ACL 2018: First Weekend: Sunday Thoughts [EDIT]

I know I've been complaining for months about not getting to do the first weekend of ACL, but I actually get to do the Sunday of the first weekend.  Sadly, in my opinion, it is the weaker day of the three.  BUT, there are still a bunch of good bands on the schedule for today, its just not quite so jam packed as Friday.  And nothing on here is truly MUST SEE for me, personally.  Still weird to me that McCartney isn't closing down the weekend...

But, since I'm taking the kids (and a friend with his teenager), my selections may not end up actually being the kinds of bands I would normally choose, were it only me going to the show.  Such is the way with life.  I'm still extremely excited to get to show my wife and kids more of the ACL experience, and to spend a day in the park with one of my oldest friends.  Should be a good time.  And not having hard desires makes it easier to go with the flow on shows other people really care about.

[EDIT] although, now, with Gambino out, this day really loses some luster.  The six o'clock hour turns into a chance for the whole world to go see Prince's old backing band.  Which is cool, but also a major bummer for all the folks who bought tickets today to see Gambino do his thing.

As I did last year, I'm not going to try to list everyone in order of how much I like them, because it honestly provides no good information for you to know that Houndmouth is better than Rezz in my mind.  What really matters, to me at least, is how to navigate the hard conflicts and figure out who to see in each time slot.  So, here we go again.

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.  
• 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).

Here is a playlist of my suggested tunes for Sunday.

Here we go.

11:30 to 12:15

Miller Lite	Wilderado: Genuinely great rock and roll AND a cool name.
Barton Springs	Sailor Poon: Raw lyrics over raw rock, if their name didn't rule they'd still be in their garage
Tito’s (11:15)	The Relatives: Gospel
BMI	Neighbor Lady: Great indie rock Americana from Georgia.
Home Away	Lemaitre: Electronic happy tunes in the neighborhood of Justice

Oh, damn.  I had forgotten about the pure rock-hard power of that Wilderado song “You Don’t Love Me.”  Go jam that song, its the first one in the playlist up above.  If these guys weren’t playing at stinkin’ 11:30 in the morning, I’d be there in a heartbeat.  Neighbor Lady is also good.  While Sailor Poon has a funny name, that’s about it.  And if you want to do a gospel band, The Relatives are the best of the bunch for the weekend, so this would be your shot.

Oh no, right, I'm going with the kids!  Maybe I'll make it there for Wilderado. 

12:15 to 1:00

Honda	Shame: Post-punk London rock that rules.
Kiddie Limits  (12:30)	School of Rock: Kids jamming cover tunes based on what they learned at private lessons
Tito’s Tent	The Texas Gentlemen: Roots rock by a badass backing band out on their own
American Express	Amber Mark: Soul pop and R&B like Norah Jones tried to make modern pop

A little conflicted here, but my weird musical tastes are likely outside the norm.  If you you’re your rock a little harder/punkier, then go Shame.  If you like your rock a little bluesier/Southern-ier, then go Texas Gentlemen.  I think if I went this early, I might actually pick the Gentlemen over Shame, but it would be a hard call.

1:00 to 2:00

Miller Lite	Amen Dunes:  Great indie rock tunes by a weirdo who doesn't listen to music.
Barton Springs	Mt. Joy:  Pleasantly anonymous indie rock with good lyrics
Tito’s (1:15)	Ghost of Paul Revere:  Banjofied Americana and Harmonic Folk (with a big ginger beard!).
BMI	The Nude Party:  Goofy name, but tasty countrified rock
Home Away	Yungblud:  Highly fun dance/electronic rock with lyrics built to shock.

This is a tough hour.  I know that none of these are household name bands, but I like all five of these bands.  So it will just come down to what are you looking to hear at this time of the day?  Yungblud likely has the potential to be the most famous/exciting out of this pack, with his dance-ready, exciting tunes and shocking lyrics.  Amen Dunes is probably the most talented of the bunch.  The Nude Party is very fun (that’s what she said).  And the other two would be great for a nice sunny afternoon relaxation session with a cold beer in hand.  If I’m there, I think I might get hyped and do Yungblud, but Amen Dunes is also calling my name.

2:00 to 3:00

Honda	A R I Z O N A:  Generic electro-rock tunes of platitude lyrics but a genius band name.
Kiddie Limits  (2:30)	Q Brothers:  The worst Kiddie Limits band
Tito’s Tent (2:15)	Flor De Toloache:  Mariachi ladies
American Express	Twin Shadow:  Sweepingly bombastic 80's synth pop

Yikes.  This hour is not great.  It’s too bad that some of the one o’clock guys couldn’t just slide over into this slot.  I’m not going to be one of those ironic dingbats that goes to watch mariachi to be funny (but disrespectful).  So, I’m left with generic and platitude-filled electro rock, or 80’s synth pop rock.  Ugggghhhh.  I guess I’ll pick A R I Z O N A, based solely on the fact that I met someone the other day who likes them?  But I refuse to highlight any of these guys, because its just not great.

I’ll tell you one thing I’d rather die than do, and that is go to the Q Brothers.

3:00

Miller Lite	Bahamas:   Sweet folky rock that brings Jack Johnson to mind.
Barton Springs	Parquet Courts:   Brooklyn garage rock fully loved by the critics
BMI	Injury Reserve: Arizona rappers with both party and introspective sides.
Home Away	Elle King:   The Ex's and Oh's lady has more scratchy-voiced, country-spiked pop.

It just dawned on me that I get to do both Sundays.  This first Sunday will be with the kids, then next Sunday will be with my buddy.  That changes what I’m going to pick here.  Elle King is likely the most famous of the group, although she is probably the one I would want to see the least.  Parquet Courts’ brand of funky indie rock would probably be my pick if I were left all alone, but I really liked Injury Reserve as well.  And Injury Reserve doesn’t play weekend two.  So, maybe I split up from the family, let them go see the dumb Ex’s and Oh’s song (and maybe that super explicit one she does live), while I go do Injury Reserve by myself this weekend.  Then Parquet next weekend.  This sounds like a good plan.

4:00 – 5:00

Honda	X Ambassadors:   Sweepingly homogeneous alternative rock
Kiddie Limits  (4:30)	Lisa Loeb:   Yes, that Reality Bites Song lady.  But now doing Kiddie Limits songs.
Tito’s Tent	Khruangbin:   Funky instrumental goodness
American Express	Janelle Monae:   Funky, freaky bad ass melting styles into great pop soul grooves.

Janelle Monae is the easy choice in this slot.  I could see an argument for going to see Lisa Loeb, except that she is playing the kiddie stage, and while I’d enjoy hearing “Stay,” I don’t need to hear songs about nutty coconuts.  I also very much love Khruangbin’s funky stuff, but Monae is (or should be) a true star.  I'd like to check that out live.  I don’t want to see the Ambassadors at all, which likely means that both my kids and my buddy are going to demand that one both weekends.  I need to start a smear campaign now.  If I could angle this my own way, I’d do Khruangbin this first weekend and then Monae next weekend, but I might need to suck it up and do Monae twice to guide my kids well.

5:00

Miller Lite	Tinashe:   Strong-voiced hook singer making bad, generic pop R&B
Barton Springs	Houndmouth: Shaggy southern rock goodness.
BMI	Hailey Knox:   Strong-voiced lover of Indie Pop Voice
Home Away	Rezz:   Aggressive electronic "body" music

Easiest decision of the day, I think.  Houndmouth is the only band I want to see of these four.  If only the female hadn't left Houndmouth, then this could have been an all female singer hour.

6:00 or 6:30

Honda	Phoenix: Discofied pop rock Frenchies with that "Lizstomania" song
Tito’s Tent	The Revolution:  Prince's backing band, carrying on without him.
American Express (6:30)	Camila Cabello:  The Fifth Harmony escapee pop star with that "Havana" song.

Honestly, I don’t know who I’m kidding.  With my kids in tow on this evening, we’ll be doing Camila Cabello.  They’ve been talking about this show for weeks.  I’m sort of interested in doing the Revolution, just to yell along with classic Prince songs, but I’ll likely just stay with the family and jam some mega pop.  Also, they have just added in Phoenix, and if they were up against many of the other folks on this Sunday lineup, I would choose them, but I know what the kids want to see, so we'll be jamming to "Havana" while everyone else is getting the mania caused by 19th century Hungarian composers.

Annoyingly, they just recently pushed Cabello back to 6:30, which means that the night is thrown off, because now you can’t get to the 7 o'clock shows when they start, and the headliners are all a little harder to manage.

7:00 or 7:30

Miller Lite	Illenium:  More entirely generic EDM with the usual female singing platitudes
Barton Springs	Shakey Graves:  Excellent local musician and songwriter doing bluesy rock
Home Away (7:30)	Sylvan Esso:  Glitchy-sounding electronic indie pop that weakens after the Get Up Get Down one.

So, if I stay at the whole Cabello show, then I miss half of Shakey Graves.  And if I stay at the whole Graves show, then I miss out on the start of Arctic Monkeys.  So they’re kind of backing me into a corner here.  I don’t want to see either of these other two groups, at all, so I might just end up trying to walk through the crowd at Shakey on the way over to get in place for the Monkeys.  Or just ignore this entire hour...

8:00 or 8:45

Honda	Arctic Monkeys: Fabulous rock and rollers with a recent lounge act bomb
Tito’s Tent	Silent Disco:
American Express (8:45)	Travis Scott:  Auto-Tuned/half-sung Houston rapper with an attitude problem

Theoretically, you could do both of these, from afar.  Since they start 45 minutes apart, you could go listen to 30 minutes of the Monkeys and then trudge all the way over to the other side of the park to catch all of Scott’s set.  That might be the way to do it this first weekend.  My choice, between the two, is easily to go see the Arctic Monkeys.  But since I’m doing both Sundays this time, maybe I plan on AM with my buddy and Scott this weekend?  I dunno.