With the third and final day of Austin City Limits Music Festival (ACL) upon us, we rose early to reflect on the past two days of live music and review what transpired in the first 24 hours of Austin's 10 year-old festival. A number of timely events occurred this weekend benefiting festival goers and the city of Austin.
It rained. Yes, that wet, slippery stuff fell from the sky early afternoon both Friday and Saturday, holding temperatures down and keeping the 70,000 plus concert-goers cooler than they would have been otherwise. While folks were trying to decide whether to haul out their umbrellas or not, a ton of great music was played on stage. Let's get to the reviews and talk about what happened:
We made our first stop of the day on Friday at the Do 512 Lounge to see Cowboy and Indian followed by the North Mississippi All-Stars. Cowboy and Indian are a folk-americana group from Austin that has been getting some media attention in the past year. After seeing their trio of female vocalists harmonizing with the players, we can see why. Their lush, beautiful arrangements with an accompanying electric violin have a lot to do with their success on the local music scene.
The North Mississippi All-Stars are veteran festival performers. Seeing the blues trio inside the tiny Do 512 Lounge was a treat after seeing the band play on larger stages previously. Brothers, Luther (guitar, vocals) and Cody Dickinson (drums) along with Chris Chew (bass) form a formidable group who plays blues-rock jams. Luther has a deep, soulful voice and delivers a punch with his guitar. Add Chew laying down mean, lean bass lines along with Cody steady on the drums and you get what can only be described as a power trio, but the Southern-rock, dipped in whiskey variety. Their short, four song set was a pleasing way to warm up for the acts playing on the larger stages later in the day.
Beardyman's (Darren Foreman) bombastic, electro-beatbox set at the BMI Stage on Friday was possibly the surprise set of the festival. The UK performer had the early afternoon crowd jumping up and down to his electronic soundscapes. He had several Koss synth pads wired together to loop his own voice and a sophistocated pedal system similar to a guitarist's pedals along with a computer and turntable.
Afterwards we spoke to Foreman who said it would be easier to simply pre-record mixes to cue during his show, but prefers to create a mix live, giving each audience a slightly different take on his music. It's that approach to performing that helps set Beardyman apart from his peers. Several ACL veterans in the media lounge mentioned Beardyman's set to us, saying they had not heard his music prior to Friday but were now fans.
Each year, we plan to see many shows at Austin's largest music festival, but logistics, fatigue and spontaneity often dictate where we end up. Friday, we finished our day at Zilker Park much how we started the day, with an Austin act. This time it was Gary Clark Jr., the local, blues guitarist who makes regular appearances at Antone's downtown.
Clark's band turned in a rollicking performance, getting the audience swinging with a classic, blues band sound. The booming rythmn section took control of the pace, rocking heads and hips alike. Though we have seen Clark perform in Austin numerous times, seeing the man work a large crowd from backstage made a favorable impression. He was our suprise hit performer of the day.
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