ACL 2008 Scene Report: Out-of-towners

Originally published on the Austin American-Statesman’s Austin360 28 September 2008.

One of the best parts of ACL Fest is the far-flung crowds it draws. On Sunday, a few out-of-towners took a moment to talk about their festival experiences.

Olga Martinez of Poland flew in with a group of friends to see Beck, Foo Fighters and Slightly Stoopid, but they’ve enjoyed other aspects of Austin as well.

“Barton Springs, the river, was really fun,” Martinez said before heading off in search of more music.

Lauren Perkins of Houston drove to Austin to catch Mars Volta, Tegan and Sara and the Kills, but she’s enjoyed more than just the music.

“The pedicab ride was really fun,” she said. “We liked our driver. He was the best part.”

Heather Walker recently moved to Austin from Los Angeles.

“I don’t really consider myself a native yet,” she said. “I’m here for The Kills and Tegan and Sara.”

Walker’s friend, Jacqueline Garrett of Columbus, Ohio, came to ACL Fest to see Erykah Badu and Beck, but has also been getting a taste of the larger Austin culture.

“We went to Sixth Street last night, but we’re going to try South Congress tonight,” she said. “I’m not a big fan of all those jello shots and all that bumping and grinding.”

For Liz Lambert and Matt Harp of New Orleans, it’s all about the music.

“Conor Oberst was really good,” Lambert said.

“We also enjoyed Beck,” Harp said. “It’s really been all about the festival.”

ACL 2008 Review: A.A. Bondy

Originally published on the Austin American-Statesman’s Austin360 28 September 2008.

When Alabama’s A.A. Bondy took the Dell Stage with nothing more than an acoustic guitar slung over his shoulder and a harmonica fastened to his neck, the booming echoes of drumsets from other stages threatened to drown out his expertly finger-picked licks.

Bondy moved confidently through his Dylanesque folk tunes nonetheless, keeping the crowd’s chatter to a minimum and their response enthusiastic.

“I kind of feel like I should be out there among you,” he said a few songs in.

But he had no reason to worry about the performance lacking intimacy. The audience was transfixed by the Southwestern crunch of his slightly distorted acoustic riffs and the graceful imperfection of his crackling melodies.

The music was punctuated by his haunting revivalist poetics. Over the dreary drag of the minor chords in “Rapture (Sweet Rapture)” Bondy sang about trees swinging like hanging men, while in the upbeat romp “Vice Rag” he asked Jesus to take his sinner’s hand after singing that he’d drink dry an ocean full of whiskey.

Though Bondy has only released one album, 2007’s “American Hearts,” he played a surprisingly small number of cuts from it. The rest of the set was made up of equally impressive unreleased numbers. In one, he picked out a sunny, gospel-like progression while singing, “Dress well/Get pretty/You got to die.”

Judging from the strength of such songs, Bondy’s next album will be just as good or better than “American Hearts.”

ACL 2008 Review: Man Man

Originally published on the Austin American-Statesman’s Austin360 27 September 2008.

When a band’s members play under pseudonyms like Honus Honus and Critter Cat, they’re bound to be bizarre.

And bizarre Philadelphia’s Man Man was, not just musically, but in every aspect. Their faces striped with red and white war paint, the five-piece took the stage dressed in short white shorts and t-shirts and proceeded to spastically bang out a series of cartoonishly sinister tunes with trumpets, xylophones and a drumset splashed with fluorescent paint, among other instruments.

But the band didn’t rely completely on antics. Honus’s rough-edged voice cut with an intensity similar to that of Modest Mouse’s Isaac Brock, and the effortless manner in which the band stormed through the complicated time signatures and transitions in their songs proved their talent.

But Man Man will not appeal to everyone. The goofy falsetto filler that screeched over the organ whistles in many songs sounded like something straight out of a Tiny Toons Halloween episode, and it was often hard to discern any actual words in the verses between the jibberish.

The main problem with a band built around so many eccentricities is that the act is hard to sustain. After you’ve tapped out rhythms on a plaster makeup of your guitarist’s head, where can you go? Man Man actually took it down a notch and eased into a love song more melodic than anything they’d played all set, but then ran out of steam and left the stage 10 minutes early.

Man Man’s live show is certainly a spectacle, but it’s easier to stomach in smaller doses than this 50-minute performance.

ACL 2008 Review: City and Colour

Originally published on the Austin American-Statesman’s Austin360 27 September 2008.

At first glance, everything about Toronto’s City and Colour screams mediocrity. It’s the sensitive singer/songwriter act led by the guitarist of a screamo band, and his latest album is a borderline pretentious allusion to a Bukowski novel.

In other words, it’s something you’d guess you’ve heard before.

But take one listen to the honey-sweet vocals of Dallas Green on this year’s “Bring Me Your Love,” and you’ll be reminded that stereotypes rarely capture the whole story.

Green’s performance at ACL Fest took City and Colour’s music to an even higher level. Backed by a full band, Green traded the reverberated acoustic guitar on his albums for an electric guitar, with gritty distortion. Beside forming a nice contrast with his smooth tenor croon, the crunch of the electric added a southern blues tone to the music. The drums and bass in songs like “Sleeping Sickness” also created an extra dynamic dimension.

The highlight was the vocals, but surprisingly, Green didn’t carry the show on his own. The band started “As Much As I Ever Could” with a few measures of flawless four-part a capella harmony. On other songs, Green and the bassist played tag-team with the melodies, and their deliveries were equally solid.

Whether audience members were fans or not, their expectations for City and Colour were surely exceeded.

ACL 2008 Review: Bavu Blakes

Originally published on the Austin American-Statesman’s Austin360 27 September 2008.

When Austin mayor Will Wynn introduced hometown hip-hop hero Bavu Blakes as his friend to the scattered audience in front of the Austin Ventures stage, the response was fairly lethargic.

But a few songs after Blakes removed the Obama mask he’d taken the stage with, the crowd was into it. As listeners steadily arrived and the space in front of the stage became more and more limited, Blakes got the crowd waving their hands and responding to his calls in unison with phrases like “Black gold!”

The audience had good reason to be excited. Whether Blakes’ backup band, the Extra Plairs, were churning out soulful R&B grooves or booming bass lines under Blakes’ rapid-fire rhymes, they were on.

Once Blakes gained momentum, he didn’t let it drop. Both his music and witty banter between songs kept the audience engaged.

“Like I said, I’m not much of a singer, but unfortunately R.E.M. couldn’t make it today,” he said before playing a segment of the chorus from “It’s the End of the World As We Know It” to start his next song.

When Blakes left the stage, the crowd was still cheering.

“I’ve never seen him before, but I’m glad I did,” said one listener. “It was definitely worth coming over from the Fratellis.”

ACL 2008 Scene Report: Friday night quotes

Originally published on the Austin American-Statesman’s Austin360 27 September 2008.

What people were saying as they left day one of the festival around 6 p.m.:

“I’m going to a presidential debate party later, but I won’t be missing any music for it. My favorite act was Gogol Bordello. We’re going to eat now.” – Rene Francis of Austin

“Awesome music. Really awesome.” – Maggie Koerner of Shreveport, La.

“It was hot, but really good. Showering is the number one priority right now, then we’ll probably walk around downtown. We ate at Kenichi last night. We really enjoyed it.” – Sarah Sour of Shreveport

“It was good. We saw Vampire Weekend, Heidi Griffith and Jenny Lewis. Vampire weekend was definitely our favorite.” – Drew Miller of Austin

“The presidential debate is actually going on in our state right now, but we’ll probably just go eat and come back.” – Andy Baker of Jackson, Miss.

ACL 2008 Review: Jakob Dylan and the Gold Mountain Rebels

Originally published on the Austin American-Statesman’s Austin360 26 September 2008.

With the Wallflowers’ breakthrough album, 1996’s “Bringing Down the Horse,” Jakob Dylan proved himself a solid songwriter, showing that there was more to him as a musician than just his father’s famous last name. Now with five Wallflowers releases under his belt, Dylan has dropped the roots rock for a stripped-down folk sound on his debut solo album “Seeing Things.”

Dylan’s new act translated perfectly to ACL’s AT&T stage on Friday afternoon. Dylan and his bandmates, the Gold Mountain Rebels, took the stage dressed in black suits, white shirts and shades, then breezed through an hour’s worth of softly floating folk tunes and hard-driving blues rock numbers.

There was some trouble with the mix at the start of the set and the band’s harmonies wavered slightly for the first few songs, but they found their stride with “Here Comes Now.” In the song, soft snare strokes and egg shakers created an atmosphere of understated percussion to underlie Dylan’s twinkling, finger-picked guitar lines.

The next song, “Three Marlenas,” was a pleasant surprise for longtime Wallflowers fans. The track from “Bringing Down the Horse” had audience members singing along and clapping.

The highlight of the show, however, was “Will It Grow,” a cut off Dylan’s solo album lush with imagery and smooth-flowing guitar solos. “Jet black starlit midnight rolls/I am down in the valley where I let go,” Dylan lamented with his rich voice as clean guitar lines danced in the background.

This was Dylan’s first ACL performance, but fans will surely be eager to welcome him back.

ACL 2008 Review: Mates of State

Originally published on the Austin American-Statesman’s Austin360 on 26 September 2008.

The quirky pop tunes of husband-and-wife duo Mates of State have always sounded full, even with just the two members. Kori Gardner’s electronic organ pumps out so many diverse sounds over Jason Hammel’s pounding drum beats, and the two belt out such meticulously layered melodies that both their live shows and studio recordings create the illusion of at least a four-piece band.

But at the ACL Fest the duo took their live sound a step further for many songs by adding a three-piece string ensemble to the mix. The violin and two cellos soared over the doo-wop piano rolls of “Like U Crazy,” while in “You Are Free” they melded with the organ to create an epic sound.

Aside from a couple of shaky moments, the vocal delivery of both Gardner and Hammel was impeccable as always. On many numbers, their voices blended in harmony so well that it was hard to tell which member was singing what.

Equally as impressive was their seamless flow between the shifting rhythms in many of the songs. Fan favorite “Ha Ha” in particular changed drum beats at least three times, but the shifts always sounded natural. Whether they’re playing as a two-piece or more, Mates of State always seem to make it work.

Food Spotlight: Hudson’s Chicken Cone

Originally published in the Austin American-Statesman’s XL 25 September 2008.

Widespread love for the Chicken Cone

Every year when masses of festival-goers hit Zilker Park for Austin City Limits Music Festival, they have one thing in mind: music. But as the day drags on and energy levels drop, a second consideration comes into play: food. For many, this presents a conflict between catching favorite acts and leaving the festival grounds to find affordable, substantial nourishment.

Since the second year of ACL Fest, however, Hudson’s on the Bend has been at the scene with their famous hot and crunchy Chicken Cone, which, at a mere $7, helps keep the stomachs and wallets of festival-goers full.

Breaded in a mixture of almonds, sesame seeds, corn flakes, chile flakes and sugar, then fried and placed in a tortilla lined with a slaw that includes jalapeño and mango, this dish has developed a following among fest crowds.

“I love the chicken cone,” said St. Edward’s University Junior Ashley Lahr, who has attended ACL Fest for the past five years. “I get, like, two every year. They are so flipping good. I’m really picky about my chicken, but I love it.”

Jeff Blank, chef and owner of Hudson’s on the Bend, said he developed the Chicken Cone specifically for ACL Fest by adapting Hudson’s hot and crunchy chicken dish into a food item that was easy to eat on the go.

“It’s really just a great combination of flavors,” Blank said. “It’s spicy, sweet, crunchy and cold with the slaw.”

This year, Hudson’s will offer different chicken cone variations, including avocado, fish and combination.

The Chicken Cone has even become popular among some ACL Fest artists.

“Every year, two or three times now, Ben Harper and his crew come in the back door for a chicken cone,” Blank said. “We also took some on Widespread Panic’s bus.”

Meeting demand for the product requires a lot of chicken. Based on previous years, Blank estimates that Hudson’s will sell somewhere between 12,000 and 14,000 cones this year, which will require more than 3,000 pounds of chicken and fish.

The Hudson’s crew is prepared.

They made the crunchy breading and slaw last Friday, and they started prepping the actual chicken on Monday. Hudson’s employees bread the raw chicken, then freeze it until it’s almost hard. By the time it gets to the festival, the chicken is thawed out. There, Hudson’s employees fry the chicken in canola oil and serve it to the fest-goers.

Blank also confirmed the opening of the “Hot and Crunchy Shack,” a Hudson’s on the Bend food trailer scheduled to open next year in Austin that will sell the Chicken Cone and its many variations year-round.

As always, the Chicken Cone will be one of the trademark experiences of ACL Fest.

“It’s the only time you can eat at Hudson’s for $7,” Blank said.