Day 3 recap: The girl never called - I guess I can take a hint now..... Jack Ingram - really good downhome singer/songwriter. I like his style. Good rocking tunes overall. G. Love and Special Sauce - I dont care how many people love this guy I just really dont think he is really all that. Dude can play harmonica pretty well, but for chrissake get off your chair and sing standing up for more than 1/2 the show. Kind of a tool if you ask me. Jack Johnson - Like watching Mister Rodgers put on his sweater everyday. Good songs..... just go buy his CD's. Live performance is a yawner unless you like to see someone sway back and forth for an hour. Ben Harper - Stole the show for the day. Dude has mad skills and rolled out a sweet jam with Robert Randolph in the middle of the set. Not to mention the killer backup band he has...... REM - Great performance but a little lengthy on the enchore. I really liked the 3 new tunes though. Sounds alot like their older stuff....
Saturday- Dandy Warhols - Lots of energy, lots of fun. Some of the new stuff was really good. "Bohemian Like You" still hasn't gotten old. It's in my head right now. (Wait - thats another thread ) Mason Jennings - My first time hearing him, but many people had told me to check him out. He has been compared to Bob Dylan and Paul Simon, but I'd consider him John Mayer-ish. Overall, some refreshing tunes. Could be someone to watch for. Robert Randolph and the Family Band - Everything the above posters said about them is true. Awesome. Bright Eyes - Nice change of pace. I loved it, but I'm a fan. Abra Moore - She was great: nice voice, talented, and beautiful. Nickel Creek - Yes Vengeance, Sara Watkins is beautiful. Between the girl from Dandy Warhols, Abra, and her, I fell in love 3 times Saturday. NC was presented with a gold record before the set. You couldn't help but smile seein Chris Thile jump up and down when they were receiving it. The rendition of "Lighthouse" with covers of "I am trying to Break Your Heart" and Coldplay's "Yellow" was the highlight for me. Michael Franti and Spearhead - I had never heard of them before the show. I used to think that no one could compare with the Roots in terms of talent in Hip-Hop, but Spearhead could give them a run for their money. Great beats, Great lyrics, great energy, great message. String Cheese Incident - Weird but talented. I enjoy it for some reason. Sunday- I left the H. G.s of Bob Schneider to go see... The Shins - They were great, certainly living up to the endosement made by the Danday Warhols' lead singer when he said, "Go see the Shins. They're the best band in America." Just lots and lots of music, and it was evident that they were having a blast. G. Love and Special Sauce - Starting with Jack Johnson guesting on a couple songs and ending with "Cold Beverage", with tons of fun in the middle. The guys know how to throw a party. Oh yeah, "The P*$$y Song" was fun. Ben Kweller - Sang the entire album "Sha-Sha", since it was the last stop of his promotional tour. One of my favorite albums. Jack Johnson - My idol. The man can do no wrong. The crowd just laps up his every action. Played stuff from both albums, smiling the whole time. G. Love returned the favor and guested on Jack's stage, only intensifying the fun. By the way, the hot girl count at his stage could give Bob Schneider a run for his money. O.A.R. - My favorite of the Jam performances. Especially "Anyway" and "That Was a Crazy Game of Poker". They just let loose. Ween - See "String Cheese Incident". Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals - "Forever" brought a tear to my eye. His cover of "Sexual Healing" melding into "Let's Get it On" made me wish even more that I had a girlfriend. "Burn One Down" oozed energy. R.E.M. - My first time seeing them. I got to the stage early and stood about 20 feet away straight center. Their performance reminded me why they are one of my favorite bands. The biggest production of the Festival. Introduced by the mayor and Lance Armstrong. Played old stuff and a couple new songs that I enjoyed as well. Can't wait until their new CD comes out. Overall- People I had never heard of that I will look out for - Alexi Murdoch (Orange Sky is one of the most beautiful songs ever written), Mason Jennings, Michael Franti and Spearhead. Performers I want to marry (in no particular order) - Liz Phair, Abra Moore, Sara Watkins, Zia from the Dandy Warhols. Underrated - Cody ChestnuTT, The Shins
i missed the entire Ben Harper set b/c i was stumbling aroung looking for bathrooms, ATM's, and food. as i headed back towards his stage near the end of his set, i finally run into my friends who are actually leaving his show to get good seats for CCR! even as "Burn One Down" was jamming! WTF is that all about!!!! i'm gonna go kill myself now. oh yeah, Jack Johnson kicked a$$ but O.A.R. disappointed (other than "Crazy Game of Poker.") the last few G. Love songs i managed to see rocked as well, especially when the drummer called out some girl in the crowd during "pu$$y song."
my day 3 review shins-heard their album a couple times and liked it. good country tinged rock. well done, but didnt get me too excited. soulive-i dont like jam-band music and this is why. lucinda williams-not a huge fan, but she was really good. if the country music industry didnt have its head up its ass her and emmy lou harris would be the queens of that genre. polyphonic spree-ive seen them at least 25 times now and they never cease to amaze me. a very "up with people" experience. think of the brady bunch on acid. 20 something people in white robes jumping up and down and dancing. horn section sounded tighter than i have ever heard. these guys will be huge soon-trust me. yo la tengo-not the best ive ever seen them, but good none the less. kind of like a punk rock velvet underground if you dont know them. my gripe was that they really stretched out their songs, some seemed to go for like 10 minutes. played alot of slower tunes. i like the noisy rock w/ guitar squalls. ween-awesome as always. they love playing austin and it shows. they always give it all when they are here. they really rocked out some of their songs. played lots of older stuff. beth orton-i love all her albums and seeing her live is cool, but i wish she would have had a back-up band just to make it more interesting. either way, she is a great songwriter and singer and it was neat to hear the tunes stripped down like that. rem-fabulous. played lots of older material (pre 91). opened w/ finest worksong into begin the begin. played fall on me, world leader pretend and closed w/ its the end of the world as we know it. not a fan of their 90's stuff, but some of those newer tunes did indeed sound like old rem. all in all it was better than last year. my one complaint is that they shouldnt allow chairs anywhere near the stage. people would set up their little blanket and chair 40 feet from the front of the stage and expect to be able to sit down for the show. this dumb woman called me an ******* cause i was standing infront of her while her fat husband was trying to sit down in his chair and "enjoy" lucinda. i wasnt even on her blanket, but the 2 feet of grass infront of her, which she expected to be clear for the show. i told her to look around at all the people and than look how much space she was taking up w/ her blanket all spread out. i tried to explain how the "general admission" concept works. you see and open space, you take it. she said "well weve been here since 11 this morning." i said, well you should have moved up. anyway, for the whole show her and her husband were really mad and b****ing the whole time. i just ignored them and had a great time. those kinds of people shouldnt be going to festivals. just stay home next year. b****ing complete...
agreed... people try do this at the jazzfest in New Orleans with minimal success. General admission is a freakin' free for all, get over it blanket people!!
Truer words have yet been spoken. Easily the highpoint of an amazing weekend for me, also got to see him jam with a couple of other bands. Seeing String Cheese play Another Brick in the Wall with the actual pig flying around was just about the coolest as well. http://www.austin360.com/music/content/music/aclfest2003/xlacl_21_pig.html From the Statesman: "Two arrests were reported Saturday...renowned street person Leslie Cochran was arrested for charges that were unclear at presstime." Too funny. Dude was wearing a pink thong, got a cool pic of my friend Jenny with the guys thongass right over her shoulder. Bands I saw all/some of & enjoyed (* denotes superkickasshappygoodtime): Johnny Cash Tribute Asleep at the Wheel *The Charlie Hunter Trio Cross Canadian Ragweed *Del Castillo *Karl Denson's Tiny Universe Drive By Truckers Steve Earle & the Dukes ***Michael Franti & Spearhead ***G. Love & Special Sauce The Gourds Al Green Wayne Hancock ***Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals Jack Ingram Mason Jennings **Jack Johnson Robert Earl Keen Kings of Leon Los Lonely Boys ***North Mississippi Allstars Old 97’s ***Robert Randolph & the Family Band Rebirth Brass Band REM Josh Ritter Bruce Robison Soulive **String Cheese Incident Ween *Keller Williams Yo La Tengo DwightYoakam *Yonder Mountain String Band Much props to the event organizers, staff & attendees, everything ran smooth as hell & I notice no big problems, fights, idiots, or general unpleasantness. Cold beer, cool people, tasty happy hydro, girls, girls girls. Definite good times.
Austin City Limits Music Festival: The Fans They interview some of the fans from around the country, and a few tunes ... http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kut/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=548534
