My friend Jason was excited about seeing Capital Cities at 2:15. I was not excited about seeing Capital Cities at 2:15. However, sometimes in a relationship, you have to give some to get some, so I watched these two bearded goofballs dance around and sing some pop songs. Favorite part here was people watching. It never gets old to feel musically superior to people fully enjoying themselves to a song you think is inferior.
Sadly for me, Hozier bailed on the weekend. ACL's twitter said: "Unfortunately,
So with my 3:15 plans up in the air, I decided to give Bleachers a shot. They were surprisingly good. The "band" was interesting - two drummers, each with a full kit, two synth guys, and then Antonoff bouncing around out front with his guitar. The above hit (I Wanna Get Better) was a party time in the crowd, and the rest of the songs were pretty solid as well, bouncing between rock and chill.
4:15 was Chvrches time, who I was really excited to see. They were fabulous. On top of great music and well-done renditions to a pretty damn big crowd, their between-song banter made me laugh. The lead singer is the tiniest little Scot, who at one point started commenting on some of the flags in the audience, noting that there were two big dong signs in the back of the crowd with clever witticisms written on them like "cum this way."
I audibled out of St. Vincent (Amy's comment via text: "You are not following your schedule. Your fans will be dissapointed." She thinks I have fans! She believes in me!) and went to J. Roddy Walston & the Business instead. They freaking rock so hard. Made me want to kick dirt and pull gauges out of people's ears.
That Zeppelin riff!!! Ahhhhhh!!! While getting the business from J. Roddy, I jammed some East Side Kings pork buns down my gullet (mighty dang tasty) and we wandered on.
Jason wanted to do Foster the People at 6:15 and I'm damn glad I listened. They put on a hell of a show, played a lot of great pop rock tunes, and the whole crowd ate it up. I ended up knowing more of their songs than I thought I would, and even got to see miss fancy VIP Amy for a song or two before they had to go backstage and eat some popular people buffet. One new hit (Comin' of Age) rips off U2 and the Edge so hard it must have hurt the Edge's little skull-capped melon.
Now we walked over to get into a good spot for Outkast. Man, they were freaking awesome. I could not have been happier when they played International Players Anthem (I Choose You). Some of you may wonder why that would make me so happy. First, not their song (UGK, fool!), so it was a welcome surprise. Second, the song absolutely bangs better than any beat alive. Third, the line "trash likes to F with forty dollars in the club," which is so very well crafted and makes me laugh.
On top of that song, they did a handful of their great hits, split up to do their respective Speakerboxx/Love Below solo hits, and then came back together to finish it off. They seemed like they were having a great time, and the crowd just ate it up. I thought they wouldn't be into the show - I just read an interview where Andre 3000 mentioned how lame it is to still be rapping the same lines he made up when he was 17. Fair enough, but if that is true, he hid it well for us. The kids around me didn't know the Aquemeni or ATLiens tunes, but I think the entire crowd sang Mrs. Jackson and So Fresh and So Clean. Great time.
While most people were now done with their ACL experience for the night, not this band of intrepid explorers! You know the dumb thing you do every time you go to Vegas or some other similar party weekend? Where the first night you just go all in and burn the candle on three ends and what seems like an awesome idea later turns out to make you real real sleepy and sore? Yeah.
We drove to my office to park and walk over to Stubbs for the Rosebuds/Spanish Gold aftershow. The Rosebuds were actually pretty dang good. I didn't remember much about them from my earlier listens to blog about them, but then when they played I totally recalled the tunes. Actually pretty awesome. You should go check them out.
But the prize of the night was that Spanish Gold action. I don't understand why these guys haven't overtaken U2 or Springsteen as the greatest band in the world. Something must be wrong with me here, because I feel like every lyric, every riff, every eyes-closed-kinda-creepy roll of the head by the drummer, is just right spot on perfect. I promise the band is not made up of my kids of something, but I just dig it all. Their show was excellent. The Stubb's indoor venue is also excellent - probably like 150 people total in there for the sold out show, and while it was full, we could still stand up right by the stage. As the guys left the stage, I clapped the drummer on his back and yelled something that was likely super dumb and would be embarrassing if I could remember ("way to go, bro!" "killed it, brah!" "Spanish oro, amirite!?!"). I have to say, his shirt could not have physically held more liquid. The Indian Ocean might actually have less liquid in it than his shirt did. People 20 feet away from us got drenched like the log ride at Six Flags. That was one sweaty dude.
Still sad I had to miss Blackberry Smoke, but this was an insanely fun day. More to come.
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