Some ACL Fest Observations

Bobby Bare Jr. (here on the BMI Stage last Friday) got things kicked off right!

It was a good weekend, cut a little short (I missed all Sunday), but I still caught some great sets and enjoyed myself thoroughly.  You can go HERE to get some great, easy-to-navigate reviews on many of the sets from the fest. Below are some thoughts:

• Bobby Bare Jr.’s Friday 440pm set on the BMI Stage was pure magic!  I am ashamed to admit that I was only a tad familiar with the album or two he put out way back when with his band, Bare Jr.. I quickly realized the error in this as he and his band blazed though songs that blended rock, soul, a little twang and even some fine trumpeting.  Chris Masterson played lead (he has played lead guitar for Jack Ingram, Matt Keating and Son Volt all in the last couple of years) and his contribution was immense. Bare was a natural front-man (no shocker, given his genes) and I was thankful to get my festival experience started on such a high note.

• Instead of selling only 12 oz. beers this year, they had the 24 oz. cans available.  This development was vital, as it kept you from going back to stand in a line sooner than one would prefer.

• Speaking of lines.  There were very few.  I got a couple of beers, a couple of bottles Sweet Leaf Tea, some food, went to the can (sorry,TMI), even got an autograph from the Drive by Truckers.  I did all of that and only had to suffer through an actual line that would be considered “long” when I went to get my woman a Spicy Avocado Cone from the Hudson’s booth.

• Ah, yes, The Drive by Truckers.  After catching DFW heroes, The Old 97′s on the same stage an hour earlier. I made my way up to to front of the Dell Stage (I think, maybe it was the AT&T stage), and witnessed a jam that only proved yet again to me why the Truckers have become the musical force they are considered to be by most folks with at least half of a brain.  Opening with the rocking “The Man I Shot”, then leading immediately into “3 Dimes Down” and then “Home-field Advantage”, the crowd of several thousand were bopping and sweating right along with the band.  The set focused mainly on stuff from BTCD, which made hearing some of the older songs a bit more special.

• The Sloppy Nachos from The Salt Lick booth were not as sloppy as two years ago (hey, rising costs are hitting everyone I suppose), but the items that made the nachos so sloppy were still really good.  A bed of chips with nacho cheese, brisket and Salt Lick’s own BBQ Sauce proved to be a great dinner for me as I went to watch Jenny Lewis’ sound people act like they knew what they were doing as her set started really late, which means I didn’t stick around…

• Langhorne Slim provided quite the wake-up call to festival goers on Saturday morning with his 1145am set.  He focused on material from his awesome self-titled disc from earlier this year as he wore cut-off shorts, a black wife-beater with big black boots and his black stove top hat for this set that featured almost no shade from the late morning sun for artist and fans alike. He and the other parts of his trio sounded great and Slim remarked that “nowhere else could I find so many hundreds or thousands of people watching a bad play at 11am than in Austin”.  I don’t know if he was just being nice, but it was cool to see the early sets of the day drawing some impressive crowds.

• Friday night, as I was WAY in the back of the crowd watching the set from Prog-Rock Jam Band The Mars Volta, I kept hearing applause erupting from the tent where the TVs were set up.  When I turned around, I noticed that the presidential debate was being shown and every time I heard clapping, it seemed that Obama was on the screen.  Great, fine, we all are into the election.  Great, fine, we are in Austin and everyone is so political and liberally hip.  Can you please let the real-world go for a couple of hours and just enjoy the music. The same goes for the dorks who were watching the UT football game Saturday afternoon instead of the bands on stage…GET TIVO!!!!

• Lastly, Friday night’s 730pm set from THE SWELL SEASON was thankfully everything I had dreamed it might be.  I have been dying to see these folks ever since seeing the movie “Once”last year.  I was again, up near the very front of the AT&T Blue Room stage. Even though the group struggled with various sound and technical issues, they sounded great as they were able to hush a very large crowd with their soft, poignant renditions of “When Your Minds Made Up” and the Oscar-winning song, “Falling Slowly”.  They played some new stuff, and a few covers, all to great effect. Seeing them live finally was great, and that set was only the latest in Friday night ACL gems for me.  In previous years, Ryan Adams and Ray Lamontagne have turned in sets on the opening night that could’ve easily been the best of the whole weeknd.

• All in all, it was s great time.  I wish I could’ve caught Foo Fighters, Neko Case, Band of Horses, Scott Biram and many others on Sunday, but it just wasn’t in the stars for this fella.