ACL 2019: Weekend One: Sunday: Schedule and Thoughts

I was thinking to myself, as I scrolled through the bickering, sniping, angry hellscape that is Twitter right now, that one thing I am definitely not looking forward to at this year's fest are all of the diatribes from stage about politics.  I'm no fan of the moron in the White House right now or anything, but I absolutely don't need for the youngest sister from Joseph or some Canadian guitarist to spend eight minutes of my music-hearing time railing on Trump or Pelosi or Hillary or Bernie or impeachment or immigration or whatever.  Shut up and play me some jams.

Sunday is always a slow day for me, just because I'm old and tired and I'd probably rather watch some football and drink beer in air conditioning than mess around and watch the 11:30 band at ACL.  Sadly, this year is different, as I really like two of the early bands, but have a feeling that the inertia of my past many years of Sunday patterns will hold me to the usual and I will miss cleopatrick and Otis the Destroyer.

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.

11:45

Miller Lite	Kevin Garrett: Unmemorable, but perfectly pleasant, R&B and blue-eyed soul over piano
VRBO	Otis the Destroyer: Local dudes bashing their way into my heart with rock and roll
Tito’s	Shields of Faith: Gospel!
BMI	Cleopatrick: Hell yes, fellas, bring me all the Royal Blood crunch.
T-Mobile	Taela: Run of the mill R&B pop for one song

Honestly bummed that Otis and Cleo are both here in this time slot.  Unless something goes very differently than I expect, there is no way we are going to be in the park by 11:45 in the morning on Sunday.  Which sucks, because I really like both Cleopatrick and Otis the Destroyer.  If you dig some rock and roll, then these are your correct choices.

Also, I can’t reach Taela’s name without wanting some paella.

What I want you to do right now, is to hit play on "san jake" from cleopatrick up there in the playlist, then go run through a brick wall, then come back and read the rest of this.

12:30/12:45

Honda	Julia Jacklin: Pensive indie folkie stuff very much like Big Thief from last year.
Kiddie Limits	School of Rock: Kids jamming cover tunes based on what they learned at private lessons
Tito’s (12:45)	Thomas Csorba: Americana from a kid at Baylor
American Express	Nilufer Yanya:  Good indie rock and OK alt R&B

Again, doubt I will be in the park for this hour, but if I am, I’d probably choose Csorba.

1:15

Miller Lite	Still Woozy: Mediocre electronic indie that reminds me of that awful "Gooey" song.
VRBO	Japanese House: More 80's inflected indie pop!
BMI	Faye Webster: Americana singing photographer leaning towards R&B now.
T-Mobile	Duckwrth: Surprisingly good rap and mediocre R&B

Have zero recollection of what Still Woozy sounds like.  Not a good sign.  Err, same for Japanese House and Faye Webster.  This is the black hole hour.  I remember Duckwrth, but the problem with Duckwrth is that while two or three of his raps jam, his R&B stuff (which is the majority of his tunes) is blah.  My Spotify mix keeps trying to get me listen to more of his music, and I don’t want any of it.

1:45 / 2:00 / 2:30

Honda (2:00)	Idles: Semi-punk English dudes making catchy blasts with humor
Tito’s Tent (1:45)	Delacey: Successful pop songwriter coming out from behind the curtain for one "Jolene"-ish track
Kiddie Limits (2:30)	Koo Koo Kanga Roo: Electronic goofy kiddie music
American Express (2:00)	Joseph: Beautiful harmonies from a trio of sisters

Joseph is the best actual music of these four, but Idles might win just because I might want to go get my face bashed in for a while instead of hearing angelic harmonies.

2:45 and 3:00

Miller Lite	Bea Miller: Forgettable pop with indie pop girl voice
VRBO	Shura: Perfectly pleasant electronic indie pop songs for making out to.
Tito’s (2:45)	Kaina: Chicago R&B like she just kept the hooks from Chance songs
BMI	TOBi: Sing-song rap sort of thing from Toronto by way of Nigeria.
T-Mobile (2:30)	Koffee: Young reggae lady with a super catchy sound and a Rihanna co-sign

A bunch of weird one word names here.  I liked TOBi more than I should have, but Koffee is the winner in this time slot.  Pretty weak hour.

4:00 / 4:30

Honda	Rosalia: Converting traditional flamenco into modern R&B, all in Spanish
Tito’s Tent	GoGo Penguin: Jazzy piano beat-focused instrumentals (is a phrase I never knew I'd write)
American Express	Rebelution: Reggae rock for the college bros to chill to.
Kiddie	Special Guest

Another weak hour.  Come on!  Put cleopatrick in one of these slots and let me unleash the rock and ROLL!  I guess I would pick Rebelution out of these three?  Maybe go to Rosalia just to see the hype?

5:00

Miller Lite	Banks: Relatively generic alt R&B pop songstress
VRBO	Caamp: Folksy Americana with a bunch o' banjo.
BMI	Billy Strings: Pretty kickass bluegrass with a made-up name to match
T-Mobile	Fisher: Another EDM guy

How you gonna put Billy Strings and Caamp in the same time slot?  This is how you create the perfect country/bluegrass lineup before Mumford – go back to a few years ago when Kacey Musgraves, Chris Stapleton, Willie Nelson, Nathaniel Rateliff, and St. Paul and the Broken Bones leading up to the Mumford show!  2016!  You could have done the same here, with Mugraves, Billy Strings, Caamp, Rob Baird, Tyler Childers – hell, even Judah & the Lion could have joined in.  Instead you put these two against each other?  I’d choose Strings, but it would have been fun to see both of them.

6:00

Honda	Third Eye Blind: Doo Doo Doot!  Doo Doo Dooot Doooooo!
Tito’s Tent	Bruce Hornsby & the Noisemakers: Surprisingly jammy new tunes from the 80's piano soft-pop mastermind
American Express	Kacey Musgraves: Bad ass country chick with legit lyrics and cool sound

This is the hardest hour of the whole Festival.  On the one hand, it is actually pretty simple, because I’m seeing Kacey play any time that it is possible for me to see her play.  On the other hand, I would have really enjoyed both of these other two shows, which is just annoying.  Why y’all gotta do me like that?

7:00

Miller Lite	Lizzo: Boss queen rapper, singer, twerker, and flautist extraordinaire
VRBO	LANY: 80's pop redux balladry like The 1975, but more 80's
T-Mobile	Griz: The EDM guy with the saxophone

Lizzo.  Don’t be stupid.  If you skip that show, then you are stupid.

HEADLINERS:

Honda	Cardi B: Unapologetically brash New York hip hop gal with some good tracks, some annoying sounds, and a bunch of forgettable lines.
American Express	Mumford & Sons: Roots rocking Americana revivalists with two great albums and then ...

I could see doing Cardi B, just for the pure spectacle of it all.  But if I’m doing it for the music, then I’m for sure going to go see Mumford again.