Austin City Limits brought the sun, the rain, the mud and about 150,000 music fans to one of the largest music extravaganzas I have ever witnessed. If I found it possible to get out of bed before noon then I probably would have seen a lot more music, but here is an ACL breakdown (weather forecast and all) starting from 2:00 pm and on.
Day 1 of the festival was sunny and sweaty. Kicking the day off at Dr. Dog, with a little folk and rock get down at the Dell stage. Dr. Dog is a great festival band, because they are just pure happy and blissful music. I don't think that Dr. Dog gets the legendary status they deserve. They are more or less the new age Beach Boys. Groovy for sure.
French people didn't seem so foreign to the thousands upon thousands of people crowding the stage for Phoenix on Friday afternoon. Phoenix certainly didn't blow up out of nowhere, but the band will tell you themselves that ACL was the biggest crowd they have ever played for. Round of applause for Phoenix, because they won the award for the most fun music on Friday.
Friday night was a difficult decision. Yeah Yeah Yeah's vs. Kings of Leon. I choose Kings of Leon and believe it was the right choice. These boys must have been saying their prayers this past year, because I can't think of any other band in the rock genre that has peaked in popularity as much as they have. Sure they are reallllllly good looking, but their live performance certainly lives up to their studio albums. Eddie Vedder made a guest appearance which was certainly a highlight to an already wonderful evening.
The clouds started to roll in Friday night and weather.com had a 70% chance of rain and thunder for Saturday. Ponchos or trash bags became a hot commodity on the streets of Austin, selling for about $10.00/poncho.
Day 2 was undoubtedly the biggest scene on Saturday with the torrential downpours on and off throughout the day. Bon Iver put on a beautiful performance, as always. Justin Vernon's voice amazes me each time. 'Creature Fear' had everyone doing a little rain dance and 'Skinny Love' had everyone singing a long.
Instead of going to Mute Math I went to see Grizzly Bear. Like always they were enjoyable. I was kind of bummed that I missed Mute Math performing 'Spotlight' their song off the "New Moon" soundtrack.
I caught Citizen Cope from a distance. Ehh. Nothing to rave over. I managed to dry off a bit in the music tent where Eek-A-Mouse performed. The weird reggae sounds that Eek-A-Mouse does are enjoyable, but it was a big disappointment to see the frontman of Eek-A-Mouse acting like 50 Cent (all gangsta). STS9 (Sound Tribe Sector Nine) is a electronic-jam band. They tend to appeal to more of the Phish and Widespread Panic crowd, but they certainly drew in a humungous audience. Something about the drums in STS9 had everyone dancing in the rain. By the time Ghostland Observatory hit the stage the rain had died down. The frontman (Aaron Kyle Behrens) of Ghostland reminded me a bit of Michael Jackson on stage, he certainly has the moves and completely has the look. It was a pretty epic performance, light show and all. Ghostland Observatory is from Austin, so they had a lot to live up to for their hometown fans.
Day 3: They say rain is good for the soil, but is rain good for the fake mud that Zilker Park had recently invested millions of dollars in to re-soil and fertilize the grounds? I kind of felt bad for the ground. The 150,000 plus feet that walked through ACL definitley destroyed the mud. But, the mud took its anger out on those in sandals by eating them alive.
After a downpour of rain on day two of Austin City Limits, day three of ACL turned into a big muddy, stinking, mess; but the truly dedicated festival go-ers did not let the mud hold them down from getting from stage to stage.
I would have walked 500 miles just to see Dirty Projectors. They are so amazing. By far the act that I was most looking forward to seeing again at ACL and certainly the most beautiful act. The biggest bummer on the lineup was that they put Dirty Projectors and Passion Pit up against each other. I caught the last few songs of Passion Pit and along the way spotted a few wipeouts in the mud (hilarious).
The Dead Weather sounded pretty dead from as far back as I was. After catching them at San Diego Street Scene a few weeks ago, I was not really feeling the same vibe. It probably had something to do with the fact that the majority of the crowd watching them were hipster children dressed in mud or lazy Austin folks chilling in their lawn chairs.
The festival closed with some pretty amazing performances. Girl Talk is always a party. It was humid, sticky and muddy. When the screen at Girl Talk projected "throw your dollar bills in the mud" people actually listened, so I got to pick up a few bucks, score! After Girl Talk it was time to bounce. I caught a few songs of Pearl Jam, oh how nostalgic. Then jetted in time to make the cab line and get a mud-free cab ride home.
Despite the challenging weather conditions, overall Austin City Limits 2009 was a success. My biggest complaint would have to be the laziness of the people in Austin, they bring chairs to a festival making it totally inconvenient to approach a stage. One important thing to note is that ACL is no SXSW. Don't go to Austin City Limits thinking you are going to discover new music and see a lot of bands. The festival is too big to accomplish all and they seem to book the hottest and most commonly touring bands around.
My wife and I brought chairs and they were worth every penny. I don't need to stand up during set changes and it really let people spread out instead of being crammed in together standing up.
The mud part sucked but it makes for a good story.