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ACL Fest Day 1 Recap
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John Legend was among the highlights of the first day of Austin City Limits Festival.
What a day it was for the first day of ACL Fest. Before the pouring rain came in on Saturday, Friday featured cool temps, overcast skies, and some of the best musicians going giving festivalgoers exactly what they wanted.
Here are some highlights of Day 1 from ACL Fest...
Phoenix: After catching these guys' solid set on Saturday Night Live last season, had to see them firsthand. Only caught about half of it, do to some travel issues, but one things these guys do well is entertain. A solid set with pulse-pounding beats, thriving guitars, and hipsters galore.
John Legend: By far the best performance I saw on Friday night. Not being really familiar with Legend's music, I expected something like a male Alicia Keys -- solid piano skills, great music, but very subdued. Um, not so much. After opening with Bob Marley's "Redemption Song" (a personal fave), Legend segued right into his own catalog, complete with hits like "Ordinary People." Great band, great choreography, exceptional backup singers, and even matching all-black attire wardrobe. Legend earned a fan on Friday night.
Them Crooked Vultures: Great show, though the band's lack of any commercial material made it tough to differentiate one song from the next. Even so, this felt like a rock show. Loud-ass guitars, Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme on vocals, Dave "I'm In 9 Bands" Grohl on drums, and legend John Paul Jones in the fold as well. Solid one-hour set, and I'm hoping the band gets together in recording some more materials.
Kings of Leon: Blah. First off ,we were pretty far back from the stage, and the sound wasn't great. But there's something about these guys that just turns me off. Maybe it's the arrogance -- "We're not going anywhere, so you may not like us, but you'd better learn to love us," one KOL member said during Friday night's headlining set -- or maybe it's the fact that their music isn't original. Either way, these guys just don't do it for me. Maybe I'm just too old, or maybe I was just bummed that the Beastie Boys had to bow out (though for a very good reason), but either way, here's hoping next year's Friday night opener is a little less "flavor of the month-ish."
More to come later...
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