ACL 2017: Friday Thoughts

Fridays are so great out at ACL.  You knock off work early, strap the old wristband on, go eat a great lunch somewhere fantastic to impress your out of town guests, park and walk down to Zilker with the early bands already thumping along in the afternoon sunshine.  Everyone's excited, no sunburn or sore legs yet.  Can't wait.  So, as I mentioned before on the Sunday preview, I've changed it up this year to try to do hour-by-hour thoughts and layouts, because it honestly doesn't matter whether La Femme is my 83rd favorite band coming to the Festival, what matters is making the hard decision at 5:15 on Friday evening.

A few prelude thoughts:

• The comments for each band are those "One Liner" things that I added to my reviews. It helps me to remember who they are (sometimes) and provides some detail on the kind of music they play.  Every once in a while they make me giggle too.
• I've made each band name a link so that you can go read the full review and listen to some tunes if you are unswayed by the One Liner.
• The first column in each box is the stage where the band is playing (in case you thought I was just playing a weird word association game).
• The early hours on Friday are hard, because although none of the bands down there feel "must see" to me, they were mostly good stuff that I would have liked to have tried out.  The 5:15 hour is brutal for me, and I'm disappointed that I can't go see the xx because of Jay-Z.

Playlist!

And here we go.

11:45 am

Miller Lite	The Wild Now: Local duo doing dreamy sounding indie pop
Barton Springs	Twin Limb: Atmospheric dream pop with lady singer and an accordion
Tito’s (11:30a)	Disciples of Christ: Four gospel ladies from Houston (not the rap group, the hardcore metal group, or the world music group)
BMI	Jonny P: Soul realness.
HomeAway	Welles: The good stuff of rock and roll, but only an EP so far.

Oh yeah, I liked the Wild Now a lot.  If you would have walked up to me 3 minutes ago and asked if I liked them, I would have definitely confused them with the Big Wild (another band coming to the Fest this year), but they really are pretty good. However, Jonny P is freaking legit, and even though I saw him once before, I'd love to do it again. All of that being said, Welles is what I’d go see if I were out there this early.  I'm a sucker for the good rock action.

12:30

Honda	Asleep at the Wheel: Every year's favorite western swing purveyors
Kiddie	Barton Hills Choir: The elementary school choir from the campus closest to Zilker Park.
Tito’s	Carson McHone: Austinite making fine throwback country tunes
American Express	Methyl Ethel: Fine psych rock in the vein of a less weird Tame Impala

While Carson McHone is legitimately good (I saw her open for Jerry Jeff Walker a year or so ago), and Asleep at the Wheel is classic, I'd go to the Methyl Ethel show in this slot.

1:15

Miller Lite	Sigrid:  Killer voiced Norweigian gal deserves more hype NOPE, replaced with ROMES: Dance pop indie
Barton Springs	(Sandy) Alex G:  DIY indie rocker with some more experimental weirdness on the new album
Tito’s (1:30)	The Band of Heathens:  Austin alt. country./Americana band that sounds fantastic
BMI	The Aces:  Snappy pop indie girl group that I like despite myself
HomeAway	Missio:  Annoyingly hip electronic pop

Hard to go wrong in this hour, honestly.  Missio is probably the worst of these, but they will have a huge crowd there, ready to sing about throwing their middle fingers in the air.  All the cool kids will be there to use their middle fingers.  The Aces are really fun, although they don't have enough published music to know more than a few songs they'll play. Sigrid puts on a good show, sounds great, and I'd enjoy going to see more than the few songs she did at SXSW. That being said, The Band of Heathens is my choice for this hour because I like them a lot but have never seen them live.

2:15

Honda	Mute Math:  I like their old alt-rock sound much more than the current electro-pop stuff
Kiddie	School of Rock: Kids playing cover tunes after learning at the School of Rock
Tito’s	Valerie June: Cool mix of folky soul and bluesy Americana from a gal with Medusa's hair
American Express	Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness:  Emo electronic indie pop

This is a pretty eclectic group of people in this hour, so it will kind of depend on the type of music you like - you really aren't overlapping much in styles.  My instinct is to do Mute Math in this slot with the hope that they stick to their older alt-rock sound, but I think I could be swayed to do just about anything here.  Valerie June just radiates cool.  McMahon is in the running for worst band name, but I think he's probably in like third because of Rainbow Kitten Surprise and Car Seat Headrest.

3:15

Miller Lite	The Lemon Twigs:   Weird 60's pop redux hipster soft rock
Barton Springs	Hamilton Leithauser:   Ex-Walkmen front man makes great indie rock with Ex-Vampire
BMI	Spencer Ludwig:   Trumpet-forward pop tunes.
HomeAway	James Vincent McMorrow:   Irish folkie who turned to electro R&B

Weird hour right here, seems like everyone's name in this section is trying too damn hard.  I think I'd prefer to go see Leithauser do his Vampire Weekend-lite thing.  But all of these guys are kind of different and interesting in their own way.

4:15

Honda	Crystal Castles:  Stressful electronic music for people who hate their ears
Kiddie (4:30)	Lori Henriques:  Jazzy Kiddie Limits singer with some fun songs
Tito’s	Big Wild:   Electronic music that I liked more than I expected
American Express	Vulfpeck:   Funky weirdos who have gotten better over time

You couldn't pay me to go see Crystal Castles.  No freaking way.  So I'd probably flip a coin between going to jump around with the kids in the Tito's tent during an EDM show, or getting funky and weird with the Vulfpeck guys.  If forced to make that call right now, I'll say Vulfpeck (or just go and get close for the Royal Blood show).

5:15

Miller Lite	Lukas Nelson & the Promise of the Real:  Willie Nelson's kid plus Neil Young's backing band = jam rock tastiness
Barton Springs	Royal Blood:  The best new rock band in the past several years.
BMI	La Femme:  French-language indie pop
HomeAway	Skepta:  The king rapper of UK Grime

Ah man, I was really looking forward to trying out Skepta in person.  I think he'd be pretty fun to jam along to and yell his choruses.  IT AIN'T SAFE ON THE BLOCK!  NOT EVEN FOR THE COPS!  I also think that Lukas Nelson would put on a good show.  But Royal Blood is top five of things that I have to see at the Fest over all other things.  Can't wait.

6:15

Honda	The Revivalists:  Jammy rock band from New Orleans with a big current alt rock radio hit.
Tito’s	Bonobo (Live):  Kind of depressing electronic music
American Express	Foster the People:  The Pumped Up Kicks guys, still making pop rock goodness.

The Revivalists, for sure.  I'd go see Foster the People again, they are pretty fun, but I'd much rather go see The Revivalists in this hour.  I'm still curious about what it means for Bonobo to be "(Live)," maybe they will have actual instruments to play their depressing electronic tunes, but no thanks.

7:15

Miller Lite	Ryan Adams:  Alt country and rock and roll goodness by the ton
Barton Springs	Solange:  Beautiful, soulful R&B from Beyonce's sister
HomeAway	Martin Garrix: Supremely bland EDM

Normally at this hour, I'd be looking ahead to the next hour to see which stage I need to go get up in the crowd for, to see the big headliner of the night, but I think I'm pretty OK with seeing Jay-Z from a distance.  Of these three, I think Solange is pretty interesting, but I'd for sure go see Ryan Adams.  I likely will unless my friend is jonesing for a drop of Jay sweat.

8:15

Honda	The xx:  Lovely indie pop that switches between groove and sorrow.
Tito’s	Silent Disco:
American Express	Jay-Z:     Mount Rushmore of Rap guy.  Beyonce's man.  Not a businessman he's a business, man.

Jay-Z for sure.  As I detailed on my ridiculously overlong post about Jay-Z, I'm not his greatest fan of all time, but he's got some undeniable tracks and I've never seen him play live, so I'm excited to see the spectacle.  I also ran through his likely setlist on this post, in case you are interested in such things.  I would have liked to try out the xx after listening to them for this year's fest, but I'll have to skip it.  They seem cool.