Austin City Limits Festival 2015, Weekend 2, Day 1

Event: Austin City Limits Festival 2015, Weekend 2, Day 1

Venue: Zilker Park

Location: Austin, Texas

Date: 9 October 2015

Introduction: Yet again, I couldn't resist going to ACL even though I was entirely unexcited by all the headliners. In fact, this time, there weren't even many second- or third-tier acts that I was interested in. Still, after the good time I had last year, I figured it would be worth picking one day and making the most if it. Of course, the day I decided upon was Friday, which is annoying in that I had to take off work to go. Nonetheless, I went for it.

I am unashamed to admit that the main draw for me was Tame Impala, even though I just saw them earlier this year at Levitation. I was also excited to see Songhoy Blues again, whom I had caught earlier this year at SXSW. However, a few weeks before the event, I noticed that they were no longer on the schedule. I can't find any information about their disappearance except for this similarly disappointed Reddit thread.

I started my day off with The London Souls. On record, this guitar-and-drums duo sounded like straight classic rock throwbacks with a giant debt owed to Led Zeppelin and maybe The Beatles. On stage, they came off much rawer and even tighter. They were unexpectedly almost punky, but they held their act together far better than most could. Both musicians are incredibly expressive with their instruments. They just kept throwing in little surprises and clever riffs, so the music was always groovy yet captivating in its detail. All the extra touches really held my attention, but one could also opt to just lean back and enjoy the instruments in lock step. The downside is that their lyrics are completely devoid of originality. These are great players, and they both have good voices, but the main draw is the rock, not the words.

[The London Souls.]

Next up was Wolf Alice, an exclusive to Weekend 2. I was attracted by a slight psychedelic edge to their music, which manifested live as fitting in somewhere between dream pop and The Sisters of Mercy, but seemingly without the deliberate campiness. The heavy reverb and delayed space guitars worked in their favor, but a tendency for bland songwriting and awkward vocals did not. They occasionally attained great moments but mostly settled for a standard issue poppy metal/heavy rock vibe. There were some good riffs and sounds, but something was missing to take it to the next level. It didn't help that Cherub's crappy electronic beats wafted over from the Miller Light stage to distract from the experience. The setlist is available here.

[Wolf Alice.]

I was then caught at a crossroads between two bands I was interested in, so I split the difference and saw some of both. First I saw most of Billy Idol's set. The full setlist has been posted online:

01. Postcards from the Past

02. Dancing with Myself [originally performed with Generation X]

03. Can't Break Me Down
04. Flesh for Fantasy
05. Eyes Without a Face
06. Ready Steady Go [originally performed with Generation X]
07. Blue Highway
08. Rebel Yell
09. White Wedding
10. Mony Mony [Tommy James & the Shondells cover]

I've never been a great Idol fan; I find his music catchy and likable but not especially meaningful or especially attractive. I do, however, appreciate that his music has a touch of deliberately over-the-top excess. His performance is absurd and yet the audience is complicit. He's something of a punk, but he makes few excuses about his music really being just good time rock 'n' roll, only slightly heavier, dirtier, and weirder. (This of course is discounting his awful but visionary Cyberpunk album from 1993.) On stage he just played to expectations. Guitarist Steve Stevens was less of a showboat than some, but the band did everything else they could to live up to a rock 'n' roll fantasy. I almost started cracking up when Idol took his shirt off.

I trekked across the entire park grounds to get to the other side to see the last few songs from Leon Bridges. Hailing from Fort Worth, this guy seemed to come out of nowhere and instantly start rising. He is very rooted in old school traditions of soul, R&B, and gospel. His strong voice is well suited to his retro style. The band's performance was tight, consistent, groovy, and solid, but his lyrics were fairly basic. It was easy to forgive, but it would help if he played a bit less by the numbers.

While enjoying some amazing Korean BBQ Tofu Tacos from Chi'lantro, I caught a few songs from Moon Taxi on the nearby Austin Ventures stage, but it was so generic that I can't remember anything of note from what I saw and heard. It was some type of indie or emo thing, but it didn't do anything for me.

I then camped out for Tame Impala, holding my spot despite unceasing surges and rushes of the crowd. I've never seen so many people try to squeeze in where there was obviously no room for them. This was also the only time during the day that I saw people smoking despite the ban. Anyway, here's the setlist:

01. Intro Jam

02. Let It Happen

03. Mind Mischief

04. Why Won't They Talk to Me?

05. The Moment

06. Elephant

07. The Less I Know the Better

08. 'Cause I'm a Man

09. Why Won't You Make Up Your Mind?

10. Unknown Jam

11. Feels Like We Only Go Backwards

12. Apocalypse Dreams

I thought Tame Impala's 80-minute headlining, show-closing set at Levitation earlier this year was incredible. I gave it a rare A+. It was everything I could have wanted and more: it rocked, it was psychedelic, they jammed all over the place, they threw in curveballs and surprises, the visuals were good, and they debuted a fairly good new song. I wished it had gone on longer, but that's just the nature of festival appearances.

This time around, they didn't even play a full hour, and there were no surprises at all. The only curious part was a brief jam near the end. In fact, excluding the songs from the new album, Currents, every other song was also played at Levitation in the same order! Sure, these are great songs that I've come to love over the past couple years, but it just seemed like they weren't really trying. The new songs were a mixed bag; "Let It Happen" is fairly good, and the bassline to "The Less I Know the Better" is enough to sell me on the song right there, but "The Moment" didn't quite work, and "'Cause I'm a Man" fared even worse. The only reason I can tolerate that song at all is the subtle lyrical shift near the end to "I'm a human", but a subtlety like that was entirely lost in the shuffle of the live performance.

The keyboards and bass were right on the mark, but the guitars, apart from being more subdued in general considering the material, were not up to par, and nor were Kevin's vocals. The psychedelia was mostly absent in favor of a more lightweight electronic dance vibe. It was still good, but not magical. It felt short, like I was waiting for the big moment, but it never came. It didn't help that the crowd was pushy and rowdy and that someone was drunkenly singing along off-key whenever they could half-remember the words.

[Tame Impala.]

After that slight disappointment, I went to see George Ezra, a singer-songwriter somewhere between soul, folk, and light blues. He has an incredible voice with a theatrical level of expression. His music was pleasant but unsophisticated. It was clean cut and smoothed of any uneven edges. It came off just a bit fragile and lifeless, which was only exacerbated by the awful electronic beats coming from Flosstradmus' set at the nearby Miller Light stage. I knew it was my cue to leave when he started into "Girl from the North Country". He sounded quite a bit more straight pop than I had been expecting.

I bailed and headed over to catch most of Gary Clark Jr.'s set. His setlist has been posted online:

01. When My Train Pulls In
02. Bright Lights
03. Stay
04. Hold On

05. Cold Blooded
06. Our Love

07. Grinder
08. Ain't Messin' 'Round
09. Travis County
10. Church
11. The Healing

Clark plays a bluesy rock with a bit of groove and funk. His lyrics were unimaginative, but the vocals were clearly secondary to his guitar, anyway. I know he's from Austin and I'm supposed to like him, but I just didn't find his performance very special. Most of his set featured Hard Proof, or at least their horns players (including my former landlord!), which was definitely a highlight. During "Travis County", Clark handed his guitar to a friend to finish out the closing guitar solo, and he brought out his sisters to sing along for "Church", although they unfortunately didn't add much. Clark was a good performer and played decent tunes, but the set just didn't take off like I might have hoped.

[Gary Clark Jr. with members of Hard Proof.]

The closing headliners of the night were Foo Fighters and Disclosure, neither of which held any appeal for me. I sat around for a few songs by Foo Fighters – enough to see Dave Grohl in his bizarre throne – but I just couldn't get interested. The setlist is available here. On my way out, I caught a few minutes of Disclosure's uninspired electronic beats. I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to like in their performance and so I left early.

Scores:

The London Souls: B+

Wolf Alice: B-

Billy Idol: C

Leon Bridges: B

Moon Taxi: D

Tame Impala: B-

George Ezra: C-

Gary Clark Jr.: C+

Final Thoughts: This was probably the most middling festival experience I've had yet. The band I was most excited about didn't deliver like I was hoping, the band I was second-most excited about was canceled, and no other band was truly exceptional. I saw several acts that put on a good performance, but left little under the surface. The one actual blast from the past, Billy Idol, was fine, but not really up my alley. I had a good enough time, but now I'm wondering if I had picked the wrong day solely because I was drawn so strongly by Tame Impala.

Another issue was sound bleeding over from one stage to another. Twice when I saw bands at the Austin Ventures stage (Wolf Alice and George Ezra), it seemed like the volume was lower than whatever electronic garbage was coming from the nearby Miller Light stage. In both cases, their lower-key moments and nuances were lost to the incessant synthetic bass drum. It overpowered their sound and their spirit. I know that volume levels at major events on public grounds in Austin have recently come under new ordinances, but it seemed like there was still some work to do about managing and balancing the levels between stages.

South by Southwest Music Festival 2015, Day 3, Part 2

Event: South by Southwest Music Festival 2015, Day 3: Levitation Showcase

Venue: Hotel Vegas (outside stage)
Location: Austin, Texas
Date: 19 March 2015

Introduction: As previously mentioned, I've split this day into two parts, and this post will cover my evening spent at Hotel Vegas. Levitation, previously known as the Austin Psych Fest, sponsored showcases all day at the venue, starting with unofficial events in the afternoon, transitioning to an official SXSW event at 7pm, and running well past 1am. They ran three or four stages (depending on how you count): two separate ones inside, and one big one outside, which was loosely split in half so that one band could set up while another was performing. It was a little weird, but it mostly worked. I stayed outside and hung out for as long as I could.

I actually got there a little before the official events commenced, so I saw the end of a set by Deerhoof. I only saw enough to know that they certainly aren't your average band. They were trying to do an audience-interactive call-and-response thing in an odd time signature with stop-start rhythms. I'm amazed that it even halfway worked.

Then came the official showcases. First up was Think No Think, an Austin power trio. They had a little too much of a bro-ish cock rock vibe for me. They were far too invested in upholding rock 'n' roll cliché. They could play reasonably well, but they stuck to standard noisy, thrashy hard rock, the kind of stuff Led Zeppelin and The Who did much better once upon a time. They were big fans of their feedback to a point of excess.

[Think No Think at Hotel Vegas.]

Golden Dawn Arkestra: This Austin band is apparently unrelated to the original 1960s Austin psychedelic band The Golden Dawn. They are, however, definitely psychedelic, but in a much, much funkier sense. I guess this is what is known as Afrobeat. This was some sort of really out-there, high-energy, post-apocalyptic, semi-mystical experience. I think there were fourteen people on stage, but it was hard to tell who counts as a member among the many people that were performing music, dancing on stage, and dancing through the audience. Everyone was dressed in some sort of cosmic outfit, there were props, there was a lot of percussion, and I think there was a heavy dose of Sun Ra influence. There were horns, there were hints of reggae, there was rhythm, and there was a lot of funk. There was also a lot of singing about unity and visions and awakening. It was great.

[Golden Dawn Arkestra at Hotel Vegas.]

Holy Wave: An El Paso psych band. These guys were very much in the traditional vein of psych rock, with hippy hair and looks to prove it. Their music was fairly straightforward but easy to enjoy. Their guitarist somehow managed to break two strings in rapid succession, which put a bit of a damper on their energy level.

[Holy Wave at Hotel Vegas.]

Merchandise: By now this band is an established favorite of mine. I can't get enough of their blend of Chameleons-style ethereality, quasi-industrial noise, and pop hooks. I was surprised to hear they were playing SXSW again, but I wasn't about to complain. Here's their setlist:

1. No You and Me

2. Little Killer

3. Green Lady

4. Anxiety's Door

5. Long noisy jam with unknown special guest [Edit 2016.03.30: Rat Bastard]

[Merchandise at Hotel Vegas.]

I still can't really figure out what was going on at the end. They started with a relatively weak song and then played three really awesome songs, so they were on a good path. But then they said they wanted to do something "special", so they brought out a guest and started some sort of dark, noisy jam. I can't even tell what the guest was doing – he was just holding some little device in his hands. Guitarist Dave Vassalotti spent most of the jam crouched down by his effects pedals, and although I couldn't see him, I think I could hear his instrument. The whole thing was very self-indulgent. At least the rest of the set had something going for it, even if Carson Cox's vocals had too much reverb and they used backing tracks in the absence of guitarist/keyboardist Chris Horn. [Edit 2016.03.30: After listening to a recording of the set, I think Cox was drunk or something.]

[Edit 2016.03.30: Merchandise with Rat Bastard.]

Moon Duo: This duo plus drummer psych/shoegaze band hail from San Francisco. They make a great space with the synth and drums, and the guitarist solos beautifully on top. There are vocals, too, but it's more likely that the listener will end up hypnotized by the music than told any sort of story. It did start to drag a tad, but on the whole I found it rather entrancing.

[Moon Duo at Hotel Vegas.]

Songhoy Blues: This is a Malian "desert rock" group, exiled from troubled northern Mali but apparently making big waves (they are the first African band signed to Atlantic since 1972!). I've reviewed other desert rock bands from Mali and Niger that played major festivals in Austin (Imarhan Timbuktu at SXSW 2014 and Bombino at Austin Psych Fest 2014), and they've all taken different approaches, generally rather successfully. Songhoy Blues might just be the best band I've seen yet in this genre. Their style was very funky, very danceable, but also with a strong rock edge. The drummer was excellent, always offering energetic, syncopated rhythms; the bassist was really funky; the singer was charismatic and enthusiastic, even if I couldn't understand his lyrics; and the lead guitarist was simply on fire. He never slowed down! He just kept tearing it up, constantly playing amazing lines of lead guitar. It was an incredible experience to behold.

[Songhoy Blues at Hotel Vegas.]

The Pop Group: Well known as the furthest thing from an actual pop group, I'm not even sure how I feel about them as a studio band. I bought Y in London in 2009 after years of hunting for it (it's never been released in the USA), but it's a bizarre album. They had three amazing singles, a few scattered other notable tracks, and a lot of extreme experimentation that wasn't always very successful or listenable, and then they broke up. Their new, post-reunion album (Citizen Zombie) has a few decent moments but is mostly not very good. I'd heard that they were best seen live, so when I saw a chance to do so, I wasn't going to pass it up. Sure enough, they delivered. Here was the setlist:

1. We Are All Prostitutes

2. Citizen Zombie

3. Thief of Fire

4. Shadow Child

5. She Is Beyond Good and Evil (cut mid-song)

Unfortunately, the band took forever to set up and soundcheck, despite the intended rapid-fire schedule set by the venue. I couldn't tell exactly what was wrong and who was on stage making demands. It seemed like someone with the venue was trying to fix a microphone feedback issue, but I think there were band associates making various complaints and demands as well. At any rate, the band took forever (relatively speaking) to hit the stage. But when they did, they did it with full force. Five aging men turned into a lurching, jagged, aggressive mass of energy. They rocked with an incredible force, as if they were struggling to contain it. They walked a line of being too much, too far, of being just about to fall apart and shatter into pieces – but they held it together as if they were strong enough to form the chaos into music.

Bassist Dan Catsis was incredible, forming the foundation of the sound with hard, angular funk. Mark Stewart's vocals were somehow surprisingly clear, even despite the mess of a soundcheck (or maybe because of it!), and the words all made sense, conveying a terrible feeling of socio-political frustration. "Thief of Fire" was a performance like I'd never seen before: brimming over, at the edge, barely contained. Even the new songs soared far above their studio counterparts. "She Is Beyond Good and Evil" was about to transcend space and time, but then suddenly the stage went dark and all sound was cut. The drums stuttered to a halt. Stewart, clearly enraged at the indignity, yelled at the sound crew to at least let them have a closing word with the audience, but the sound was not restored. Instead, spitefully, over the PA came Roy Orbison's "It's Over". Other attendees have suggested that they blew the circuit and lost power, but I am suspicious that an active role was taken by the venue.

[The Pop Group at Hotel Vegas.]

Gang of Four: The Pop Group and Gang of Four make a great double-billing: two pioneering post-punk groups with extreme political bents; sharp, angular, and funky instrumentation; and careers that rose and fell in just a couple years. While The Pop Group never reunited between their 1981 breakup and their reformation in 2010, and their membership has hardly changed over those two periods, Gang of Four have had a much more complicated history. After hemorrhaging members and quality in the early 80s, the two remaining members (vocalist Jon King and guitarist Andy Gill) have periodically revived the band with various lineups from then until now. They managed to reunite the original lineup in 2004, but this only lasted until 2006. In 2012, even King left, but Gill refused to let the band go and has still carried on, now with a replacement singer, John Sterry.

Sterry might not be King, but at least he can approximate the vocals reasonably well. Gill still plays his guitar deftly, but the whole thing looked and sounded a bit odd. Bassist Thomas McNeice and drummer Jonny Finnegan are reasonably good musicians, but one can't but notice that Gill is quite a bit older than the other members, and he seems out of place in his own band. Gill, Sterry, and McNeice kept shuffling their positions on stage and trading microphones, and bizarrely, it appeared that Gill was repeatedly pushing Sterry around. One gets the impression all is not well and cordial within the band. It doesn't help that Gill wears a constant grimacing expression of scorn.

The performance was fairly good, but the newer songs are conspicuously of lower quality than the older ones. "To Hell with Poverty!" was a highlight of the set, but "Anthrax" came out a little weird. Gill and Sterry attempted to recreate the asynchronous dual-vocal parts of the studio version, but Gill's spoken part came out choppy and inconsistent. I guess it sort of worked, as far as reinforcing the disaffection and disillusion of the song, but it certainly didn't turn out as well as the studio version. Here's the full setlist:

1. Where the Nightingale Sings

2. Not Great Men

3. I Parade Myself

4. Anthrax

5. Stranded

6. Damaged Goods

7. To Hell with Poverty!

[Gang of Four at Hotel Vegas. Gill's sneer is partially obscured by the microphone silhouette.]

Scores:

Think No Think: D

Golden Dawn Arkestra: A

Holy Wave: B

Merchandise: C-

Moon Duo: B

Songhoy Blues: A

The Pop Group: A-

Gang of Four: B-