One Week Later: ACL 2008 Wrapup
It’s been one whole week since Austin’s Zilker Park was hosting one of the more popular music festivals in North America, bringing both legendary performers of many genres as well as some of the most hyped bands of the year to music fans from around the country. As this week has passed, I’ve found myself evaluating the festival, the current music scene, as well as my feelings on festivals in general.
When people asked me previous to the festival, if I was excited about the festival, I of course replied with a yes, but when asked who I was the most excited about seeing, I couldn’t really muster up much excitment about any one particular band. Sure there were bands that I was looking forward to seeing, most of which I have already seen on multiple occasions, and a few that I had not, but no one artist stood out. With that being said, my thoughts on ACL 2008.
Friday:
I can’t help but to be excited about the festival on day one, if just for the simple fact that it’s three days of music possibilities, and I don’t have to work my regular job for a few days.
As I make my way into the park, I can’t help but noticed that there is already quite the crowd gathered by 1:00 when I arrive, which I have found not to be the case in years past. Good for the festival itself, because people = $$. It could be for the fact that one of the year’s biggest buzz bands Vampire Weekend, has a 3:00 spot on one of the headliner stages.
Yeasayer draws a much larger than anticipated crowd during their 1:30 set, on the Dell Stage. The band is always solid live bringing their unique blend of world music ala indie rock to a level that compliments the recorded material well. They somehow manage to escape the pitfall of sound issues that plaque the stage much throughout the weekend.
I decide to give Vampire Weekend another shot at proving to me why they are on the lips of many, as well as on the cover of many a music mag, and once again I fail to get the appeal. The large crowd consisting of many a young female fan, who vocalize their love for the band in unison shrill, seem satisfied with the performance. Myself, the aging indie rock fan, walk away thinking that there are at least a half a dozen bands in this town more talented and more exciting to watch on stage, they just don’t have the right haircuts or sense of style.
The one artist that I was really excited to see, M. Ward, eluded me. Eluded me, for the simple fact that there were so many people in the WAMU tent when I arrived my only option was try to watch from the side of the stage outside of the tent. If the sounds of Gogol Bordello from across the park weren’t carrying so far, it might have been doable, but the delicate lo-fi sounds of M. Ward were no match.
Running into a friend and his 3 youngsters, who were also trying to see M. Ward, we convinced the kids to go watch rock-n-roll pirates, referring to the band that call themselves Gogol Bordello. What rock band is better suited to entertain kids better than the Gogol Bordello? Maybe the Flaming Lips, as long as they keep it a bit more kid friendly than their Sasquatch performance?
The end of the day left me with a decision to make between two artists, both of which had not seen before, Mars Volta and Manu Chao. Mars Volta started a bit earlier so I decided to give them a chance to prove why they have such a diehard fan base. The band came out looking good, looking like rock stars, and launched into their first song, which I couldn’t tell you the name of, and proceeded to put on an energetic tight performance. As I watched guitarist Omar Rodriguez -Lopez and vocalist Cedric Bixler – Zavala perform, thoughts of what it was like to see Page and Plant perform together in their early years, and what if Mars Volta existed at the same time? My thoughts began to drift because the first song began to drift….drift into minutes of drum solo, guitar solo, a saxophone solo, and a lot of shaking, dancing, and acrobatics by Cedric with no end in site. Manu Chao it is!
It’s easy to see why Manu Chao has such a worldwide appeal. He delivers a latin influenced style of rock with a passion sometimes politically charged, full of enthusiasm, and completely genuine.
I left day one somewhat disappointed in what I had experienced musically at the festival, content with the friend connections that I had made that day, and looking forward to a late night set by Dead Confederate @ Emo’s in hopes that they might restore my faith in rock-n-roll.
Saturday:
Saturday began with an uplifting set by Fleet Foxes. Another buzz band for sure, but worthy of the buzz for many a reason. The bands laid back casual set, complete with informal banter from the band, was perfectly accompanied by the warm mid-day sun and slight breeze that sifted through the crowd of early birds. Obviously feeling a bit out of their element, the band constantly insisted that they weren’t a festival band while lead vocalist Robin Pecknold commented that he didn’t know how to communicate with a crowd on this level. He also took a moment to give a shout out to local vegan restaurant Casa de Luz, claiming it to be his favorite restaurant in America. Whether or not the band prefers to be on the big festival stage, their one hour set sounded amazing and seemed to please everyone in the crowd to no end. This was the perfect highlight of the day, which would once again leave me feeling a bit shorted on the music experience overall.
The rest of the afternoon, I caught several more acts most of them chosen because of the fact that the south end of the park which housed the stage for CSS and MGMT was completely packed, and I honestly didn’t feel it necessary to attempt to work my way through the mess of people.
Drive By Truckers sounded great, and reminded me to revisit the recorded material that I have so quickly forgotten that I really do enjoy.
Connor Oberst’s set felt more Americana/Folk than indie rock darling, which was fine, but the smallish crowd for the big main stage, seemed to confirm the theory that some Texans still hold a grudge. The boo’s during the introduction of M. Ward, when the reminder of the Connor Oberst, M. Ward, Jenny Lewis aftershow was mentioned, also supports this theory.
The afternoon slowed a bit on the musical front as I ran into 4/5 of The Black Angels and opted for hanging out and conversing about the band’s experience recording with Roky Erikson and thoughts on the future live dates with the Austin psych-rock legend. As Roky’s set was about 20 min away, Black Angel guitarist Christian 
Bland pointed the amazing view of the sunset that we had from where we were standing, forcing me to take in the moment that almost slipped by unnoticed.
As Roky took the stage and played through the first few songs of the set, he looked well, he seemed more together and alert than what I had in my mind. The image of the man living on the edge of his own sanity, has been replaced by an artist who seems fit to continue on with the journey that he began many years ago. The wait for to hear the recorded material being produced by Roky and The Black Angels will be a long one, even if I were to hear it tomorrow.
Beck finished out the day with was one of the most uninspired sets I have seen from him. He played all the hits, moving about minimally on stage as if the less he energy he spends on entertaining the crowd the sooner the end of the set would arrive. Obviously he couldn’t wait until the scheduled 10 pm ending time, and left the stage 20 minutes early, not to return.
Sunday:
As the final day of the festival gets underway, I leave my schedule pretty much open in hopes of through the course of bouncing around, I might come across something that unfamiliar that might completely catch me off guard.
The 1:30 afternoon spot for The Kills seemed a bit unwelcomed by the band, especially vocalist Allison Mosshart, who hid behind her hat, constantly sliding away from the sun to hide in the shadows, pacing like some caged animal.
Always a fan of an Against Me! show, I found it hard to concentrate and enjoy their set, with the poor sound coming from the Dell Stage. I will admit that the sound did improve later in the set, but by then I had lost interest, and had decided to make my way to the larger AT&T stage to watch Silversun Pickups. I caught the band for the first time @ SXSW 2006 and they were incredible to watch live on the smaller stage, and I quickly became a fan of the band that week. In the two years since I first caught the band live, they have done little to continue to maintain my interest. The few shows that I have seen since, haven’t compared to the shows that I experienced in 2006, and the band has yet to release any new material. Word is that the band is working on a new album, but I get the sense that maybe the creative juices might not be flowing as the band might want. Oh yeah, the band’s performance @ ACL…absolut pits.
Thanks to the Silversun Pickups and their performance, I made my way over to watch Colour Revolt a bit earlier than I had planned. The only performance I caught on the small BMI Stage, and quite possibly my favorite performance of the festival. I know, a bold statement considering what all took place that weekend, but I’ve been a fan of these guys since the beginning of the year, and every time I see them, I love them even more. Dense guitar sounds, with complex arrangements, wrapped around Jesse Coppenbarger’s intense lyrics and vocal delivery. I can’t say enough about this band.
After the performance of Colour Revolt, I felt satisfaction. Satisfaction in finding that time in which I found myself wrapped up in a performance, enjoying every note, every lyric, and every crashing cymbal. I was pretty much done for the day. Of course, I would spin around the festival a few more times, and see if I could get a glimpse of a few more acts. Band of Horses sounded great on the previously sound riddled Dell Stage and their performance seemed more inspired and engaging than what I saw the night before @ The Parish. I made a weak attempt to see what The Foo Fighters were doing to prove their spot, but all I really got was the glow from the main stage with the sounds of the Foo closing out ACL 2008. I’m sure that their ACL taping on Monday night will be of more interest anyway.
Reading this, one might get the idea that I’ve become a jaded music fan, who has become more critical than openminded over the years, and to some degree you might be correct. I would be the first to admit that after this year’s festival, I felt a bit of frustration, and harbored a dislike for the experience as a whole. I hated the crowds, the sound on most of the stages was flawed at times to the point of being unacceptable, some of the performers put on lackluster if even pathetic performances. Over the next week I thought seriously about how I felt, and came to a bit of a realization. I’ve had amazing experiences at festivals over the years, most previous to starting the blog, and looking back at them and understanding those experiences, I realized that most attendees of this year’s festival probably had the time of their life. They met friends that they hadn’t seen for awhile, drank a few beers, shared laughs, made new friends, and saw some bands and performances that left an impact on them. And all weekend long they had access to great festival food, enjoyed a festival environment with short beer lines (you have to know where to go), and an environment with all the modern conveniences if you needed (charge your cell phone, check your e-mail).
So, don’t take my words as any indication that this year’s ACL Festival was a bad experience, take it as a view of someone who sometimes becomes so immersed in the music and analyzing every little detail, that he failed to see the experience as a whole. Don’t get me wrong, I had a lot of great moments over the weekend, but my intitial reaction was negative. I digress. I look forward to what ACL 2009 has in store for all of us.
If you made it all the way through this lengthy post, I applaud you.
