ACL 2021: Friday - Weekend One - Schedule Thoughts and Recommendations!

[After many edits - Now they are just messing with me.  Switching up the schedule every few minutes to see if I am paying attention.  Dadgum!]

YES!  It's finally happening!  I freaking love putting together my schedule.  Running back through all 100+ of the artists I have listened to.  Remembering the ones that were cool, figuring out how to navigate the stages, activating my true inner (and outer, I guess, since this is pretty public) music nerd.

And it sure seems like this is all going to actually happen.  I've been kind of holding my breath for the past few weeks, worrying that an announcement was going to come out cancelling the Fest because of the dumb Delta variant and COVID.  But so far so good.  They did Lolla.  UT football games have been packed.  I've been to a few shows around town and just had to show my vaccine card.  So it seems like we'll get to plow ahead!  Hooray!

If you can bail on work, the early Friday time at ACL is so great.  I usually try to go eat a good lunch with my out of town buddy - impress him with something awesome and Austin-y that he can't get in the park.  I'm still mad that Freedman's closed - that place ruled.

As I did last year, I've changed up the preview format so that you get hour-by-hour thoughts and layouts.  Previously I had ranked all of the bands and that was insane, and also completely useless, because who cares if Remi Wolf is my 83rd favorite band?  What you need to know is a choice during each set, where the artists are actually duking it out on the poster.

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.
• Honestly, sometimes those one liners are freaking hard to write.  Some of this music is super crazy forgettable and I just can't come up with anything useful to write.  "uhhh, another R&B lady with a pretty voice?"
• 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).
• This day is really kind of empty - many slots only have three bands playing, where in the 2019 version of this schedule list there would frequently be five at a time.  Kind of a bummer.  7 lines only have three.  1 line has four.  1 line has two.  That is not enough.
• UUUGGGGHHHH.  First Tanya Tucker drops.  Then Bia.  Now Bleachers too?  This day was already less exciting with fewer stars, and now it just dropped even further.  I know its not the organizer's fault, but damn COVID sucks!
• Also a bummer, last time the main headliner started at 7:30, so we got a bigger, longer, better show.  That has been pushed back and both headliners start at 8 now.

A playlist of the tunes for my selections...

Here we go:

1:00

Honda	Asleep at the Wheel: Every year's favorite western swing purveyors
Tito's	Audic Empire: Austin reggae rock band
Lady Bird	DarkBird: Just got added, so I never reviewed, but in listening for the past 20 minutes this is good, rough and tumble alternative rock.  I'd go see this.

I doubt I'll make it to the park this early, but at the same time, I think all three of these would be enjoyable.  Asleep at the Wheel is a classic starter.  Audic Empire is kind of funny, but at the same time pretty enjoyable stoner 311-clone stuff.  

EDIT - DarkBird added.  Their Spotify bio tries to claim they are like Nirvana, which is sacrilege, but despite that, they're fun.  Hard, messy, jammin' rock and roll.  I'd go see them.

1:45

Miller Lite	Unusual Demont: Chilled R&B with a good voice.
BMI	Bexley: Hard rocking young lady from Seattle.
VRBO	Claud: Non-binary bedroom pop singer who reminds me of Maeby Funke.
T-Mobile	Primo, the Alien: 80's synth wave love from a local gal

You could have offered me $50 to recall anything at all about Unusual Demont as I started to write up this schedule.  No freaking clue.  They really stick with you!  When the original schedule was released, this one was actually a tough call.  Both Bexley and the Backseat Lovers are good and up my alley of rock and roll stuff.  But now the schedule got shuffled and the Lovers are elsewhere.  Bexley is fun though - hard rocking stuff.  Primo is a pretty fun thing too, if you are deeply into 80's synth music.

Random aside: I'm pre-emptively pissed that T-Mobile is a stage sponsor.  Because my shit AT&T service is going to be the usual garbage, and some kid with a T-Mobile next to me is going to be streaming the Texas game, while I can't get a single text to send.  Dammit.

2:30

Honda	nothing,nowhere: emo rapper
Tito’s Tent	Q: More R&B, this time, from a guy with an unsearchable name!
Lady Bird	Nane: Local soulful rock action that reminds me of Alabama Shakes

Ugh.  There are too many hours like this, where nothing is really all that appealing.  Why aren't there two more artists at this time slot?  Why is Friday so lame?  But I guess it is easiest through the process of elimination.  I definitely know I don't want to see depressing ass nothing,nowhere.  I know I don't want to see R&B guy.  So I guess we'll go check out Joy and see what she's got.

[edit - Nane is legitimately awesome - like I'll hunt them down to go see a show after the Fest is over because I think they are legit. They just got added to this hour and that is good news]

3:15

Miller Lite	Skip Marley: Grandson of Bob Marley, doing a pretty solid job of holding up the mantle
VRBO	Bia: Lady rapper who leans in to her name's Lil Jon relation. Emotional Oranges: Chill and enjoyable R&B stuff from anonymous duo
BMI	carolesdaughter: Ex-Mormon rocker with a face like a pincushion.
T-Mobile	The Backseat Lovers: Utah boys making loose rock jangles

Out of this group, it's Bia.  It absolutely is not carolesdaughter.  Yikes.  Skip and Tkay are fine as well, but I think Bia will be fun.

[EDIT - well, dammit, BIA has now pulled out of the flipping festival.  THIS IS SO ANNOYING.  I can't find any news about it, but she's definitely now off the poster.  Ugh.]  So, they replaced her with Emotional Oranges, who are actually better than I expected based on that band name.  But, now that they moved Backseat Lovers into this slot, that would be my choice here.

Now, unless they are adding The Fugees, I'd like them to stop messing with the schedule!

4:00

Honda	Machine Gun Kelly: Rapper turned generic pop punker
Tito’s Tent	Disko Cowboy (Vinyl Ranch): DJ with a western flair, I suppose.
Lady Bird	Bleachers: Pop mastermind churning out eighties inspired pop bangers and some filler Joy Oladokun: Low key folky R&B with a great voice.

I think I dodged a bullet here.  Originally, my buddy had said that we had to go watch Machine Gun, but luckily with Bleachers coming up against him, I think I'm safe from the generic pop punk.  We'll just go with pop instead.

[DAMMMMMIT - Bleachers announced - two days before this show - that someone in the band caught the COVID so they are cancelling everything.  So there is literally ONE SHOW during this hour, and it is dumb ass Machine Gun Kelly.  Everything is the worst.]

I'd love to imagine that a new band will get added in there, but I have no clue how they would be able to move that fast with zero notice.  Unless they have a local band that owes them a favor, I don't see how you get that slot filled.

[EDIT AGAIN - now they pushed Joy Oladokun into this slot, from earlier in the day.  I expect I'm still going to have to go watch MGK, even though the crowd for him is going to be stupid.]

5:00

Miller Lite	Moses Sumney: Quiet, pretty, soulful guy with amazingly beautiful voice who bores me
BMI	Zella Day: Pop artist who sometimes sounds like Lana Del Rey and who is not desert rock.
VRBO	Finneas: Billie Eilish's brother singing generic blue-eyed indie soulfully
T-Mobile	Tanya Tucker: She's a classic country star, but I don't recognize much of this. Tkay Maidza: Zimbabwean/ Australian R&B singer and rapper with some out of the box stuff.

Damn!  Tanya Tucker announced that she's cancelling all shows for the rest of the year after emergency hip surgery.  That freaking sucks.  Ugh.  I guess I'll go eat dinner here?  If I had to pick one of the remaining three, I guess it would be Moses Sumney.  [EDIT: with Tkay Maidza added into the mix now for this slot, I would go her way instead.]

6:00

Honda	Megan Thee Stallion: Cocky, Nasty, Freaky Lady Rapper from Houston
Tito’s Tent	Surprise
American Express	Black Pumas: Austin-based soul rock masters bringing good music back

That surprise in the Tito's tent had better be something pretty damn amazing, because this is the best hour of the day so far.  Either of those two would be a good time, but I'm for sure going to go see the Black Pumas.  I've been kicking myself for skipping their run at Stubb's earlier this year, so I for sure want to see them live.

[EDIT - the surprise artist is now gone from the Schedule.  Damn.  I guess they read my write-up (yeah right) and realized they couldn't put anyone in this slot.  More likely, the surprise was Emotional Oranges and they needed them once more bands dropped out].

The emptiness on the schedule, in between these two artists, is so very sad.

7:00

Miller Lite	Chet Faker: Australian downtempo electronic coolness
VRBO	Dermot Kennedy: Lovely voiced Irish pop with folky undertones
T-Mobile	Jon Pardi: Obviously the opener for George Strait, but thoroughly generic country

Hard call between Faker and Kennedy.  Neither is a lock for me that I simply must see, but both are pretty nice.  I guess I'm leaning towards seeing Faker.  I heard one of his tracks on the radio yesterday and, before I could place who it was, I had turned it up and dug in.  But if Jason wanted Kennedy, I'd be fine with that choice.  I absolutely will not go see Jon Pardi.  I still don't understand what he is doing on the lineup.  There are thousands of country artists who make more sense for ACL.

HEADLINERS:

Honda	Miley Cyrus: Hannah Montana turned sexy weirdo rocker
Tito's	Silent Disco
Lady Bird	George Strait: The King of Country

I'm going to go see George Strait.  I've never seen him before, I know and love a ton of his songs, that is what I'm doing.  But I also feel like the proper Festival end-of-the-night closer is more like Cyrus.  I'll be over there with the old fogeys wistfully singing about "could I drink you a buy?  oh listen to me. what I mean is could I buy you a drink?"  While the youths are at the Honda stage licking each other and screaming "We Can't Stop" at the top of their lungs.  It's too bad Miley didn't end up at the back end of Saturday, as that would have been fun to check out.