Feature

By Ashley Toland Editor

It should just be L Fest because there ain’t no AC in the Austin City Limits Music Festival. But even though it felt like you were standing on the surface of the sun to watch some of these rising and well-established stars light up the sky over Austin’s Zilker Park Sept. 14-16, it was well worth the sunburned scalp and farmer’s tan.

In fact, the line-up, which included, Bob Dylan, Queens of the Stone Age, Arctic Monkeys, Bjork, Arcade Fire, The Killers, Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, Wilco, Amos Lee and many others, was so good, I would have probably braved arctic, desert or Amazon jungle-like environments to see this medley of melody makers.

Here a few of the acts I particularly enjoyed:

Friday

Pete Yorn

When the festival began on Friday, it was on fire. No, I’m not still whining about the heat or making a lame metaphor about how smokin’ the acts were, it was literally on fire. As we were watching Pete Yorn perform on the stage located on the north side of the perimeter, a huge cloud of black smoke began to slowly creep above the trees. Apparently, a fire started just outside the park, near a propane tank, causing it to explode. Four people were injured; two quite critically, though local news stations reported they were all expected to make full recoveries.

The inferno forced Yorn to stop in the middle of his set, but just briefly. He opened with a cover of Junior Kimbrough’s “I Feel Good Again,” and ran through his catalog of hits, including “Strange Condition,” “Crystal Village,” Life on a Chain,” “For Us,” “For Nancy,” as well as covers of Warren Zevon’s “Splendid Isolation,” “Suspicious Minds,” popularized by Elvis, and Peter Bjorn and John’s “Young Folks.”

Coincidentally, PB&J were playing just across the field from Yorn, and he gave them a shout out saying, ” I like this song very much.” The infectious whistling at the beginning of the song caused a bit of an epidemic on the festival grounds. You couldn’t walk five feet without hearing some festival-goer whistling it.

Peter, Bjorn and John

I don’t know that I will be listening to them in a year but it was fun to hear “Young Folks” from the “folks” who penned it. But their performance only served to further spread the whistling disease.

Spoon

If Billy Joel reproduced with The Pixies, they would name their baby, Spoon. Though Billy Joel will say it’s not his but rather, The Mighty, Mighty Bosstones. Despite paternity issues, this Austin indie/pop/rock outfit has been loved by the locals for over a decade, and it seems they are finally getting the national recognition they deserve. Their video for “The Underdog” is getting play on VH-1 and here locally, 92 Zew has added it to their rotation.

Saturday

Willy Mason

Mason played at 11:45 a.m., the first show on Saturday. I almost missed it due to Friday night’s activities, which involved too much tequila in a bar just off Sixth Street. But three Excedrin later, I joined about 30 folks (maybe more), right as the 22-year-old Martha’s Vineyard native took the Dell stage. No band – just him. Thankfully, Mason hasn’t been through rock star boot camp. There was no hair gel, make-up, cool shades, skinny black jeans or flashing lights – just a shiny guitar trying to hide a wrinkled denim shirt.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Excedrin.

He was absolutely amazing – the best show I saw all weekend.

His voice is as deep as the ocean he often sings about in songs that are mature well beyond his years. And it just seems effortless.

I forgot how young he was until he told a story of how he penned a song a few years back in detention . “I was trying to impress a pretty girl, so I thought I’d write a song. But then I got so carried away, she left, and I was still there writing away,” he said.

Another highlight of this performance was when Mason’s mother, folk singer Jemima James joined him for a song or two of his and one of hers,

His father, Michael Mason is also a folk singer, so it seems Willy probably didn’t have much choice in the matter, if destiny really does have a child, it doesn’t involve any members of the Knowles family.

Paolo Nutini

A media darling, the Scottish songster delivered a solid performance and seemed to be sober this time, unlike some of his previous Austin appearances. Though he has the posture of an 83-year-old woman when he sings, so I fear he may end up with a hunchback. Straighten up, Paolo!

Steve Earle

I grew up in a rural Southern town, around shift workers, who carried their cigarettes in their front shirt pockets and their lunches in sturdy black boxes. And Steve Earle looks like he could be about to start a week of 3 -11s at the mill with them. And not surprisingly the subject matter of many of his songs are reflective of the working man’s life. Even those with a political slant, examine how the common man is affected rather than the suits.

He opened the show with a story about his friend, Townes Van Zandt and his horse, Amigo. A very nice tribute.

It was a great show. And for those of you who didn’t know, he married a South Alabama girl – Shelby Lynne’s sister, Allison Moorer. Also, I hear his son, Justin Townes Earle (another nice tribute) is going to be playing at Callaghan’s Sunday, Oct. 21.

Sunday

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals

I only got to see (well hear) the last song. Her stage was so packed, I literally couldn’t see her. But judging from the crowd’s reaction when she finished, I’m definitely going to make it to her show here at The Swamp Room under Felix’s Monday, Oct. 22.

Lucinda Williams

Many of my girlfriends love Lucinda Williams. I’ve never had the same affinity for her, but I don’t hate her either. But she does scare me. When I saw her at ACL several years ago, she was having problems with the sound and was very vocal about it. So much so, I felt sorry for the sound guys. And I thought, “what a bitch.” Then spent the rest of the day wondering if it had been a man bitching about the sound, if I would have said he was a “bitch.” The internal conflict ended when I decided I would not have called him a bitch but an “asshole.” Lucinda did not scold anyone this year, but there is just something about her that makes you want to say to everyone, “don’t talk during her show. She may cut out your tongues and eat them.”

Amos Lee

This is the thing about Amos Lee. I have two of his CDs, both of which contain several songs that are brilliant and I love, but I have a hard time listening to either of them from beginning to end, because it all starts to sound the same. And that was kind of how the show was.

Wilco

I was really looking forward to this show. I made all of these mix CDs with ACL artists on them for the drive out there, and Wilco had more than its fair share on the mixes. But then I realized about half way through their set, in which they were, of course, mostly playing tunes from the new album (which were fine), all the songs on my CDs were Billy Bragg and Wilco. I haven’t determined what this means about my Wilco fan status, but it was a good show.

Bob Dylan

Well, it was Bob Dylan.

Ashley Toland is Lagniappe editor. Contact her at ashleytoland@lagniappemobile.com.

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