Saturday, 27 Sep 2008
Austin always treats us well. It’s always nice to have a nice cold Lone Star in your hand watching some of today’s best bands tear it up under the Texas sun. Yesterday was the first day of the Austin City Limits Music Festival, and marked our second time at the festival after taking last year off. The ultimate highlight of the day was seeing David Byrne. David and his band exceed all my expectations, blending their hour-long set with Talking Heads favorites as well as new material from his recent Eno collaboration, Everything That Happens Will Happen Today.
Coming in second was Jamie Lidell. Always a great live act, Jamie had the crowd in his hand by the time he launched into a funk-heavy extended version of his song “Multiply.” The biggest surprise of the day was probably day one closer Manu Chao, who’s mix of reggae, punk, and world sound, was both high energy and easy to convert a bunch of first-timers. Other highlights include a horn-infused set from Bobby Bare Jr, catching the lovely Jenny Lewis in a packed tent, and watching Alejandro Escovedo and his band play the festival for the first time in his home state. Rodney Crowell, who started out our day was also a welcomed first listen, and the biggest regret was missing both Hot Chip and Lost Highway’s Ryan Bingham, who all my crew caught and said was fantastic. Also, Chuck Woolery is around. WTF?
Yeasayer
Jakob Dylan & The Gold Mountain Rebels
Jamie Lidell
Bobby Bare Jr
Jenny Lewis
David Byrne
Manu Chao
Discuss: Have you been to ACL before? Who should I not miss over the rest of the festival? What are your favorite Austin hotspots?
September 27th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Really nice picture of Jakob Dylan. He rocks.
September 28th, 2008 at 7:51 pm
nice shots, man. great hanging with you as usual.
September 29th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
awesome pix–wish i could’ve been in your spot! check out the video footage/interviews Roxwel.com got backstage at ACL: http://www.roxwel.com/show/acl.html. more to come…
September 30th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
Nice shots!
I’m curious who thought it was a good idea to have Jenny Lewis in the gospel tent (judging by your photos) … Seems like she could have garnered a larger stage.
Cheers,
Kevin
September 30th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
@ Kevin – you’re telling me. It was a pain to get in and out of there, plus there was no photo pit for those of us with photo passes. It was also impossible to find friends who were inside the tent. There were plenty of smaller acts that should have been in there, Jenny should have been on an outdoor stage for sure.
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:02 pm
That’s me in the tree in your Jenny Lewis pic!!!
She was amazing!