ACL 2014 Weekend 2 Review, October 10-12, 2014
By Anita with help from Dana and Trish
Friday, October 10, 2014
From Anita: I arrived late Friday because I’d been working at a conference in Dallas until 3 pm that day. My flight had been delayed 30 minutes, as well. To save time getting to the park, I scored a $5 pedicab ride, which was awesome! I walked in at the tail end of Belle & Sebastian, but only heard them from far away. I met up with Trish, Katie, and Dana, and we headed over to Beck. We got really close to the stage without feeling crushed. There was even room to sit. The screen show behind Beck was good, and I liked about 50% of the music he played, but his gimmicks weren’t working for me. There was a time his guitarists pretended to be dead and he rolled crime scene tape across the stage. There were lots of starts and stops in the music where Beck “wasn’t feeling it”. There were also lots of weird choices in his music selection. But I danced and had a good time. The weather was perfect and it was a joy to be outside on such a beautiful night after being cooped up in a convention center for a week. On the way out, I waited for Trish so Dana and Katie could go ahead. Outkast ended a little early, then it took a few minutes to find each other in the crowd, but I made some “instafriends” while waiting. I love that about festivals – feeling like so many of the people you run into are your peeps. We walked back to Katie’s place and showered off the filth of a long day.
Saturday, October 11, 2014
Friday night and Saturday morning, it rained. Not enough to cancel ACL (like last year), but plenty enough to make it muddy. One of the acts I was most excited to see on Saturday was canceled: Riders Against the Storm. When I previewed them, I described them as a little rap, a little African, a little funk, a little everything. I expected a great stage show from them. Katie has heard of them and thinks they might be Austonian. I’ll be following them on Songkick in the hope that they come to DC. I was also hoping to stop by the Chain Gang of 1974, which is an 80’s inspired electronic dance band, but they too were canceled. They let people in at around 11:30, and we killed some time taking photos at the public art displays, then we went to shows. The mud was annoying, but they were cleaning up the puddles with giant vacuum trucks and spreading mulch, so we expected it to get better. Ha ha, funny us – we were so wrong. But we didn’t know that yet – we went to a bunch of shows and slowly caught on to Mother Nature’s joke on us.
Empires - Pretty boy front man who looked like a happy flirt, entirely forgettable music, just some guys who can’t believe they got to play the big stage. Living the dream.
Von Gray – Four young women from Atlanta with matching long black hair who are teenage sisters. Three of the four should still be in middle or high school. The music has pretty vocals and is sometimes twangy or ren-fest-ish. Might have been the cello that gave it that otherworldly feel.
Spanish Gold – Gritty, rockin’ classic-rock feel. Very good. Inspires a feeling of tough attitude from an earlier era. I noticed some Latin elements while previewing them, though I didn’t pick up on them live.
Benjamin Booker – Damn, boy, you’re good! Garage rock from a black man who exudes real-thing-cool. Down and dirty. Hint of blues. No stage banter, but his presence made up for it.
Falls – Pretty folksy duets. Trish said the backstory on this couple was that they used to be an item but split up, and still play together. Great voices, very pleasant to hear.
Dana and I stood in line for quite a while at Samsung Galaxy to get free Flash Tattoos. It’s an Austin-based company that makes jewelry-esque temporary tattoos, mostly in metallic colors.
Tune-Yards – An amazing show-stopper. Wow – her performance was incredible. It was theatrical and musically fantastic. Very impressive.
Polica – Pretty haunting female voice, average performance. Not terribly memorable.
My Brightest Diamond – Weird and talented is what I said in my preview, but I can’t for the life of me remember her on stage, so not memorable.
Bully – Pretty long-haired blond woman fronting a garage band. Forgettable music – very average.
The Head and the Heart (Dana)
Interpol – I don’t like their music, but Trish and I were up pretty close, so I used the time to collect cans and bottle for the free ACL shirt. Took me about 30 minutes, and I got 2 shirts out of it by turning in the fullest bag of the day. All I remember of the act was that the singer looked old and intense and was wearing black. I hate when artists wear black while playing on an entirely black stage. From a distance, it makes them disappear visually.
Iggy Azalea – I lost Trish and Dana, but stopped by Iggy Azalea a couple times to record clips for my “Fancy”-obsessed 9 year old daughter. Iggy had a choreographed, costumed stage show complete with backup dancers. She acted distant/cold towards the audience. Dana and I talked about whether it might be part of the rapper-swagger act. We were contrasting her performance to Katy Perry or Beyonce, who also are into choreographed stage shows. There was a lot of booty-bounce dancing. Not for kids.
Lucius – I love that they costume with matching blond wigs and brightly colored potato-sack shaped dresses. I also get the impression that they’ve practiced some choreographed movement (not dancing). It was entertaining to watch, and of course, their singing is gorgeous, but I already knew that going in.
Icona Pop – According to Dana, it was move-for-move the exact same show we’ve seen before, but made her every bit as happy as the first time she saw it.
Beats Antique – I recall a belly-dancing gorgeous percussionist woman, some drums, and a Middle-Eastern sounding high pitched clarinet. I’d call it world-fusion music, and it was well done. Very entertaining show.
Lana del Rey – Not as bad as her SNL fiasco, but she still did not impress me. When she first released music, I loved a few of her songs because she has such a distinctive sound that’s entirely her own. Now I’m over that sound. It’s all just more of the same. She bores me, and her stage show added nothing to her appeal. Not great.
Avett Brothers – They did a great job, but I can’t make a proper report of it because I was sitting far in the back and not paying much attention. Trish and Dana, however, were up front, and Trish entirely reversed her position about them once she saw them live. If you don’t know them, they are one of the best authentically country bands. Not in a commercial Nashville way, but in an American folk music way.
Broken Bells – James Mercer still sounds like himself and just stands there. Again, I didn’t pay a lot of attention and I was pretty far in the back, but they sounded good. Trish, Dana and I met up for this one, then walked by Juanes for a song on the way to food.
Juanes (Dana might add this.)
Major Lazer – I took a quick look at the Major Lazer spectacle from way in the back, and was lucky enough to hear the one song by them that’s on my favorites list (Get Free).
Eminem – Dana played her deaf interpreter card and got a special wristband that let her take one person at a time up to the restricted area by the stage, so I saw a few songs really close up. Still not impressed. Trish subbed in for me and was thrilled and awed by his rap prowess. I feel like the rap swagger is entirely contrived. It looks fake to me.
Skirillex – So I get it now why he’s a star of EDM DJ-dom. He added tons of energy to the show, hyping up the audience. The lights show was a technicolor, supergallactic spectacle, gorgeous, trippy, and fun.
When we got back to Katie’s, we all had to hose off our shoes before entering the house. The mud was up to our ankles and splattered everywhere.
Sunday, October 12, 2014
Nostalghia – This was cringe-run-escape music for Dana, so horrible to her ear that she had a hard time making it through one song. I didn’t hate it as much as she did, but I didn’t like it either. She’d go from dark, broody sounding vocals to death metal screams. Not my thing. What was impressive about the lead singer was her flair for the dramatic. She looked like the tortured angst-ridden Gothic soul her music portrayed, and she moved and posed dramatically. Great performer!
Haerts – So forgettable. I read a book. They all wore black on a black stage and stood in one place the whole time. They sounded exactly like the recordings. There was nothing added to the experience that made it worth seeing them live, and I’m not a huge fan to begin with.
Mo – This artist was great modern girl rock/pop, if you turned your back and didn’t look at the stage. The second you set eyes on her, the spell was broken and a feeling of annoyance overrode any appreciation you might have had for her music. The young woman looked like she had just rolled out of bed or come straight from the gym, while ill. She couldn’t have managed more scruffy if she’d tried. It was so bad, I felt it was disrespectful of the audience. It’s a shame, too, because she’s got dance moves and sings well, but she’s not going to take it to the next level without some serious help from a stylist.
I think we stopped for more Flash Tattoos and Goodpops at Samsung Galaxy before we headed to our next shows. By then the mud was truly aweful, and it took a lot of extra time to get from point A to B.
The Districts – We only heard a few songs by this band from a distance while we were in line for AT&T socks. There was a song that Trish and I noticed we liked which I think might have been called Long Distance. I went to eat and Trish when to Taylor Bennett (rap) while Dana braved the line for the socks.
Miniature Tigers – They dressed well, but I didn’t like them at all musically. I’m generally ok with their music on the radio (meaning I don’t always change the station when they come on), but I wasn’t enjoying their music that day. I felt too commercial to me, so I kept on going.
Reuben and the Dark – I landed here, at a band I described in my preview as “beautifully done derivative indie folk fusion.” Great for the sub-genre, but just like everything else I’ve heard and not memorable. No action on the stage and black clothes. Yeah, I was bored watching that, so I read and enjoyed the background music.
Kongos – Dana specifically insisted that I document that she LOVED them and didn’t expect to. Trish and I had both seem them before at U Street Music Hall, and were disappointed there. They do not sound anything like you might expect based on the couple songs that are popular by them (I’m Only Joking and Come With Me Now). The band is schizophrenic – it has no musical identity. One minute Irish jig, another minute disco, another reggae, another blues – and on and on. My best guess is that these four guys are united in a love of ALL forms of music. Not a good strategy for establishing a name for yourself, but maybe they were trying a little of everything to see what stuck to the wall. That would be genius. I love the accordion and the lead guitar/vocal guy (they all sing, actually) desperately needs an expensive haircut. He’s cute and could pull off sex object if his hair were accenting his looks instead of distracting from them.
Real Estate – There seemed to be no reason to SEE this band live. They had no stage presence, the music was exactly as recorded, and the men were not attractive. Don’t get me wrong, they sounded good, but it was the exact same experience you’d have listening to their record on a good sound system.
Cults – Trish and I saw this band when they were first starting out, and they were deer-in-the-headlights nervous on stage. We were really interested to see how they’ve evolved their stage presence in the intervening couple years. The lead singer brought it. She was emoting, she was well put together, she engaged. The guys slacked and rested on her laurels. It made me thing of the former bassist from Grouplove who absolutely exuded charisma, even though he barely spoke a word. He was a silent 3rd frontman. These guys did nothing to help.
Imelda May – My vote for the best of the day. Introed with a very cool poetry reading by an old cat, dressed to the 9s, incredible voice, swingin’ band, Irish lilt to her voice, and a knack for storytelling that sucked the audience in; this woman had it all. I DEFINITELY want to see her live again. Her music style was retro chanteuse, a little swing and rockabilly, a little crooner.
Fitz and the Tantrums – Sounded great. Wore black on a black stage. Pranced around a little, but didn’t bring it for the stage show. Did not meet my expectations.
Phantogram – Wore a lot of black (and a little white) on a black stage, so from a distance, they all disappeared into the set. Sounded good, but I didn’t stay long since I’m going to see them at the 9:30 Club in a couple weeks. Trish kept referring to the singer as “a class act.”
Jenny Lewis – I was most excited to see her, and she did a very good job. She was laid back and confident in her movement, but understated. Her act used a few props that added visual interest, but weren’t over the top. She saluted the audience with a glass of wine. She seemed like a laid back, confident adult who knows herself and her audience. I enjoyed her show.
Chromeo – I saw a very short sliver of this show from a distance. It did not make an impression on me, but there was definitely a lot going on.
Melanie Martinez – I dislike her music, but I felt compelled to check her out because I could see her costume from so far away – a pink Alice in wonderland dress with pink bunny ears and half her hair dyed blue and blue lipstick. You go girl!
The Replacements – A forgettable band that’s just a band standing on stage strumming. And I don’t like oldies. Bleh.
Lettuce – During my preview research, I learned that this is a funk band that’s been around for 20 years. I saw them for part of one song, and they were good – the audience was dancing. Not my thing, though.
Spoon – Stood on stage being Spoon. Sounded great, but I was very far away. Pleasant background music from my perspective.
Lorde – This show made ACL for Dana and Trish, but especially Dana. They LOVED LOVED LOVED LOVED LOVED it. (Direct quote.) Me, not so much. Good qualities: excellent hair flinging and costume changes. Loved that she wore diaphanous white that billowed with her big, wild mane of hair. The hair band head bang in slow motion is her signature move. Bad qualities: her music. I hate it. Bleh. If you’re a fan, this show rocks. If not, it’s painful unintentional comedy. Especially the ineloquent speech in the middle of the act that Dana found “sweet and from the heart.”
Calvin Harris – The lights show and pyrotechnics were amazing, but what I still don’t get is how much of that show can really be attributed to him, and how much is hired out help (for the lights) or borrowed from other artists. I’m not completely reconciled to EDM being a unique musical genre, thought that’s probably just me being old and crotchety. I do understand that this dude is an amazing producer that’s involved in TONS of successful projects, and according to his bio, he’s a songwriter too, but one who uses guest vocalists exclusively. Dude’s got talent, but he doesn’t have presence, and he wasn’t performing on stage, so what makes him a celebrity? Dana and Trish LOVED the show. I appreciated the rave spectacle. I am a big fan of sensory overload, which this show had in spades. Family in front of us brought their kindergarten child, and she wasn’t wearing earplugs, which disturbs me. There’s a fair amount of pot at this festival, which can be mostly avoided, and there’s a kiddie section that’s the bomb for the under-12 set, but there were way too many parents failing to protect sensitive ears. I wore earplugs most of the time. It really was too loud to safely go without them. I get a little riled up when I see unintentionally negligent parenting. Grrr.
Pearl Jam – Eddie Vetter sounds good, but I didn’t see a thing – too far away.
General comment: fun, OMG muddy, not amazing because I wasn’t super excited about many acts this year, but a great time with friends anyway. I’m glad I went.
