From Boston to Austin: ACL 2009: Day Two Review

Rain at ACL? I don't know if it was the date - this year's festival fell later in the year than any prior festival we've been to. Whatever it was, we'd never had more than a sprinkle or two, except one day when rain came late and washed away Tom Petty. Saturday, though, was the first time we'd had to deal with a day of steady rain.

The weather called for careful planning. Fearing that we might not be able to last for as long as we usually do, we had to decide who we really wanted to see. With The Raveonettes cancelling, it made things a bit easier. In the end, we decided we'd head over in time to catch !!! at 2:00 and stay as long as we could. Could we make it until the 6:00 slot with Levon Helm and Mos Def? 6:40 for John Vanderslice?

We got to Zilker just a bit after !!! (Chk Chk Chk) had started its set. I admittedly was a bit pessimistic about "dance-punk" translating well to a daytime, outdoor live setting, but !!! proved that you can move a crowd's feet despite the time of day or the reading on the barometer. Frontman Nic Offer -- dancing like nobody was watching -- lead the band through a set of high-energy, butt-shaking grooves. The beat kept on throughout the set. Highlights? "Must Be the Moon" from Myth Takes (2006) sounded great, like a modern KC & the Sunshine Band - impossible to keep your feet still. I don't think many people would have left early, but the fact that Grizzly Bear was about to play across the park did create a minor exodus just a bit before the set wrapped up.

Credit: http://www.austin360.com/music/content/music/acl_fest/acl_2009/index.html
!!! performing at ACL 2009

Few artists came into this year's festival riding as big a wave of momentum as Grizzly Bear. The Brooklyn foursome drew a thick crowd, proving that the festival organizers could have easily justified putting them on one of the two major stages. While I really like their latest album, Veckatemist, would their textured, highly-produced songs hold up in concert?

Despite the small stage and inclement weather, Grizzly Bear met the challenge. Honestly, the misty gray backdrop was the perfect backdrop for the band's somewhat gloomy, neo-baroque stylings. These guys can sing. Their multi-part harmonizing was well executed throughout the show. And though lots of their recorded songs have the bleeps and bloops and effects and funny instruments that make live performances challenging, the band has obviously spent a lot of time figuring out how to make it work on stage. Watching bass player/multi-instrumentalist Chris Taylor hit those high notes in person made you wonder whether they were running his vocals through some sort of filter, but I don't think they were. The tunes from Veckatemist, including highlight "Two Weeks," sounded great, if not just a bit too much like the recorded version. "Knife," off sophomore effort Yellow House (2006), also sounded pretty amazing. So the crowd didn't shake so much like the throng at !!! did -- in fact it barely moved. Was it that the music just isn't really crowd-shaking? Maybe the audience was in a trance? Too much rain? I'm still not sure, but Grizzly Bear was definitely a Saturday highlight for me.

You could argue that we whiffed on the next slot. I hear that Flogging Molly put on a really fun show. Not really knowing what to go see, we decided to head to the tent to catch Henry Butler, a classic New Orleans R&B pianist. We managed to squeeze ourselves under the roof of the tent all the way in the back, but had a great view since everyone in front of us was sitting down. Maybe he's not as well known as Fats Domino, Professor Longhair or Allen Toussaint, but this guy's got some serious ivory-ticking skills and a strong, soulful voice that has aged well. I thought the tone he chose for his electric piano was a bit too synthetic and clean sounding at times. The set itself, though, was a blast. The crowd got into it during his bubbly performance of New Orleans standard "Iko Iko." As the show progressed, more people stood up and stayed up, clapping and dancing. Covers were the strength of the set, including a great upbeat take on Billy Preston’s “Will It Go Round In Circles” and a nice version of “Hello, Josephine” (by the Fatman himself). This style of musical performance feels like a bit of an endangered species, so I felt lucky to be there.

Mood can be important factor in a band's performance. Weather-wise, sunshine's an easy one. A little rain too can be a great backdrop for some bands, as Grizzly Bear showed. But if you get too deep into the gloom, things start to seem a bit tiring. For the next slot, fearing that Bon Iver might be a bit too dour, we went to watch ... And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead. Besides, we'd missed a chance to see them when they pulled out of their opening slot for the SpoonX3 festival this past Spring. Trail of Dead brought it and sounded solid, but I think we were a bit too far back to get into it. We were a bit spent, too. So we had just a nip of the Baby Blue Texas Corn Whiskey that someone (not me) smuggled in *wink* *wink* and headed home to clean up and refuel, catching a bit of The Levon Helm Band's performance as we crossed back over Barton Creek behind the main stage.

Want to know some of the rewards of arriving early and hitting some of the smaller stages, here's a rundown with many of the bands people missed.

Credit: http://www.austin360.com/music/content/music/acl_fest/acl_2009/index.html
ACL Day Two: some smaller bands, sights and sounds