Day Player - Austin City Limits Fest

Between proscrastination and absent-mindedness, 3-day passes for this year's ACL festival were gone before I thought about buying one, but I also think I'm now more comfortable in the "one big day" role vs. the three-day marathoners. Let's say I'm more of a sprinter. Or a power-walker, perhaps. All that stamina - who even wants it? So Saturday was it for me.

I forgot to check the batteries in the camera before heading out, so readers will need to content themselves with the 2.5 billion other photos of this on the internet. Just imagine my usual perspective - a ways back from the stage, off to one side, right next to the group of shirtless 18-year-old guys shouting and staring intently at their phones.

A good mix of old and new faces for me, the day began with Marah (the 11:45 choices were fairly slim) who at least went ahead and segued right into a cover of the Who's "Baba O'Riley" instead of pretending their songs sounded nothing like it. And they had the best between-song jokes - one guy looked over the sunbaked crowd and explained, "When we found out we were playing this festival, I got all excited and spent all my money, like $8000 on a new light show. Hope you're fucking digging it."

Next was Federico Aubele, who plays a laid-back tango-meets-downtempo mix that is probably better suited to a dim dance floor than sunny field, but such is life. He and his crew seemed mostly unknown, but had the crowd swaying en masse by the end of the set.

(A quick weather note - yeah, hot and humid, what else? But never brutal, with occasional awesome breezes and cloud cover. And the heat does get the clothes to come off, though not always on the people you want to see. If only certain cops were allowed to work shirtless, and frat brothers forbidden to...)

Then several hours of sampling, including French rockers Phoenix (decent, never exciting), Austin oddball duo Ghostland Observatory (great "show," so-so music), Nada Surf (a bit of a letdown, as they have a number of songs I like but sounded too tame), TV On The Radio (I couldn't get very close, but their unorthodox, not-all-that-catchy songs were soon driving away the idly curious), and the venerable Los Lobos (still venerable).

The best show of the day came from Calexico, which serves me right for underestimating them. One of those bands I've managed to see, without really meaning to, probably a dozen times now (they seemed to play every SXSW party for several years there), they punched things up considerably for the festival setting. At least 3 or 4 songs wound up in an extended, big full-band frenzy I associate with the end of a show, but then they'd just start up on another one. And this is a band that doesn't just put 8 guys on stage for no reason - pedal steel, accordion, trumpets, vintage keyboards and lots of little shaky percussion things all used to full effect. Plus guest warbler Salvador Duran, who I know nothing about but would guess is someone impressive. Okay guys, I'll never doubt you again.

Fittingly, the next act I really caught (I won't count watching The Raconteurs on a video screen from behind a tree 1/3 of a mile away) was Iron and Wine, recent Austin transplant Sam Beam's excellent group, which really does seem to be a band now and not just him, a guitar, and wonderful vocals. Not that he's forsaken those last few, fortunately. Rocking a beard big enough to hide several spare capos, Beam's warm and lush voice is his biggest asset, and he wisely keeps it prominent even with a louder racket going along. I apparently missed the point where he became a big deal among the youth of today (and frankly don't really get it either), so was taken aback somewhat by the excited "Woo!s" accomanying lyrics like "One of us will spread our ashes round the yard," but then we all know I am old and out of touch, so what's one more piece of evidence.

The night's big headliner (other than Willie Nelson, who I decided to skip for crowd-control reasons) was Massive Attack, who I'm so late in coming to that it hardly seems worth trying to catch up. But they provided some tasteful beats, a good lighting backdrop, and Horace Andy, so the few songs I took in went down fine.

Then it was on to the deceptively short shuttle bus line, where I only realized we would be making 4 long switchbacks much too late to change my mind. One downside to the Day Pass - you only get one chance to get the logistics figured out.

Anyway, the kids and rockers are back out there again today, while I'm safe inside, sitting down and out of the sun and rain. You tell me who more hardcore.