Austin City Limits Music Festival: Wrap-Up
Toward the end of Pearl Jam’s show-closing performance, the last of their songs Eddie Vedder sang was “Alive.”
The final lyric wrapped up the show for those of us who braved through a sea of mud, which turned out to be mixed with a certain amount of sewage.
“I’m still alive”
Three days, more than 150 bands, monsoon rains and the perfectly manicured, golf-course quality grass metamorphosed into a soupy swill that rendered all footwear save for rubbers useless.
But that didn’t stop the B-52s, Arctic Monkeys, Ben Harper, Michael Franti & Spearhead, or Pearl Jam from putting on a spectacle worthy of the final day of a festival of this magnitude.
Vedder said at the beginning of Pearl Jam’s set that because he’d received so many gifts during his three days at the festival, he felt obligated to do his best to give something back in return.
Pearl Jam drew from their nearly two decades of discography to keep the beaten, mud-caked crowd on its feet and away from the horror within which those feet were planted.
Ben Harper and Perry Farrell were among special guests who joined Pearl Jam during a half hour of encores.
Pearl Jam, Flogging Molly, Michael Franti and Spearhead, The Walkmen, Arctic Monkeys and White Lies stood out this weekend.
Friday provided the finest weather this eight-year-old festival has ever seen grass laid just after last year’s event. The result was positively pastoral.
But then came the rain. Then came the realization that the very green practice of using sewage to fertilize the grass also created the very repellant realization that the mud 65,000 fans wallowed in was at least partially poop.
As I walked out of the festival, the giant Exit sign above me, Pearl Jam was just finishing their final number, a cover of Neil Young’s “Keep on Rockin’ in the Free World.”
Sometimes to do that, you have to slog through a little manure sauce.
See you next year.
Austin City Limits Music Festival: Day 2
Mother Nature struck back with a vengeance on day two of the Austin City Limits Music Festival.
Twenty-four hours the best weather this festival has ever featured, rain plagued the entire day.
But that didn’t keep fans from showing up in droves or stop the bands from delivering more outstanding music.
Less than a day after Kings of Leon put on a show that not only lacked volume but showmanship, Flogging Molly put on a show that the young Folowills could learn from.
At a three-day festival, the crowd loses steam and Flogging Molly is the cure.
Sixty minutes of rude Irish folk had fans on their feet from front to back. People who wouldn’t know Ireland from Scotland danced figure-eights around each other. Near the stage the rain made a mosh pit unavoidable. But it was kindly, brotherly mosh pit. A few brave lads surfed the crowd. When moshing got to intense, the seemingly rude embraced arm-in-arm and danced a Celtic merry-go-round.
Lead singer Dave King played the crowd as expertly as he strummed his guitar and delivered his barroom-brawling vocals.
For an hour the rain was welcome. For an hour we were taken an enormous Irish Pub in Dublin.
I’ll never buy as many Flogging Molly CDs as I buy Kings of Leon CDs. But I’ve seen Kings of Leon three times now, and the only place they’ve never taken me was into their basement for a run-through of their catalog.
Neither are a bad place to escape a stressful life and maybe a rainy day.
Next time you get a chance to see Flogging Molly, and it’s they have been to Oklahoma a number of times, don’t miss it — rain or shine.
Austin City Limits: Day 1
This festival has been bedeviled by curious weather every year since I started coming back in 2005, but not today. Highs were in the mid to high 80s. As night fell, it was clearly in the low 70s.
The Walkmen, who play Meacham Auditorium tonight, performed at 3:30, delivering their usual dose of all-out performance. Just as all you can ask from your favorite sports team is that they leave it on the field, that’s what this New York-based quintet gives. Lead singer Hamilton Leithauser appeared literally at the point of self-destruction at different points throughout the show. No member leaves the stage who isn’t in a full sweat.
Kings of Leon, who play the Ford Center tonight, was easily the draw of the day — perhaps the entire festival. There is no band on the face of the planet riding more positive buzz than these Grammy-winning kinsman. The Followills, two brothers and two cousins, are nosing their way to U2 hype. With two members born in Oklahoma City, they might even be a more important act to see than Bono and the gang in a couple weeks.
While the attendance Friday was more than 60,000, it’s difficult to believe any less than 55,000 of those were anywhere but the Livestrong stage as the night came to a close. Unfortunately, some shoddy sound engineering muted the sound. Fans in the middle to the back of the stage could barely make out songs. That won’t be a problem for Ford Center fans.
Kings of Leon is brand-new to headling, and it shows. I saw them in 2006 at the Diamond Ballroom, and their style on stage hasn’t progressed much. That’s not to speak ill of it, but simply to point out that you shouldn’t go expecting a dynamic stage presence. This is a hardworking band who lets their music speak for them. Not a bad idea when your music is this good.
Kings of Leon play at the Ford Center tonight, doors open at 7. The Walkmen play at Meacham Auditorium on the OU campus at 8.
