As probably many of you know, last weekend (09/24/05) was the gi-normous, 3-day Austin City Limits festival in, well, Austin. Fretting that week over the impending Cat-5 hurricane threatening in the gulf turned into a big “WTF?” when the weather instead turned out to be dry, sunny and hot - really fucking HOT. Perhaps my age is showing, but instead of bingeing for three days on abbreviated sets I opted for a single-day pass on Sunday, and then later learned that The Arcade Fire had announced a solo show at Stubb’s on Friday, and thus jumped on that one as well.
The Friday show was spectacular – as ever they are. However maybe it’s just me, but I think I could’ve detected something slipping with those guys. Superficially everything was bang-on: their standard, anthemic (structured a word usement there) set solicited the usual response of singing along to every choral “Ooooooh….” from the crowd, everyone of them jumped around from instrument to instrument, banging on anything standing reasonably still with drum sticks or whatever else could be found, and the music is still oh-so-good. But it seemed, at times, that a touch of self-realization might’ve set in, about just how big they’ve gotten. (Is it really possible to be on the cover of Time magazine and not have such a realization however?) In their defense it sounded like as late as that morning they’d not known for sure they would make it to Texas for the shows (that pesky hurricane again). But once, (Win) Butler entangled (Will) Butler in his mic-cord as the latter screeched back and forth across the stage, and that seemed to piss the former off a bit. And then a failed attempt at crowd surfing looked to injure (Win) Butler’s hand a slight bit and again, pissed him off. (And I’m not sure if the Arcade Fire that I’d know prior would’ve attempted something so self-indulgent as crowd surfing – it’s always appeared to be strictly about the music – maybe the shock of something so out of character explains the idea’s failure). Or perhaps it was just something personal for myself. There was of course, the standard “Arcade Fire community” in all their musical adoration, but they only comprised about 50% of the crowd. The rest was left UT frat guys in Dave Matthews t-shirts and their attendants wearing too much make up, halter-tops and drinking Bud Light. But I supposed such is the paradox of indie rockers hitting it big in the first place. None of them ever failed to sing along though, for what that’s worth. (Or is it?)
Jump to: Sunday @ ACL. Did I mention that it was hot? Austin broke the previous record high temperature of 96-˚F by 12˚ (yep, that’s one hundred and eight!). My personal lineup was as follows: The Doves, The Bravery, The Arcade Fire, The Decemberists (from a distance where I turned my lawn chair around), Wilco and then Coldplay headlined the final day. The first thing I was struck with was how many rockstars wear black, and how that seemed such a bad idea on that particular day. The Doves seemed like they might’ve been pretty alright, taking most of their material from Some Cities and The Last Broadcast, but most of my focus during that time was on not dying (again, it was hot). The Bravery, despite being on a secondary stage, had a huge draw, and didn’t disappoint. Memorable comments from Sam Endicott had to do with Texas being really fucking hot, but at least not smelling like piss like New York, and then asking if everyone was staying hydrated. The Arcade Fire played a set similar to Friday, but abbreviated. Again, fantastic, and this time it seemed as if the enormity of the crowd to which they were appealing brought out an eagerness to please that had been missing in Friday’s show. This time it seemed to be about the music – that, and throwing water bottles into the crowd and telling bald guys to wear a hat (and asking if everyone was keeping hydrated). The Decemberists, from what I could gather were great. I might’ve been distracted at this time by the jubilation of realizing that we were, in fact, going to make it though the day (remember, it was HOT). My favorite quote of the day came from Colin Meloy when, after asking if everyone was keeping hydrated he followed it with, “I bet you’re all getting really tired of rockstars asking if you’re keeping hydrated, huh?” Wilco seemed to begin a little flat – which was surprising since it had begun to cool slightly and people appeared more energetic, generally. In fact, they lost a lot of people to Franz Ferdinand after about 15 minutes of play (would’ve lost me, if it hadn’t been too damn far to walk). “Wilco doesn’t usually come begging, but life’s too short. Please, show some enthusiasm!” Tweedy had said in response to the lackluster crowd. As he said this a breeze, for the first time that day, kicked up, and they broke into “A Shot in the Arm”. The crowd responded finally, and this set up my second favorite quote of the day when, as the song concluded he exclaimed, “I like this groveling thing. Groveling. It’s the new cockiness.” Then the day concluded with a Coldplay mega-show. Three days of 20% humidity and 75,000 people walking on the same patch of dirt had left a cloud of dust thirty feet high hanging over everyone. A friend, leading us through the throngs to where some others had staked out a camp in anticipation of the closing act, with a walking stick and us all wearing bandannas across our mouths brought to mind something from a Frank Herbert novel. The show was pretty impressive. Their songs sounded like the albums, and the production (enormous screen projections, balloons and crap falling from scaffolds, etc) reminded me of the U2 shows of the early to mid-nineties, maybe even the most recent Radiohead tour. I give it a thumbs-up, but we were all too worn to really enjoy it, and therefore took off 30 minutes before it’s conclusion to walk over to Barton Springs, where the 68˚ water fixed everything that we’d endured all day.
: The Arcade Fire - Five Years (live at ACL) :
: The Arcade Fire - Maps (live) :
: The Decemberists - Mr. Blue Sky (live) :
: Wilco - Don’t Fear The Reaper (live) :
nice recap. sounds like my first coachella outing, but probably more dust & dirt. is barton springs where we went when i visited?
nah, it’s another one, actually located across the street from where the wedding was held: http://www.edwardsaquifer.net/images/1-016.jpg
Popmatters has a pretty thorough recount of the entire festival here.
also, largehearted boy has collected torrent live sets available here. you’ll have to register on dimeadozen and individual band sites for most of them.
and… here’s a video of wilco playing a new song, “i’m talking to myself about you,” down there.