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R A // R A // R I O T . photo by Nikki Greene
When Ra Ra Riot announced they were hitting the road to promote Need Your Light, I was anxious to see how the new material would translate to the stage. When I heard they’d be bringing Sun Club AND PWR BTTM with them, I was ecstatic. Then I found out these three would be playing steps away from my humble abode, so it only made sense that it quickly became the hottest ticket in town…Safe to say the ATL was in for a treat.
PWR BTTM
Mission to shred.
P W R // B T T M . Photo by Chris Hunkele
With all the press this band has received over the past six months, I was prepared for a letdown. The hype machine is a monster and has the ability to create novelties out of anyone with a hint of talent and quickly reduce them to a fading trend. I was worried I’d see into the eyes of the beast, but PWR BTTM put that notion to bed in about a minute and thirty seconds. They’re playing their first round of SXSW showcases this week and they’ll be one of the hardest acts to see. Usually I’d say you should never wait in line longer than ten or fifteen minutes to see a band at South by, but they’re different. Fresh. Dramatic. Unapologetic about their in your face queer agenda. And I like it.
Ugly Cherries is the best song I heard last year. The finger tapped riffs are replicated with ease under the lights and the drums are even heavier in person. Their song 1994 has been following me everywhere over the last few weeks, so I was happy to belt out a few ooooh woo oooh oohs as they tore through that track. I haven’t seen a band shred like this since my last Diarrhea Planet show – but Liv and Ben do it with one guitar. I was most impressed with their ability to flawlessly harmonize through complex rhythm changes throughout the set and put together the right amount of peaks and valleys present on their full length record.The makeup and gowns were on point too: A+ in the wardrobe department.
What I really enjoy about PWR BTTM is they sing about the same things all bands do: love and heartbreak, loneliness, having fun and wasting time. The only difference is they tell it from a perspective that few people want to have a conversation about. The true power of their music is that they’re getting to the bottom of how society views gender and homosexuality. It’s just a bonus that it happens to be really great rock & roll.
SUN CLUB
You gotta eat the pops…
S U N // C L U B . photo by Nikki Greene
Sun Club stepped on stage looking mismatched and a little confused. In setup, they appeared to struggle with where everything was supposed to go, and it took at least a song before all the cables were assigned to their respective 1/4” jacks. Even during their set which includes two drummers, loads of vintage gear, an ironing board, and a collection of antique dolls, they look more like a yard sale than a band. If any of the thrifty Ra Ra Riot fans who sold out the two hundred plus capacity venue were looking for a bargain, they came away with a steal in Sun Club.
The Baltimore five piece played through their debut full length, The Dongo Durango with a maelstrom of energy. When the house lights lowered, it was as if these guys became conduits possessed by some supernatural presence and the audience was treated to a live exorcism. Bassist Adam attempts to shake the demons loose from his head while drummers Devin and Kory beat them into submission. Shane almost speaks in tongues over psych-surf guitar licks while Mikey bounces around the stage, crying out heavily delayed chants from his soul. The whole show is an experiment in chaos. It makes sense that they recorded most of their album live, because I can’t imagine these dudes sitting still for longer than ten or fifteen minutes.
In the end it all comes together for Sun Club. Amidst the room rattling drum beats and driving bass lines, their punchy guitar tones pierce through the walls of reverb to provide sophisticated melodic support for the sometimes spastic vocal rhythms. For a band with little apparent structure, they are able to corral all the moving parts just long enough to produce a cohesive musical experience that can only be described as fun.
Thanks guys – I had a damn ball.
RA RA RIOT
All the feels.
R A // R A // R I O T . photo by Nikki Greene
The night closed out with the seasoned headliners providing professional level entertainment to the sold out venue. Fixtures of the indie music scene for over ten years, Ra Ra Riot have become a polished collection of musicians. Their unique brand of classical infused dance-rock almost sounded too big for the room – like we were part of an intimate listening party. Rarely do I leave a show in awe of the musical talent of a band, but they seriously impressed me. Something about violins and cellos inserted into a rock band changes everything – it sounds complete, composed, and purposeful. This band pays attention to the details.
The set list was heavy on recently released Need Your Light, which translated nicely to the stage, but included hits like Dance With Me and Beta Love to the delight of all. It was Ghost Under Rocks however that got everyone moving and put arms in the air.
Over the years, Ra Ra Riot has put together a catalog of songs for any emotion. They hit on all of them tonight.
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R A // R A // R I O T . photo by Nikki Greene
All about bringing together musicians that have a passion for jazz, Gideon King & City Blog is straight out of New York City with a modern twist on the classic jazz genre. With elements of jam bands and big band sound, Gideon King & City Blog released a full length album titled City Blog that is a sultry love letter to the city that never sleeps.
More interesting than the name of the band itself are its members. Boasting some of the most diverse talent available, Gideon King & City Blog managed to get together James Genus, the bassist from Daft Punk and the Saturday Night Live band, Carolyn Leonhart, a key member of Steely Dan’s vocal team, and many other notable musicians. With such a wide variety of members, the sound can only be described as a collective.
City Blog grabs you by the hand and drags you onto the dance floor with its creative and smooth style. City Blog is a rainy date night in Manhattan, where your date offers you their umbrella after a delicious meal at an upper scale restaurant. The album as a whole can only be described with scenarios, because it gives off more than just words. The feelings are present in every improvised piano part, while skillfully crafted with a surreal-sounding mash of backing instruments that all get their separate time to shine in solos.
The title track “City Blog” displays the album clearly and honestly: it’s cool to the touch and easy on the ears. The good thing about jam bands and their derivatives are that the music can never get repetitive as long as you have a decent pairing of vocals, which Gideon King & City Blog have excelled at.
“Friendship Cliche” takes on an alternative indie rock spin, if you consider having a horn section and wind instrument section as rock. All the combinations of instruments result in such a visceral experience that can only enhance surroundings. The only criticism on City Blog stems from the slowness of some of the tracks, particularly “What Say You” which drags on for the full four minutes.
Aside from a couple misses like that, the funk is alive and thriving in New York City among lots of different aliases, but Gideon King & City Blog is a name to remember.
Gideon King & City Blog can be found on its Facebook page, here.
Recent trends in music have revolved around synth pop and overproduced albums, so it is rare to find a big band sound in the mix. Idiot Grins, a five man soul rock band from Oakland, California, has managed the impossible. By getting musical help from Johnnie Bamont, the saxophone player from Huey Lewis and the News, and Mic Gillette, the trumpet player from Tower of Power, Idiot Grins lends a homage to the greats of years ago. Big Man transcends the line between old and new by making a soulful big band swing that sounds like it belongs in the ‘60s, but was made in 2015. The best part, it makes you want to sing along too.
The 11 track album hits all the right notes with each song being reminiscent of the last, without sounding exactly the same. “How To Get To (Baltimore)” is classic and upbeat, with a chorus that sounds almost exactly like the chorus from “Science Fiction Double Feature” in Rocky Horror Picture Show. That isn’t a bad thing, either. The call-and-response element of the music makes the listener want to croon along.
Another standout from the album is the second track “Poppy Piss”. A swing tune that is simple (Keep It Simple, Stupid) is a good indication for the style of Idiot Grins. The song is two and a half minutes of almost the same beat, which seems repetitive, until you get to the wild vocal ups and downs of lead singer John Hansen. The variation is necessary in a track of the same melody, but Idiot Grins has the whole change game under control.
A complaint would be that the majority of the album is ballad-style, with slower melodies dominating the flow and energy of the initial three tracks. That’s not to say that those songs aren’t good in their own right, seeing as “One Reason” and “Paso Robles” are excellent representations of versatile styles. “Paso Robles” utilizes a country croon while “One Reason” is the stereotypical “down-up” beat from the ‘60s with clean sounding horns that really make the track special. Instead of a slow-down near the end of the album (with an exception for the tangy “Ovaltang”), a much needed pick-me-up would have been a better way to seal the deal on Big Man.
Despite minor issue with maintaining a cohesive flow of energy and rest within the album, Idiot Grins puts a modern spin on classic instruments minus the grainy quality.
Big Man was released on April 6, 2015 and is available for purchase or download at the Idiot Grins website.
From London, UK, The Boy From The Crowd is made up of Vinny Placa and Vegas Ivy. With Placa on vocals and guitar while Ivy manages drums and percussion, The Boy From The Crowd creates a blues-infused rock sound that walks the line between cult favorite and top 40s, resulting in songs that are eclectic but still make you bob your head to the beat. Their most recent release titled Where the Bees Come to Die introduces the band’s mechanical and lyrical skills, while also allowing room for improvement.
The first track, “Revelator”, showcases The Boy From The Crowd’s London rock flair with bluesy influence. The sound is catchy, upbeat and progressive throughout despite the repetitive lyrics, while the differences in the song are shown through the changing instruments and the evolving bass and guitar riffs. The use of backing vocals is spot on, especially with its use in the chorus as more of a shout and as a quieter, more intimate repetition for lyrics within the rest of the song.
“All I Need” shows a musical style similar to a combination of earlier Kings of Leon, the White Stripes and The Arctic Monkeys but with a scruffier lead singer (if that was even possible with Kings of Leon). Halfway through the song it cuts to silence with the lead singer still singing, allowing a really nice change of pace. Overall it flows very nicely, however for a five minute song some differences in instrumentation and vocals are necessary.
Different than the prior two tracks, “The Road” sounds more drowned out and surf rock-esque, giving much more of a pop sound. An interesting inclusion to the album, “The Road” really showcases the versatility of the band in terms of genre experimentation, but the guitar hero solo about halfway through the song indicates that some further tweaking is needed to perfect a cohesive sound for an album.
The final two tracks are “All I Need (Single Edit)” and “Where the Bees Come to Die”, both of which have issues. “All I Need” is on this album twice, and with only five songs total that is unnecessary repetition without much change between the two versions (although the second “All I Need” cuts out about a minute and a half of useless jamming). “Where the Bees Come to Die” has a bluesy steel guitar introduction that sounds too blues-influenced to be surf rock but still retains intrigue. The entire ending track is an instrumental, which is a strange choice considering there are only three true songs on the album.
Overall, The Boy From The Crowd has the chops to create something exciting and catchy, but falls short in delivery on Where the Bees Come to Die. The lack of cohesiveness on the album indicates some indecision in terms of the style of the band, which can either be a good thing or a bad thing for the future of the band. However, the interesting style of blues and rock is definitely something that holds promise.
The Boy From The Crowd released Where the Bees Come to Die on December 7, 2015 and is currently available for purchase on its Bandcamp, here or on The Boy From The Crowd website, here.
With only one official musical release, Bad Reed is transcending genres. The four piece jack-of-all-trades band from Brantford, Ontario shows their versatile chops on the Bad Reed EP. Over the course of three songs, Bad Reed manages to capture elements of psychedelic funk metal, rhythmic southern blues and synth rock in a way that is reminiscent of the ‘90s.
“Punch It”, the first track off of the EP, introduces refreshingly clear vocals to the hash-mash of instruments going on in the background. The song builds up, gradually including more guitar parts and more synth patterns until the lead vocalist is slowly lost into the mix. Whether or not that effect was intentional is unclear, but if the purpose of the track is to have the listener melt into their surroundings, then it works very well.
A personal favorite, “Slackjaw Romance” creates the perfect balance of calm and cool. It sounds like something you’d hear in a jazz nightclub around 12 a.m., and commands the same attention from listeners (no matter where they are). The combination of dark lyrical content and swanky yet collected vocals results in a track that is both memorable and catchy.
The final track “Cassava” sounds like a lost Incubus track, allowing singer Sydney Sollazzo to showcase her range and smooth delivery. About halfway through the track is a mini acoustic session that is a confusing break from the previous progression, but segways nicely into the remaining two minutes. Using acoustic guitar parts and drowned out synth as a build up and the reintroduction of electric guitar and drums is made possible by the consistent nature of the straight-forward vocals, which tie the tracks together where they otherwise would have fallen apart.
Bad Reed released the Bad Reed EP on June 13, 2015 and is currently available for free download (or suggested donation) on its Bandcamp. More information about the band Bad Reed is available on their website, here.
If there is a point where future meets past, and east meets west, it’s the new PALMAS album, To The Valley. Coming to headphones near you Friday, November 13, the Philly band has gathered all the metallic sounds of East Coast rock, shipped them across the country to the sandy beaches of California, and time traveled a few decades back to produce a blended sound of old school surf rock.
The album kicks off with a 30-second intro titled “Buzzcut.” The song leads with the a quick drumstick tempo-set and dives straight into the classic guitar slide all surf rock fans know and love. It’s a perfect glimpse into the album but and an even better view into what it feels like to sit in the middle of a PALMAS jam session.
From “Buzzcut,” the album moves seamlessly into the hit single “I Want To Know (Your Love),” a song that was released earlier this year and only left fans wanting more. It’s got a quick start that jumps right into the first verse then glides into a slow and melodic chorus of “I want to know, I want to know your love.” The song switches back and forth from bursts of high pitched, choppy verses to smooth choruses, and it doesn’t take more than a few seconds before there’s nothing left to do but surrender and sway back and forth.
PALMAS sticks with the slow and solid melodies for most of the album, including “Take My Hand,” where they’ve mixed things up with more chops here and there. There’s some added classic beach bash guitar, but the song has a more somber tone than the rest of its precursors. Then, just when we’ve gotten all too comfortable with the easy motion of the ocean, PALMAS surprises us with an upbeat tune that will take anyone right back to the time of dance halls, big hair and poodle skirts, in “Sweet Water.” It’s lighthearted, fun, and impossible to sit still to.
The last two tracks bring us down from the jive of a 1950’s dance hall and back to the laid back rhythm of the California coast line. “Better Guy,” full of “oos” and “ahs,” pines for romantic drives along the shore and dives into the “deep blue sea,” while “San Francisco Bay” “oos” again, this time to with the hopes of bringing a long lost love back home, to the San Francisco Bay.
The album finishes with a personal sign off from the band, which we can only image is exactly what it would feel like to be front and center at a live performance. There’s no doubt PALMAS has mastered what it means to be a 21st century nostalgic surf rock band. In To The Valley, they have found a way to not only rejuvenate the timeless sound that inspired so many before them, but they make it all their own along the way. To The Valley marks a new era for PALMAS and classic rock lovers everywhere, and we’re sure it’s one you won’t want to miss.
Girl-pop is getting a makeover. Athens singer and songwriter Jianna Justice is cultivating a sound that stands entirely on its own, starting with her act Penny Lame. With only two EPs and eleven songs total, Justice hits all the right notes with a sweet voice, minimalistic and upbeat. Penny Lame, released on Nov. 4, 2015, is already a must-listen for those of any age. The tropes of teenage troubles combined with elements of sarcasm and deprecation reflect a very honest image of millennials growing up in a college town surrounded by people that may or may not be growing up with them.
Starting off with the light “Party Song”, Justice says all the things that everyone has been thinking but not saying out loud. The combination of simple pop guitar riffs and lyrics like “I’m the saddest girl at this party” set the tone for the rest of the album: sad acceptance for how things are, with resilient optimism for better things to come.
“Boys & Girls” shows playful comparisons between girls and boys, that create interesting back and forth dialogue between expectations and cold realities of young romance (or lack thereof), while being put down by the even harder reality: “that’s just how it is, cause boys and girls are just kids”.
Sounding like a stripped down Radiator Hospital, Justice is a venus of the avenue with “Penny Lame”, a personal favorite from the EP. With soft backing vocals accompanying the initial lyrics, “Penny Lame” stands out for the growing genre of girl-pop.
“Night Swimming” brings a slower and darker angle towards the pop, then “Slushies In a Target Parking Lot” picks up the pace and offers flutters of the ‘what if’s. To end the EP, “Scumbag City” is refreshing and honest. Billy and Joey do sound like scumbags, and are pretty much relatable to most of the ex-partners we’ve all had.
Without gushing on too much about how great this release is, a quick summary: Penny Lame shows the best and worst of being a teenager or young adult, while navigating that line between growing up and staying young. Penny Lame strikes a chord not just because it’s catchy as hell, but because it’s chronicling a place we’ve all been.
Calling the St. Louis band Foxing an indie band doesn’t even begin to do them justice. Starting from humble beginnings in 2010, Foxing released their first album The Albatross in 2013 and was immediately put on artist radar. The Albatross was a success, with notable favorites from the album being “The Medic” and “Rory”. Their sound can be described as many different things, but I like to group them in with what I call “New Wave Emo”, which combines elements of math rock, emo and post-rock with additional instruments that aren’t the typical guitar and drums. Foxing fits right in with the likes of The World Is A Beautiful Place, Algernon Cadwallader and The Hotelier, all of which have claimed stakes in the Emo Revival of the 2000s.
Dealer, the second studio album by Foxing, is bound to follow the same standard set by The Albatross, meaning more punches of emotion and more lyric confessionals. Dealer also brings forth a heavier, darker sound than prior recordings. The album carries a weight that guarantees the listener will remember it afterwards.
“The Magdalene” was released ahead of the album, and it was met with praise. Foxing tackles the intricacies and difficulties of balancing religion and human impulses. Conor Murphy elevates his falsetto to higher heights and keeps it bouncing up and down with the bopping guitar riffs. For such a pretty voice, it’s ironic that the lyrical content is so dark. Met about halfway through the track with soft choruses in the background, guitars and drums take over allowing a harsher, more in-your-face tone for the remainder of the track.
“The Magdalene” can be used to summarize Dealer in the best of ways: it starts off with smooth and concrete vocals with instruments slowly inkling into the mix, but never diluting what Murphy has to express. Although the album starts off sounding similar to The Albatross, it changes about halfway into something completely new. With more ballads and less filler songs, Foxing is blending into an all-consuming sound that hits home runs more than it strikes out. The changing sound allows Foxing to explore a new territory with Dealer that it hasn’t done before: a surreal, existential side. While still retaining the heart-breaking depths shown in The Albatross, Dealer manages to have moments of tenderness, self-revelations and gut-wrenching pain.
Dealer was released on Oct. 30, 2015 and is available for $8 download on Bandcamp.
“I bet those blink,” my lady-friend and I muttered to one another, pointing at the giant JR JR letters that provided the backdrop to an otherwise barren stage. This was just the second in a string of underestimations about the Detroit-hailing, genre-defying (Dale Earnhardt) JR JR. My first misconception came long before I arrived at the Teragram Ballroom that night.
About a month before the show I learned that Josh Epstein and Daniel Zott, the talented team that comprises Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr, were trimming the bearded racecar driver from their name in favor of the shorter, simpler moniker, JR JR. Initially, I was worried that the name change signified a shift from their Indie roots to a more mainstream, marketable bubblegum pop. I don’t know why I was so worried about a name change. Maybe it was because I, like many others, was drawn first to the name before being moved by the music.
I set out to do some research on the name change… and when I say research I mean a light, leisurely Google browse. I found that the band penned a letter in regards to the name change and posted it on their official website. In the note, they talk about why they chose the name in the first place:
“Band names are a weird thing to begin with, but we figured if we named our band Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr there would be no expectations for what we were meant to sound like. Something that bizarre would just have to be listened to and judged without preconception.”
This is exactly what drew me to JR JR. How could I not check out a band named after this guy… But it turns out that their plan worked a little too well. Their music gained well-deserved recognition and as their audience expanded, so too did the confusion revolving around their name:
“We’ve had people drive long distances to shows only to be disappointed when they realize it’s a neurotic Jew and a wild-haired gentile from Detroit they’ve paid to see. A number of times now we’ve received hope-filled inquiries from people who have dying relatives that only want to meet Dale Earnhardt Jr. (the driver) before they pass. Those sorts of interactions feel a little voyeuristic and eerie, and even attempting to simply clarify the situation means you’ve added a moment of embarrassment to someone’s day when they’re already going through a lot.”
Touché, JR JR… one way to shut up a guy who questions your name-changing intentions is to hit him with the most logical, sensitive explanation imaginable. Another way is to put out a catchy, endearing album that manages to build upon past projects… and that’s just what they did with the newly self-titled album, JR JR.
In a lot of ways, the new album is tied to time. Sure, this might seem obvious considering the first track is called “As Time Goes,” but the entire project deals with time spent, time wasted, and time wanted. Songs like “Gone” deal with the past and creeping nostalgia. In “Philip the Engineer” JR JR use a dystopian story arch in order to convey the idea that “time makes grown ups out of kids.” And then there’s the personal favorite, “James Dean,” which manages to capture catchiness while conceding that “I’m not dumb, but I’ve wasted time.”
In fact, every single track on this album (and their albums of old) somehow manages to remain incredibly catchy while dealing with meaningful things like the idea of time. It’s weird to find yourself swaying and singing along to a song about divorce (“A Haunting”), but it’s also refreshing. JR JR take heavy thoughts and emotions and balance those feelings with catchy choruses in order to capture specific moments in time. Everything they’ve done feels like an honest pursuit of artistic and emotional expression. I think that’s one of the reasons why JR JR has not only found success, but also been able to create catchy, enduring songs. It’s their honesty…
Which brings me back to the Teragram Ballroom on October 10th. Fair warning: I’ve loved JR JR since I first heard them a couple years back, but I really didn’t know what to expect from their live show outside of some inevitably amazing whistling. Needless to say, I wasn’t disappointed.
First off, I’d be a buffoon (I knew I’d be able to sneak the word ‘buffoon’ into something someday) not to mention Hippo Campus, who opened for JR JR. Their set was strong and they looked like they were having more fun than everyone. What do you do when you want an encore from the opener? Well, you write about the concert and hope that said opener sees said article and agrees to get drunk with you someday.
As the Teragram Ballroom pulsed with Hippo Campus’ energy, I noticed how much it reminded me of 40 Watt Club in Athens. Before the Athenian nostalgia set in too hard those JR JR letter lights started doing far more than “blinking,” as Josh, Daniel, and the band took to the stage, opening with “As Time Goes.” I was blown away by both the sound quality and the light show. I mean I really can’t express how much I underestimated those damn letter lights.
JR JR weaved their way through new material as well as old. They had the whole room dancing during songs and laughing in between. At some point after their cover of Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” but before they highlighted the different Detroits (Kid Rock, Insane Clown Posse, Eminem, and them), I realized that JR JR is able to do what they do not solely because they’re talented, but because they’re honest and passionate. It’s who they are, and it shows on stage as well as on their albums.
Not to get too “Hallmark-y” here, but it’s pretty rare to find a band that creates catchy songs that actually say something of worth. Don’t get me wrong, bubblegum pop has its place, but I’ll forever prefer the sweet, soulful sounds of JR JR. After a brief exit from the stage, JR JR answered the crowd’s calls for an encore. They returned wearing these incredible jackets. As they ended the night with “Nothing But Our Love,” it was clear that that’s exactly what they had from the tightly packed audience at the Teragram Ballroom.
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Ryn Weaver at ACL Weekend 2. All photos by Ellie Alonzo, Austere Magazine
There was something for everyone at Zilker Park last weekend for Austin City Limits, and I don’t just mean musically. It was it’s own small city. In addition to the seven stages of music, there was a massive Beer Hall with sports playing on big screens, a shopping area with booths selling everything from local art to wet wipes, a bocce ball court, a record store, a farmers market, a Plinko Parlor, a huge spread of food options, free-standing bars (too many), and free water filling stations (not enough). There was lots of space to throw down a blanket or a chair and watch shows from afar, and also chair-free zones in front of every stage to make sure those that wanted to push in front had a chance to do so. Basically if you weren’t having a good time, you were doing it wrong.
The music was diverse as well, with artists ranging from Sturgill Simpson to Nero to Vance Joy to Modest Mouse. The folks organizing the line up did well to take those diversities into consideration, not putting too many conflicting acts in the same time time slots and making it easy to curate your own experience without having to miss much. That is, if you were willing to hustle. And ladies and gents, I certainly was willing to hustle.
Arriving a tad late on Friday (I have a real job, too) my first full set was Billy Idol’s. He didn’t waste much time getting right to what everyone wanted to hear with “Dancing With Myself” coming second to “Postcards from the Past,” which was also pretty appropriate. I posted on Facebook a comment about Billy looking good for 95 (turns out he’s actually 59) but the open shirt look was brave, very brave. I actually preferred to watch the woman on the side platform signing the set for the hearing impaired. She was getting it. And props to ACL for having that accommodation.
Straight on over to the Miller Lite stage for Run the Jewels, who absolutely killed it, as one would expect. I swear they are a modern Beastie Boys… only better. It’s in the way they play off of each other; makes it an assault to the ears twice the intensity of what either one could do on their own, and I mean that in a good way.
Tame Impala’s set was on point as well. It’s always interesting to see psychedelic music recreated live; sounds that just don’t sound natural coming from the instruments you see on stage. I imagine Tame Impala as wizards with wands, not real people playing real instruments. It was a breezy and pleasant show and the songs literally sounded straight off the album. Not too much creativity or unexpectedness, but they executed well.
Flosstradamus, on the other hand, was obnoxious. Plain obnoxious. From the massive platform they were performing on to the crowd their music appealed to… just the music itself. I watched from the top of the hill and still got assaulted “with love” by some girl obviously on more drugs than she knew how to handle. Maybe trap music just isn’t for me, because people were certainly having a good time. But no thanks.
So thank god Disclosure happened immediately after, and of course put on amazing performance. I had hoped they would bring out Lion Babe considering she was set to perform on Sunday and is a featured vocalist on Caracal. They came through. No Lorde appearance, but “Magnets” got a stellar reaction. All their new material went over well, actually. Their visual set up was stunning and they displayed both class and talent on stage.
It was really an easy choice for me between this and Foo Fighters, who were performing at the same time on the other side of the park, but I did swing by on my way out and the crowd for Foo Fighters was difinitively larger. Lots of mistakes were made that night.
Day two began, for me, with Milo Greene. It was early in the day, hot, and on a big stage with no shade, so it was not the most pleasant show of the weekend, but they always sound good. Really good. Heck, I had to see them twice at SXSW this year. The group share vocal duties so there’s no real “lead singer” which creates a dynamic experience both on their record and in a live setting.
I took a break to chat with the boys from Beat Connection (interview to be posted soon) before heading back out to catch San Fermin and Ryn Weaver. As I tend to do at these things, when two (or three or four) acts that I want to see are playing at the same time I do my best to get there for some of each, and ACL’s stage set up made it fairly easy to do so, assuming you’re not lugging a bunch of crap, with a huge group of people, or absurdly out of shape.
San Fermin had driven through the night to get here and were rolling on just a couple hours of sleep but you would never have known it. This ensemble is always on point, and always bring the right amount of intensity, energy, and emotion. If you’re not familiar yet, this is a group you need to know. They make excellent chamber pop with two equally talented vocalists in Allen Tate and Charlene Kaye backed by live drums, horns, and strings, all composed by the ultra-talented Ellis Ludwig-Leone directing the unit from behind his keys.
Ryn Weaver was also out to impress, with a very healthy crowd for her early set at the Homeaway stage. The mood felt a bit somber as I was approaching, but “Promises” was the first full song I heard of her set and she nailed it. At one point she stopped to talk to the crowd about how festivals should about being there with people and not just on your phone, and asked everyone to turn around and introduce themselves to two people they didn’t come with. The group all obliged and it was a nice sentiment. She closed the set with her hit “OctaHate” followed by “New Constellations,” a song she described to be about never settling. It seems she had some messages to impart, and the people we eating them up.
Father John Misty wasted no time getting engaged with crowd on opening number “Honeybear”. I mean literally engaged; he got into the crowd. But I think it was the photographers in the pit that mauled him more than the sea of fans. Rude. He was dressed in all black and the sun was still out but he paid no mind, moving all over the stage up and down off of equipment and his knees and stepping to the front of the state to show off his dance moves. He turned what could quiet bedroom music into something festival-worthy and it was no less than impressive.
I caught a minute of MisterWives, who had a notably young crowd which appreciated their cover of “I Can’t Feel My Face” much more than Michael Jackson’s “Pretty Young Thing.” When they played “Reflections” I was at first really impressed at the amount of people singing along before I realized most of them didn’t really know the words, they were just making sounds to the tune of what she was singing. Then I left.
As the sun began to set on Zilker Park, Unknown Mortal Orchestra won my heart. Maybe part of it was being in the shaded area under the Austin Ventures stage, but I no longer felt the need to run off to another show after a few songs. At one point frontman Ruban Nielson climbed on top of the speaker stack and onto the scaffolding and one of the stage hands nearly had a heart attack trying to make sure nothing came crashing down. Totally felt for him, but it also kind of cracked me up.
I made up my mind to get close enough to actually see TV on the Radio amongst the sea of people in front of the Miller Lite stage and was thankful that I did. Their set started slowly but with a toss of his tambourine and a sudden spark of lights, Tunde Adebimpe had the crowd screaming. I stayed for most of this set but was somewhat curious to see what Bassnectar was like, so headed over to Homeaway, which was I think the most easily-crowded stages. It just couldn’t handle the same mass of people that Miller, Honda, and Samsung could, yet it seems a lot of the acts booked there pulled large enough crowds for the bigger stages. I digress. Going to Bassnectar was a mistake. Probably would have been good if I had been on drugs, but nope.
So as I’m walking back towards TV on the Radio, I am nearly run over by a man storming out of the crowd at the Austin Ventures stage. He’s followed by both a security guard and a cameraman and I assumed this was a fan getting ejected. There was still music playing so I walked towards the stage and asked someone what was going on. That guy that stormed past me? That was Boots. He had made quite an exit.
deadmau5 closed out the night displaying a brand new stage set up referred to as “The Dome” which he debuted earlier this year at Governors Ball. The press materials refer to it as “state-of-the-art, never-before-seen design encompassing future technology.” That just sounds like a bunch of words to me, but it was a good looking set up for sure. The set was strong, with classics like “Ghosts N Stuff” and “Some Chords” mixed in with newer material that this old lady wasn’t familiar with.
There was no Drake on my agenda that night, sorry not sorry.
The festival grounds were progressively more populated each day, and on Sunday the whole place was packed with blankets and chairs by 2pm. My worst conflict of the weekend was Beat Connection and Marian Hill playing at the exact same time on opposite ends of the park for that 2pm slot. I was able to catch some of both, but was VERY torn having to leave one to go to the other. More on both of these acts in our interviews forthcoming.
Daughter, all the way from the UK, played a beautiful set in the sweltering afternoon sun but I bet they were wishing for that London overcast sky. As with Father John Misty, you may think this music isn’t necessarily cut out for a festival atmosphere, but their sound was huge and inviting and pulled in quite the crowd of people entering the festival grounds. Hearing them play “Smother” was certainly my most introspective point of the weekend. Hell, that whole set had me all emotional.
I turned around to catch the beginning of BØRNS on the bordering Honda stage. As I was literally counting the minutes until they would begin and take my mind off the heat, a tiny cloud covered the sun and the crowd burst out into cheers. I thought that BØRNS had come on stage, but nope, they were cheering for the brief moment of shade.
A bit later, as I was approaching Sylvan Esso, I hear Amelia Meath say something about needing to move through the set quickly because they had lost a lot of time. I asked someone what had happened and the explanation that I got was “she was just telling jokes and stuff.” This seemed strange to me but it wasn’t until later that I found out Nick Sanborn’s laptop had overheated, which made much more sense. Regardless of any trouble, their set was amazing. Meath is so commanding on stage and Nick Sanborn is, as quoted by Meath, “a wizard” with his production. We were treated to some new material which absolutely RAGES and appeased with the hits “Hey Mami” and “Coffee.” Despite any technical difficulties, this set was flawless.
If I didn’t already love Tito’s Vodka (and I do), I would have been made a fan as I paid my first visit to their covered stage for Classixx. It was a smaller stage, hidden behind the market area, and maybe this is why it wasn’t too crowded. Or maybe everyone else was at The Decemberists or Ben Howard. Either way, I was able to stand close without fighting for breathing room. It felt more like a club show than any I’d seen so far and it was well appreciated. I didn’t get to hear some of my favorites of theirs, but they did cover/sample Yacht’s “Psychic City” which was pretty great.
The moment that I did catch of The Decemberists was Colin Meloy directing the crowd to sing back his “oh-ee-oh-ee-oh-ee-oh’s” first as a group, then as all the girls, then as all the guys, then as all the girls as guys, then as all the guys as girls, and so on. He ended the little sing along with a statement that “gender roles are just a social construct.” Thank you, Colin!
I had no choice but to watch Alt-J from the middle of a huge sea; I was literally engulfed. One moment I was standing in “safety” with plenty of space around me, well to the side and back and quite far from the stage. As the show went on it became more and more crowded and I was shuffled into the masses, sucked in. While I was annoyed and uncomfortable at first, it was actually a fitting experience for my last show of the weekend. I was able to see the performance without an agenda and enjoy it with the people around me. Some guy headbutted me and made up for it by offering me his blunt. Why not? Alt-J were engaging and simply stunning. They created a haunting visual experience and executed the songs perfectly. This was the opposite of a rager and it was perfect.
Being the square that I am, I left after this. Yeah… I skipped Florence and The Weeknd. Yes, I would have liked to see them. No, it was not worth fighting the crowds out of there. Again, sorry not sorry.
