Austin City Limits 2011: Saturday

Tyler Bryant and the Shakedown
On Saturday, I got up "early" and broke my fast with a Cliff bar on the way to the festival. The first act I caught was Tyler Bryant and The Shakedown. I'd never heard of them before, which is perhaps unsurprising in that they were playing on one of the festival's smaller stages before lunch.

Nonetheless, Tyler Bryant comports himself as if he's already a rock star. I guess rocking a pink Stratocaster and a sleeveless Pink Floyd shirt are nearly enough to make him one, but I was seriously impressed with his guitar skills to boot. They played a very loud, very energetic set to a crowd ranging ages 15 to 60. Their music is of the wrong generation to be revolutionary, but if you're in the mood for some guitar rock, I'd check them out.


Telekinesis

This band wins my award for "Best Find of ACL 2011". I'd never heard of them when I wandered over to their set on the Google+ stage, but a bunch of other people appeared to have heard them before, because I've never seen such an enthusiastic crowd at a set played in the middle of the day. Telekinesis couldn't believe it either -- they seemed genuinely surprised and pleased at their reception. The band is three pieces live: a guitarist, a bassist, and Michael Lerner. Lerner is the creative mind behind the music and plays drums during the live show, a feat that always really impresses me because drumming is so very hard to do to begin with that keeping another rhythmic pattern (plus a melodic one) while playing seems godlike. The atmosphere was fun, and they weren't too cool to be happy about life. Lerner stood on his drumkit near the end and there was a little bit of crowd particpation and guitars-only rocking.

The music is happy-sounding indiepop, though with thoughtful lyrics and some extra measure of infectious catchiness that's hard to define. Think early Death Cab for Cutie, but less sad. That's what I thought. In fact, I've just learned their 2009 record Telekinesis! was produced, mixed and engineered with Death Cab's (legendary) Chris Walla, so that explains a lot. Lerner plays most instruments on the recording, and I can't stop playing it. It has me resisting the urge to dance in my chair at work from the first chords of "You Turn Clear in the Sun," the album's first cut. Seriously, check them (/him) out.

After the set the band was at the Waterloo tent, a signing area organized by a local Austin record store where you can buy the music of selected artists and then have things autographed. I bought a copy of their record and waited in line, catching most of the Antlers set in the meantime. Apart from Telekinesis being just (a) genuinely nice, down-to-earth guy(s), what really struck me about that experience was the instant gratification of it. Discover a band, see him/them in concert, buy his/their music and meet him/them, all in the same hour-and-a-half. A ridiculous experience (and ridiculously awesome) experience.

Fresh Millions

Fresh Millions was my least favorite act of the festival. I wandered over in the middle of the set and was able to immediately get an uncontested spot on the rail -- that should have been my first clue. Fresh Millions is two guys with synthesizers and a guitar, plus a drumset, using ridiculous amounts of autotune and praising their own musical prowess. The most impressive their about their act is that really striking guitar. I left after a song or two.

Festival Food Opportunities
One thing I love about ACL as opposed to my only other festival experience, Sasquatch, is its incredible variety of local food. It's surprising, when you consider the increased necessity of a variety of food options at a camping festival like Sasquatch, to find more and better food at a daytime-only festival, but that's definitely the case. All the most popular food vendors in Austin bring enough equipment and staff to serve mass quantities of one or two of their most popular menu items in ready-to-carry containers. Much of it is organic, fair trade, or otherwise attractive to hippie concertgoers. I bought some carnitas tacos with some carrot-habanero sauce. I drank a really strange but super delicious "Texas cactus lemonade". It was carbonated, cold, and tasted unlike anything I'd ever drunk before, so I was pleased. And then it was time to go back to the music.

Young the Giant
Young the Giant put on a fantastic show. I was completely unfamiliar with their music and so can't come up with any good details to write about. I remain unconvinced that I would be into it when recorded, but I thoroughly enjoyed their set.

It started raining partway through, offering blessed relief from the heat and some excitement. My camera is waterproof but my phone and the newly-autographed CD in my pocket weren't, so I hid under my poncho. Umbrellas quickly became an obstacle, though people seemed not to care in the slightest whether the people behind them could see or not, so long as they were dry.

It rained off and on through the remainder of the Young the Giant set and during the wait afterward.

Iron & Wine
I was conflicted about whether or not to see Iron & Wine for a couple of reasons. First, I'd purchased a ticket to the Bright Eyes aftershow at Stubb's BBQ downtown. Having experienced the Monsters of Folk aftershow at the same venue last year, I knew how many people would already be waiting. Ideally, I'd have left the festival by 4 in order to get their in plenty of time to be near the front. But I'd also just managed to be in Omaha and miss seeing Iron & Wine at the Waiting Room, a fantastic little venue in Benson. I decided that since I'd seen Bright Eyes the previous two nights running, I could sacrifice a place at the front to see Iron & Wine.

It was a delightful choice. Before the show I watched Batman (okay, just Christian Bale) talk to Sam Beam for quite a while, and wondered what they were filming. And then I listened to Sam and his complement of musicians create a kind of transcendentally beautiful music that is perhaps partially explainable by the contact high I was getting from the ring of smokers surrounding me. I like to think it was just seeing Iron & Wine and dancing in the rain, but who knows.

I had managed to catch Iron & Wine at Sasquatch festival in May, and they played a very similar set. They played none of my favorites from older, simpler albums like Creek Drank the Cradle. They've created an elaborate and involved sound that complimented songs from Shepherd's Dog and Kiss Each Other Clean. It comes across as masterfully complex for a live set, and it's mixed well enough that you can appreciate it. I certainly did.

As soon as Iron & Wine was over, I headed out of the festival and on to my aftershow. More on that in the next post.