 "Photo: Matt Norris")
 "Photo: Matt Norris")
 "Photo: Matt Norris")
 "Photo: Kim Burnstad")
Austinites and out-of-towners were able to relax for once in what has been a very rough September. The death of the Austin Music Network, the cessation of smoking in bars and Hurricane Katrina have all left the city wondering if anything good was going to happen ever again. Topping that off, another whirling vortex of destruction bearing down on the Gulf Coast threatened to kill any respite that the Austin City Limits Music Festival might have given. Fortunately, nothing went as forecasted. This weekend Zilker Park was an oasis of good music and even better weather as festival goers, bands and event coordinators basked in the sunshine and breathed a sigh of relief for this year's Austin City Limits Music Festival.
Friday
From the first moment Austinites Britt Daniel and his band Spoon took the stage and launched into "Beast and the Dragon Adored," it was clear that this was not just another mediocre Austin band added to the ACL lineup out of some sick sense of nepotism. Over the last decade, Spoon has worked harder than almost any other band in Austin, rising above obstacles that would crush weaker individuals and collectives. Spoon's ACL set was full of crafted pop-rock brilliance that proved they have earned every bit of the success they receive these days.
Yet it was the third song its set where Spoon took off to the sonic stratosphere. A revved-up version of "Small Stakes" displayed Spoon's musical inventiveness and keen ear for melody. Staccato guitars rocked, while inventive keyboards shimmered. Daniel's vocals smoothed over the audience and through the speakers like a silver-tongued angel.
And from that moment, it was on. Spoon went into a streak of its best songs: "The Fitted Shirt" proved amazing. "Sister Jack" and "Paper Tiger" seemed to give the Spoon fans everything they wanted with a healthy mix of new and old songs. Daniel sang as note-perfect as a choir boy, displaying how far-ranging his vocal talents have become.
"We've even got an interpreter [for the deaf]. ... This is cool," said Daniel enthusiastically between songs. The interpreter danced and grooved like a funky aerobics instructor, signing the entire time.
From the first chords of "I Turn My Camera On," girls started shrieking that high-pitched frequency that only thousands of excited females can make. The sun suddenly became obscured behind a 5-mile-long cloud bank, and Spoon continued to crank out the hits. Drummer Jim Eno's percussion was studied and masterful, even hitting a triangle to highlight the transitions.
Likewise, bassist Joshua Zarbo nailed the slinky bassline of "Everything Hits At Once." Daniel carved up his guitar with skills of someone that knows how to shred a solo, yet has the good taste to only play one once every few years.
"Anything You Want" was beautiful in its simplicity, with its vocal melody harkening to everything that is great about John Cougar's "Jack And Diane."
By the time Spoon was closing out its excellent set with "The Way We Get By," it became obvious - and probably painfully obvious for diehard fans - that the days of seeing Spoon play a crowded, yet comfortable, show at venues like The Hole in the Wall and Emo's are long, long gone.
Blues Traveler
After disappearing from the radio spotlight in the late '90s, ACL goers might have been surprised to see Blues Traveler on the schedule this year. Using material from their 11-album career, John Popper and co. played a high-energy set of blues but neglected to thoroughly utilize Popper's harmonica. In doing so, they pushed the distinguishing characteristic separating them from other mid-90s alt-rock bands into the background. Popper finally let loose on his harmonica during the set closing "Runaround," belting out complicated strands of notes while his band mates hurriedly kept pace.
Thievery Corporation
The eclectic sounds of "world beat" music came pounding from the Heineken stage Friday evening as Thievery Corporation took the stage for a one-hour set. While most of their time was spent with three seemingly Jamaican emcees at the microphone, the group interspersed their show with a series of lead performers that seemed to alternate after every song.
From Jamaica we were instantly transported to India through the crooning of an ornately dressed, thoroughly tanned supermodel look-alike.
Clad in an abundance of metal arm bands and intricate necklaces, she attempted to woo the crowd with a simple chant, but the effect feel short, much like the overall act. Thievery Corporation felt like the pages of a glamour magazine had come alive.
While the audience is supposed to buy the idea that this group is made-up of members from all parts of the world, I would not be surprised if this corporation had holdings in Los Angles.
Saturday
Drive By Truckers
The Drive-By Truckers' Mike Cooley took the stage Saturday with a freshly lit cigarette in his mouth. He dropped moments later, realizing he had to sing the first song.
One would expect no less than a furious, sweaty and stupid rock show from a band that sports a "Drink Drive Hard" T-shirt, a giant bottle of whiskey, and songs about "greed and fixed elections, guns and drugs and whores and booze."
Alabama's Truckers came pretty close.
Bassist Shonna Tucker bounced along with the beat and shouted along with husband Jason Isbell's songs. Frontman Patterson Hood sneered like a big-city rock star and lumbered around the stage. Cooley continued to smoke cigarettes.
The songs were a little too slow, and the solos were never loud enough, but the crowd, loosened by $4 Lone Star and smuggled liquor, didn't seem to care. Their voices were sometimes louder than the band's, especially during "We Ain't Never Gonna Change," the Truckers' 2004 anthem: "You can throw me in the Colbert County jailhouse, you can throw me off the Wilson dam, but there ain't much difference in the man I wanna be and the man that I really am."
Buddy Guy
Chicago blues legend Buddy Guy showcased his versatility ripping through his own well-known classics, as well as songs by Cream and Muddy Waters. During his powerful rendition of "Goddamn Right, I Got the Blues,"
Guy jumped into the audience and walked down the barricaded catwalk in the middle of the crowd while effortlessly shredding on his guitar. Previewing two new songs off his newest album - available Tuesday - Guy expressed a greater depth of emotion, temporarily ridding himself of the world-weary loner that often shows through. Surrounded by a band with skills nearly equal to his own, Guy stepped back multiple times, allowing his fellow players to showcase their own staggering skills.
Death Cab For Cutie
"Marching Bands of Manhattan," the opening track from its latest album "Plans," lead off what proved to be an entertaining, if average and perfunctory, set from Death Cab For Cutie. The Seattle quartet's introspective indie-pop has always had a good following in the clubs of Austin. Yet the jump from the intimacy of an indie rock club to the juggernaut of playing to thousands upon thousands of people in an outdoor venue seemed to prove to be the only stumbling block for Death Cab.
Death Cab are one of those bands that can take a few songs to get warmed up. Unfortunately, one of Death Cab's best live staples, "A Movie Script Ending," just didn't translate its intimacy or poignancy under a blistering sun to 40,000 people.
"We Laugh Indoors" sounded great. Ben Gibbard rocked his patented back-'n-forth sway. Christopher Walla sang all the harmonies and mouthed the rest of the vocals with his eyes closed in a fervor of musical bliss. Bassist Nicholas Harmer and drummer Jason McGerr propelled the band forward in a steady-rocking groove. But there was a musical, artistic urgency lacking under the blistering sun that Death Cab's evening club shows always are always able to muster.
Later in the set, Gibbard slung on his acoustic guitar, Walla put his electric guitar down and got behind the electronic keyboard, and they launched into their current single, "Soul Meets Body." The song is a new direction for Death Cab, and it makes the comparisons to R.E.M. seem fair as it shares a similar feel to "Losing My Religion."
If Death Cab are going to start playing festivals and arenas and have its slower and moodiest songs overcome the sonic deficiencies of these larger venues, then Gibbard is going to have to step up his vocals to crystal-clear enunciation level of post-"Out of Time" Michael Stipe.
"I Was A Kaleidoscope" yielded Death Cab at its up-tempo best. When Death Cab quickened its songs to a more-danceable beat, and the guitars rose up to a cocksure volume, they were able to rise above the challenges of their mid-afternoon stage time and prove they are worthy of their heaps of flattering press and critical accolades.
Sunday
Eisley
Taking the stage before an already packed crowd for their Sunday afternoon time slot, Texas rock group Eisley rewarded fans that braved the noon-day heat to catch their set by turning up the dials with a rocking performance that will surely do much to change the groups reputation as dreamy popsters.
Playing their only show during a one-month hiatus from touring, Eisley drew nearly half their set list from songs not found on their debut, "Room Noises," including whimsical closer "Treetops" and the magnificent and somber "Many Funerals," which they premiered before the ACL audience.
Rilo Kiley
"Hey dudes ... this is a love song," said Rilo Kiley singer/guitarist Jenny Lewis. Rilo Kiley - one of the most popular indie-rock bands in the country - then began its set of country-tinged indie-rock songs that transcended several genres and went over well with both new and old fans alike.
"Glad to play for you on the hottest day, possibly ever," said Blake Sennet, Rilo Kiley's guitarist and singer. It was a smaller crowd that braved the SBC stage, nary a spot of shade in sight. Luckily Rilo Kiley created their own little California oasis of good times with its unique and intelligent pop music.
Rilo Kiley has a superstar in its midst with Lewis. Guitar, bass guitar, harmonica, keyboards and a voice as sultry and powerful as Patsy Cline, Lewis is a consummate musician. Clad in a colorful vintage dress, blackened movie-star sunglasses and knee-high white stockings, Lewis has the charisma of a 1950s black-and-white-screen siren. This is no accident: Both Sennet and Lewis were successful childhood actors, with Lewis always cast as the redheaded bad girl who gets the good girls in trouble.
Sennet endeared himself to the audience between songs by revealing that the band and some friends went tubing down the river in San Marcos on Saturday afternoon. "Thanks a lot for the use of your nice river yesterday," Sennet said.
Rilo Kiley's cynical ode to the business of music, "It's A Hit," was indeed everything that it lyrically mocks. "The Execution of All Things" provided Sennet with a chance to display his fondness for The Flaming Lips' slide-meets-distortion-pedal guitar soundscapes.
Lewis broke the proscenium several times, pacing the would-be orchestra pit like a seasoned arena rock pro. Her leap from the stage gave her direct contact with the audience. Lewis sang impassioned with her arms outstretched toward the heavens. Her voice dropped and rose over the chord changes with note-perfect seduction.
Rilo Kiley's set was ultimately soul-rousing, but it anticlimactically ending with the acoustic and slower songs "Ripcord" and "A Better Son/Daughter." The band stacked all of its heaviest hits in the front of the set and only left the audience wanting more as its musical denouement descended a little too quickly.
The Arcade Fire
Playing almost everything from its debut album, "Funeral," The Arcade Fire wasted no time changing its initial procession into spirited jubilation. The band was dressed in black and white like they'd just come from the Church of the Solid Rock, some of the men even wearing suits and ties. The Arcade Fire marched on the stage with red flags as if they were attending a New Orleans-style wake. The uniform collective hail from Montreal, but they play with the soul of band from the American South.
The Arcade Fire craft a unique brand of indie rock that is exponentially more exciting live than it is on record. It was on the strength of its live shows that a minor indie label bidding war began, with Merge Records coming out the winner.
The band began like a reverential choir, inspired by cues very similar to what ignites the fire under Dallas' The Polyphonic Spree. Orchestral instrumentation collided into the choral harmony of all nine members singing in unison. Two violins, one French horn and two percussionists rounded out the prototypical rock 'n' roll instruments as the band lit the audience's fuse with its anthem "Wake Up."
The Arcade Fire used its hour set to its maximum advantage. Whereas several bands at ACL haphazardly put a set list together, it became quite obvious that The Arcade Fire structured its set to dynamically build and build until its last two songs yielded the band at its loudest and most bombastic.
"Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)" and "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)" increased the sonic stakes, song by song. "No Cars Go" was elegant and complex. Band members traded instruments and created percussive sounds by beating on motorcycle helmets and battered cymbals. Yet it was the band's cover of David Bowie's "Five Years" that revealed where The Arcade Fire gets some of its dramatic song structure.
Multi-instrumentalist Régine Chassagne danced like an elegant ballet dancer that is tongue-in-cheek enough to do the robot. She knowingly entrancing the audience with her powerful and subtly iconoclastic voice.
And then there was her husband, guitarist Win Butler, at the center of the mayhem, quietly leading The Arcade Fire like an even-handed ship's captain. The critical buzz surrounding The Arcade Fire in the indie-rock underground over the last year has been enormous. The band's one-of-a-kind, mid-afternoon ACL performance was poised and intricate and enough to silence anyone that didn't believe the hype surrounding this very unique and extraordinary band.
Playing to a feild of some 50,000, dusty from three days of heat, crowds and wind, Coldplay's performance at the Austin City Limits Music Festival on Sunday brought a close to one of the strongest lineups in the festivals history, the fact of which singer Chris Martin seemed especially aware. The Coldpay frontman dedicated songs to fellow ACL artists Fraz Ferdinand and the Arcade Fire, even going so far as to add a few new lyrics to the band's hit, "Clocks."
"We're gonna take it higher and higher / Everyone should listen to the Arcade Fire," Martin sang.
But if Coldplay was interested mainly in talking about the other bands on the ACL lineup, it was clear from their unopposed finale slot and the dust coulds raised by the thousands racing across Zilker Park to catch a better view of them that everyone else's focus was clearly on Coldplay.
Obliging the enormity of this attention, Coldplay delivered a workman like, hit-filled set that completely justified their top billing. The band was clearly delighted, inspite of the heat, to be appearing at ACL - at one poiont altering another lyric to state just that fact - and energetic renditions of "Speed Of Sound" and "God Put A Smile On Your Face" helped to convey that message to the thousands that stayed late to see them.
Equally smitten with the ACL bug was Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy, who delivered probably what was the strongest and best recieved performance of the festival. It was clear from the first notes of the groups opener, "Kingpin," that the Austin crowd had a special affection for Tweedy and his band. And for once, the sometimes taciturn frontman was as equally smitten with them.
Tweedy led the audience through no less than five hand clapping sessions during Wilco's set, actively courting their involvement and responding in kind with one of the greates t performances in the band's history.
"All of my life has been leading up to this one moment," Tweedy said. "Wilco is not usually a band that actively seeks audience attention. But tonite is different."
Wilco's set included inspired renditions of audience favorite "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart" and "At Least That's What You Said," as well as a bluesy, hard-rocking number which the band premiered at ACL, dedicating it to the city of Austin.
"Groveling," Tweedy later added, "is the new cockiness."
ACL fair-weather Friends Contributors:
Adam H. Covici
Leslie Flynn
V. Marc Fort
Ben Heath
Scotty Loewen
Pheobe Moore
Ramon Ramirez
Craig Whitney
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