ACL 2015: Friday Recap

Friday:
Holy crap, 11:00 was an early start time to the day.  I was among the initial crowd allowed into the gates, and it was actually a lot of people stacked up for that opening.

In the Whale.  Tiny crowd, definitely less than 100 people.  But their music was insanely high energy, and the crowd was enjoying it.  I have to say that there was a little more screamo vocals than I expected from their EP, but it was still a fun show.  They also noted that they put out a real deal album in the Spring.  I need to hunt that down, because it is not on Spotify.
The drummer, while not the lead singer, took some time to try to hype up the crowd, which was fun.  At one point he got us all to crouch down until the music climaxed and then jam out.  He told us to forget the sunglasses on our face or the beer in our hand and just let it all out.  If you go check out their facebook page, you can see a video of it, but I'm not smart enough to load that here.  He also ripped on "hipster bands who just push the space key and don't give a damn" (or something to that effect, he bagged on hipsters multiple times). He also gave a funny shout out to his parents, telling people to look for the only black people in the audience.  This was worth it to go early.

Leopold & His Fiction.  I stood there for two or three songs, and this was some good sounding rock and roll.  Not as tough as I recalled from their albums, a little prettier and less hard than I remembered.

American Aquarium.  I heard a few songs while waiting for my friend to get in the gate, and they were really good.  Way more tuneful and interesting than I remembered when I listened to them a few months ago.  Kind of wish I'd have watched more of this instead of Leopold.

The Maccabees.  Sweet.  They started off with "Marks to Prove It," which is probably my favorite of theirs now, and it was kick ass.  Good show, although we only stayed for about 20 minutes.

Residual Kid.  In the Kiddie Limits area.  And they just didn't have the sound turned up enough.  They sounded pretty good - the same heavy rock and roll slash grunge sound that they give in their recorded music, but the scene was just weird.  About 8 people standing up by the stage, about 50 sitting right behind them, and no one even really appearing to be paying attention to the music.  I think I need to hunt down a real show with these guys in a smaller venue where people are there to jam.

Royal Blood.  One of my top shows of the entire weekend.  I'm fully on board with these dudes.  First things first, I don't think I realized previously that this band is just a bass and drums.  There is no guitar.  I don't understand how they make that bass sound like it does, but they must use weird tuning or something because they somehow provide the same experience as a four piece band with only two dudes.  Huge crowd for this show - surprisingly big for a 2 pm show.  For the most part, they ripped through their album and I felt like I knew the majority of the songs.  Power rock and roll, the real deal.  If you can make it to see them sometime, you should definitely do it.

Leon Bridges.  This guy is the freaking truth.  I normally would never aim for soul music, but this stuff is beautiful and soulful and so spot on well done.  My friend leaned over to me and asked if we had gone back to the future to hear the band from Back to the Future.  The whole band was great, from the backup singer (spot on harmonies) to the drummer in the huge cowboy hat.  And Leon likes to dance - you could tell he just wanted to groove up there with us.  Silky smooth voice - so damn pretty.  Hard to believe he was just recently gigging for change with that voice.  Would have been a cool find for people in Fort Worth. My one beef with the show was that the microphone was having some troubles - it would glitch out every once in a while and no one did a thing about it.  When he ended with "River," I thought people were going to cry.  So beautiful.

Run the Jewels.  As I waited in line for beer, we heard the opening two songs of Run the Jewels, and holy hannah Killer Mike is an angry mo-fo.  "Run the Jewels" and "Oh My Darling Don't Cry" were absolutely crushing, with zero punches pulled.  They sounded great. Pro tip - if you don't want your kids to hear curse words, you should avoid RTJ.

Moon Taxi.  These guys did not disappoint, although I feel like their sound has grown more slick as they have matured over time.  Less raucous and raw and much tighter on their playing than the last time I saw them.  Enjoyed their set mainly from the lines to buy food though, so I can't say I was entirely tuned in.

Tame Impala.  Top five show of the weekend for me.  I just can't stop hearing "Let it Happen" in my head, and they crushed it.  Their tunes, especially live, are still psych rock, but they are still danceable and more fun than just a straight rock show. I had a blast listening to them do their thing.  Crazy, trippy imagery on the big screen behind them the whole time - pulsing light designs and eyeball lasers.  Crowd was lighter than I expected so we actually got up in front of the sound stage thing.  Which was sweet, for one to see the band better, but when you are in the thick of the crowd at a show like that, I think it increases enjoyment as you join in with everyone else.  Well, we did not join in with the two twenty-something dudes behind me.  
Dude 1: "Dude, did you eat all of that molly, or did you keep some for me?"
Dude 2: "Uh, no, man.  I took it aaaaaaaall."
Dude 1: "Aw.  I gotta go find Greg before this starts."
Nice.

After that show, we squeezed up a little closer and were probably 20 feet from the thrust stage that came out from the main stage.  I am tremendously bummed out that I couldn't hear Gary Clark Jr.  He played the stage closest to the Samsung, but you literally couldn't even tell that someone was playing from where we stood.  Which sucks.

Foo Fighters.  This one was really fun.  Before the show, a huge curtain came down in front of the stage as the roadies got the drum kit and Grohl's huge Game-of-Thrones-with-Guitar-Necks wheelchair set up.  (Grohl broke his leg a while back and still apparently can't walk without crutches).  

The throne from our spot

From behind the curtain, Grohl started screaming (literally screaming) and getting everyone hyped up with a few power-rocker flourishes like "AUSTIN ARE YOU F'ING READY?!?!?!" Here is the deal.  Dave Grohl is a freaking caricature.  I think he is great, but his schtick is laid on really heavy.  As the crowd hit a fevered pitch of screaming right back to Grohl, that huge curtain got sucked away in a spinning black hole and the band blasted into "Everlong" and "Monkeywrench."  And it was seriously awesome.  If you just let yourself go and jam out, this was insanely fun.

However, I have to say that I feel like they were better the last time they played ACL Fest. First, the mix sounded bad from where we were.  Dave Grohl's screams came through just fine, but a good portion of his lyrics were hard to hear or obscured by the band.  Second, while it was cool to see him get driven around the stage in his throne, I felt like Grohl did more vocal freakouts to make up for the fact that he couldn't do physical ones.  Finally, I just don't like their more recent albums as much as I loved their first three or four.  So while it was really cool to have Gary Clark Jr. come out and assist on the Sonic Highways track "What Did I Do/God as My Witness," I just think that and "Congregation" (and Skin and Bones," and "Times Like These," and "Best of You," and "The Pretender") are just weaker songs than their original stuff.

That being said, most of these songs are perfect stadium rockers with huge, repetitive
elements that made for a really fun sing-a-long jam.  "Something from Nothing," from the new album, sounded fantastic, as did classics like "My Hero" and "This is a Call."  And I think Grohl is genuinely funny when doing his "Are you ready to raawwwwwwkkkk!!!" thing. So while I can nitpick things like the vocal mix, I can't deny that this one was a really fun show.