Sure, most everyone attending this year’s Austin City Limits Music Festival are familiar with a lot of the main acts like Bjork, Dylan, The White Stripes, Muse, or even Spoon, but if you have dropped $145 for a 3-day pass, you should make best of this opportunity to see a band you may not be familiar with that just might blow your friggin mind. Some of my favorite band discovery moments have happened @ ACL Festival, and this series of posts over the next week will feature bands that may or not be known by you, but who I am looking forward to seeing, and believe that they are going to be some of the highlight performances for many who catch them at this years festival.

The guys in Manchester Orchestra have had a full year already touring constantly and watching their audience grow by leaps and bounds. The guys have already made their way through Austin at least 4 times this year if not more, and I have had the privilege of catching 2 of their performances which have left me emotionally moved and looking forward to the next opportunity to see these on stage once again. Led by front-man Andy Hull, who crafts guitar driven rock songs that flirt with spirituality and the darker side of emotions that we sometimes resist, the band pours their hearts and souls in to each performance with undeniable enthusiasm for the songs that they recreate on stage. With the announcement of handling opening duties for Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Kings of Leon well into October and the most recent performance on The Late Show with David Letterman, one can only believe that these guys have much more in store for us in the future.

Manchester Orchestra play the Austin Ventures stage @ 4 p.m. on Friday 9.14. Hope to see you there.

Mp3>>Alice and Interiors

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 11th, 2007 at 12:40 pm and is filed under ACL Festival 2007, mp3's.