem apt, but grouping them together with a harder group like My Bloody Valentine doesn't seem that far-fetched.
School of Seven Bells
After one set, we made our first of the day's many lawn crossings to catch New Orleans' The Knux (well, they are originally from New Orleans but relocated to LA after Katrina) a rap duo made up of brothers Krispy Kream and Rah Almillio. The Knux put together a crowd-pleasing set of classic bass-thumping hip-hop, showed some musical chops by picking up instruments on a few songs, and finished with a party tune that they invited a few dozen crowd members on stage to dance to. Very fun, only gripe being that they cut their set short by a good fifteen minutes.
Krispy Kream (The Knux)
Rah Almillio (The Knux)
We grabbed some eats -- lines were already long for chicken cones -- and walked back to the main stage to catch a little Medeski, Martin & Wood. These guys played just like pros that have been together for a long time. Not the most exciting music, and another performance that might have been better suited for an evening at a club, but still enjoyable in its funkiness and complexity. When you remind yourself that there are only three people up there on stage making those sounds, it hits you just how impressively tight they are.
Next, we drifted a bit. We caught a very small amount of Dr. Dog, which I later heard was a great performance, and then drifted off toward the other end of the festival to catch some of The Walkmen's set while setting up at the next stage for Phoenix. The crowd for Phoenix was solid. I'd call it the first really big crowd of the day. The group sounded on, playing lots of material from their latest acclaimed album, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, closing with a great "1901," probably the album's most well-known tune. They even tossed in a cover of cover of Air’s "Playground Love" (another French group). Phoenix was one of the day's (and whole weekend's) musical highlights.
For the next spot, we weren't sure whether to go see Somalian rapper K'Naan or retro-soul singer Raphael Saddiq. Since the latter was playing at the next stage over from where Phoenix had just finished, we opted for that. Saddiq gave the crowd an enthusiastic greeting and launched into his set. His singing immediately made me think of Marvin Gaye crossed with Smokey Robinson -- not exactly bad comparisons. He really turned on the Smokey at times. His band was good but his voice was great as was his stage presence. Man's got pipes. Just to put some icing on the cake, he threw in an Iggy Pop cover. I love ACL!
Raphael Saddiq looking smooth
After snack number two, we put ourselves in a good position for Andrew Bird's performance and caught the last half of Thievery Corporation's gig on the main stage. The group's worldly grooves got the crowd moving. At least the ones who weren't sheltered within a self-inflicated cloud of thick smoke.
By the time Andrew Bird started his set at 7:30, we were definitely starting to fade. Good thing, because while sitting make it difficult to see, his music is definitely the sort that doesn't suffer from sitting down while taking it in. Bird's set list pulled frequently from his latest album, Noble Beast. He also did a lot of whistling. Maybe too much, although the man sure can whistle! Still, I thought the graceful, subdued set was a perfect compliment to the rest of Friday's typically harder and faster sounds.
To close out our day, we had little difficulty chosing the Yeah Yeah Yeahs over the other late option, Kings of Leon. Good choice. YYYs delivered a punchy set of their mix of loud guitar-based rock and stripped down electronic music. Karen O set the tone by emerging in some sort of garish poncho thing as the band kicked their set off right with the relatively calm "Runaway" from this year's It's Blitz! LP. Both Karen O and the band then launched into high-energy mode, as the band ran through harder, faster numbers, mostly from It's Blitz! "Zero" was a definite highlight. They also slipped in a few older numbers, including a frenetic version of "Pin" from 2003's Fever to Tell. Karen O's stage antics (holding the mic in her teeth, lots of spitting water straight up into the air like a geyser) might come off as posturing -- it does seem a bit clichéd at times -- but it mixes well with the Yeah Yeah Yeah's music: playful and energetic.
But while Karen O's energy seemed endless, she hadn't been out in the sun for 9 hours, standing up for most of that time. We tried our best not to tip over, but ultimately had to cut out a few songs early. After one day of the festival, if you throw in Thursday night, we'd already seen 11 hours of music by nine bands. Not a bad start!
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