Austin City Limits '07: Sunday In Photos, "Best Of" List
At some point we called this year's Austin City Limits festival "Friday and Sunday heavy," but that shit ain't right; this year's ACL dance-card was tilted entirely toward the tail end. In fact, pretty sure we saw more bands on Sunday than the first two days combined. Generally that means bailing on a band after two or three tunes, but the National wouldn't let us go easily, opening with "Start A War," moving into "Mistaken For Strangers," "Brainy," "Slow Show," "Squalor Victoria," a crowd pleasing "All The Wine," "Apartment Story," "Abel," "Fake Empire," etc. and etc. Somehow, they never get old live. Through the weekend, there were enough superlative moments for to put together a list of Gummy Awards (ACL Edition):
BEST NON-BLEEDING NOSE: Ben Kweller
BEST DRESSED: My Morning Jacket
BEST DANCING: TIE -- M.I.A. / Ghostland Observatory
BEST LISA HANNINGAN-ESQUE BACKGROUND SINGER: Fionn Regan's
BEST USE OF FEMALE FAN: Common
BEST BRANDON FLOWERS SIGHTING: At Grizzly Bear's Hot Freaks! set
BEST LIGHTBULBS: Muse
GREATEST SCHEDULING GAFFE: TIE -- Wilco Vs. MMJ / M.I.A. Vs. LCD
MOST MEMORABLE SET: TIE -- My Morning Jacket / Arcade Fire @ Austin City Limits
MOST MEMORABLE FIRE: TIE -- Arcade Fire / Toilet Fire
MOST ATTRACTIVE BAND (I.E. COULDN'T TEAR OURSELVES AWAY): The National
A few more notes from Sunday ... Yo La Tengo drew an impressive crowd for their early, 12:30PM set, while later in the day dapper rapper Common owned the Dell stage with a big draw and typically commanding presence (per usual, as mentioned, he made a fangirl's life, pulling her up onstage and doing the 'lemme rap to you/hug you/love you bit). The Bloc Party kids were in high spirits, mixing the Silent Alarm ("Positive Tension," "Banquet") with the Weekend In The City ("Hunting For Witches," "Waiting For The 718"), and telling us they were "hella hot" (that's American slang, see).
Toward the end of the day, as it goes, the clothes were sweat straight through, the feet killing, and the ears mushy, so Ghostland Observatory didn't do much more for us than they did at that Movable Hype show two or three years ago. But dude can dance, and that may have been the biggest crowd we saw all weekend.
Anyway, that's all from ACL '07! Our last spread of pics await you below. See ya come South By, Austin. San Loco will have to satisfy the taco cravings for now.
YO LA TENGO
FIONN REGAN
THE NATIONAL
BEN KWELLER
COMMON
BLOC PARTY
REGINA SPEKTOR
THE DECEMBERISTS
GHOSTLAND OBSERVATORY
NICOLE ATKINS SMILES, KELE OKEREKE AND MATT TONG GET INTERVIEWED
DR. DOG
Posted at 2:01 PM in Concert
Tags: Austin City Limits | Ben Kweller | Bloc Party | Common | Dr. Dog | Ghostland Observatory | Nicole Atkins | Regina Spektor | The Decemberists | The National | Yo La Tengo
. Check out the Postelles a young NYC band.
Also check out their myspace for more songs.
www.myspace.com/thepostelles
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in other news.. Kanye sold 930k and 50 cent 660k in the first week .. time to retire 50!
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Regina Spektor's nose. And teeth. Egads women! Cover that excessive Jewishnesses up please. I think I'll stick to listening to you on Grey's Anatomy commercials.
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Anyone want to compare ACLFest to Bonnaroo and Pitchfork and Coachella?
Seeing as I'm going to have to get to one of these festivals next year, I'd like to know which one it should be (since I don't write for a music blog/zine and am shit poor, and live in one of the areas of the country that everyone hates)...I'm thinking either ACL or Bonnaroo.
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I love Regina Spektor even though she has a big fucking mouth.
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I can't speak for Coachella, but I have attended both ACL and Bonnaroo so I can say a couple words. First, I think the biggest decision about what festival to go to should be who is playing. It doesn't matter which 'environment' is better - if you aren't huge on who is playing, you aren't going to like it. That said, the biggest difference is that Bonnaroo is just a bit more down and dirty. You camp out and are pretty much hot and miserable for a few days...but this kind of atmosphere can be nice at times. Like when I saw Radiohead at Bonnaroo, the misery of the environment almost made me feel as though I had 'earned' the amazing performance by Radiohead.
At ACL, it is just a bit different. Everything is over by like 10:30 every night, giving everyone time to go home, shower, and go out to the bars for the night. This can be fun too, but it is not as 'earthy' as Bonnaroo.
God, was that coherent at all?
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Totally coherent...and yes, definitely the bill would be top consideration -- although it seems that this year, at least, ACL and Bonnaroo's bills were pretty similar in terms of mixing new and old. I heard from someone who went to the first ACL Fest that it was run very tight from an operational standpoint, which jibes with your input. Good point about Bonnaroo, I'm not really the Burning Man/Rainbow Gathering type, lol.
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Oh how I love Ben Kweller.
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Having been to both Bonnaroo (06) and ACL (07) I'd say i preferred the ACL experience more (although i preferred the lineup i saw at bonnaroo, especially after the stripes cancelled for this years ACL)
First off, there's not much to do in manchester, TN. And nothing at all is within walkable distance.
Austin, on the other hand, turned out to be a fantastic town and easily navigatable by foot or by bus. Cab far is also pretty cheap (although cabs were hard to come by) There were great shows all over the place (Saw a cool free double bill at the mohawk on thursday). Plenty of bars with no covers/drink specials. Cool museums / art galleries downtown. a great record store (waterloo) and some nice vintage clothing stores.
As for the festival site itself - Bonnaroo was slightly bigger so there was less bleed of sound between stages. There were times at ACL, especially during the decemberists set on sunday, when the dell stage got drowned out by the smaller wamu stage. I remember hearing bits of cyprus hill between songs while seeing beck at bonnaroo, but when he was playing you only heard him.
That said, it was much easier to get from one stage to the other at ACL. Also, the air conditioned AT&T internet stations were a blessing in the heat. There rarely was a line to get into them and if there was it was small. While there you could check email or get your phone recharged. I remember the lines just to get into the ac'd areas at bonnaroo were huge and seemingly endless.
Food at ACL is MUCH MUCH better. I enjoyed pretty much everything i had from the bbq to the veggie wrap. awesome ice tea too. Bonnaroo's food was ok. pretty standard. not much to say one way or the other. And once off site Austin offers terrific food in every varierty. all i could find open at night in manchester was mediocre pizza. maybe i just missed the good bbq, i don't know.
Bonnaroo has late night shows which is definitley cool. ACL does have the 'after party' shows but some of those are scheduled when there are still people performing at the festival-proper. and they cost extra.
So that's my two cents. hope its helpful
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Incredibly so. Thanks, wldrpretnd.
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colin meloy apears to have put on a little weight?
or is that just me
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I saw The National's performance online and thought it was great. It was basically the same setlist they played at Bonnaroo but sounded a lot better, even over the computer.
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Yikes! you are retarded.
everyone on this blog has to comment on women in terms of their appearances. How lame does that make you all? Some of you should try getting a real life girl friend (no not porn).
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Wow, Matt Berninger is hot.
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everyone equals 2 people? You could still comment on a person's appearance and have a girlfriend-- They aren't correlating matters. Try to think of something more constructive bob than just some backhanded way of yelling in your e-megaphone "i got a girlfriend!"
I mean, Wow, how lame, every post here is talking about the same hyped up "independent" music acts, plus a select black rapper (as long as he's white enough for us scensters - just god forbid hes a nigga.)
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colin meloy is continually putting on weight but that can be attributed to his fatherhood and success.... duh.
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hey yikes!
how are you you? i bet you remember all of those meany mean means picking on you for some reason or other in school in your youth, or perhaps, better worse, you were one of the pickers. well, either way, it's nice to see you've turned out to be a mean shitfuck bleeding asshole pussy. congrats. and i really mean this, you would only say something that mean if you were anonymous. i've had mice in my apartment with bigger balls than you. why dont you try to use your bullshit towards something more constructive. like a life. you only get one!
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hey yikes!
how are old are you, really? i bet you remember all of those meany mean means picking on you for some reason or other in school in your youth, or perhaps, better worse, you were one of the pickers. well, either way, it's nice to see you've turned out to be a mean shitfuck bleeding asshole pussy. congrats. and i really mean this, you would only say something that mean if you were anonymous. i've had mice in my apartment with bigger balls than you. why don't you try to use your bullshit towards something more constructive. like a life. you only get one! go for it! make it great!!!!!!
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Also, my vote for best set is CYHSY. It was my third time seeing them (honestly they were borderline bad the other two times) but the ACL show absolutely blew me away.
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Arcade Fire played a beautiful set at ACL. I love Win's voice. I swear some of you indie kids act like snobby stupid junior high school kids. That comment about Regina S. was pretty dick. I don't like her music but have some respect. Then you all wonder why people call you dumb hipsters behind your backs.
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What a weird direction this thread has taken. For what it's worth as part of the original topic, although it was very hot in Austin and there were a daunting number of people gathered in the park, no one lost sight of the possibilities to enjoy great music. Devotchka and Wilco put on some great shows, and the snippets I caught of Regina, Lucinda, Common, Robert Earl et al made me grateful for the variety on the bill. My friends echoed the same thoughts, especially those with 3-day passes. Going was certainly worth the effort for everyone I talked to.
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I've been to coachella and acl (acl for the past 4 yrs). Loved both.. my only problem with ACL is that the crowd tends to be filled with people that are only there to get out of the house and socialize. I felt the atmosphere at coachella was way better! plus I hate that at acl they let people bring in chairs... its so annoying. at acl...you'll find alot of people talking through sets. I say if you choose acl fest, be ready to get up in the front with all the really smelly folks, there for the music...that's the only way you'll truly enjoy it.
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Um, hello? Did everyone miss the ATERCIOPELADOS performance?! They are my top fave Latin band and did a great performance (as always!). I haven't had that much fun at a concert since seeing Manu Chao at Coachella....Of course, Manu is one of my favorite artists also, but I consider him in the world genre, not Latin. You should check out his new album, "La Radiolina!" http://www.tourdesign.com/eads/2007/manuchao/new/manuchao_ecard.html
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Wow, this thread got crushed by crap. Good call on Aterciopelados Patty. I also can't believe no one is mentioning the show Gotan Project put on. Their set was, by far, one of the highlights of the weekend for me. Also, isn't Andrew Bird cool enough to mention no matter where he plays?
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