ACL 2022: Saturday, Weekend One: Schedule and Thoughts

Saturday isn't a great day for the schedule.  This might be one of those years where we stay at the bar to watch the entire TX/OU game before going over to the park.  But you know what else is amazing?  My son got his drivers license earlier this year!  FREE TAXI SERVICE, BABY!!!!

A few prelude thoughts for Saturday:

• 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 headliners have been pushed far back this night - Pink doesn't even start until 8:30? A few years back, GNR started at 7:30.  Kind of lame to cut back her set to only an hour and a half?
• Overall, not a great day for me - very few things on here feel important to see.

Playlist!

Here we go:

12:00

Miller Lite	Spill Tab: Bedroom pop gal who is now going in a rockier direction that I like
BMI	Katzu Oso: Bedroom-synth pop in both English and Spanish that I already can't remember and it is currently playing right now as I write this.
Barton Springs	Mama Duke: Local rapper with a brash sound and some clean beats
Tito's	Disko Cowboy: DJ with a western flair, I suppose.
T-Mobile	Walt Disco: Like a David Bowie impersonator who only listened to 3 seconds of "Heroes."

They made the two Discko artists go against each other?!?!  Sickos!  Should have just thrown the Purple Disco guy in here too and we could have finished it off.  I truly hated Walt Disco, and didn't care for Katzu.  I'd probably go with Mama Duke over Spill Tab, but I think both of those are pretty solid.

12:45/1:00

Honda	The Future X: Connecticut rapper with solid bars
Tito's (1:00)	The Past Lives: Bluesy rock outfit from Austin (I think!) without any studio music that I could find.
Kiddie (1:00)	Elena Moon Park: Kiddie music with a Hawaiian and East Asian bent.
American Express	The Ventures: Original Gangsta guitar Gods - The Band that Launched 1,000 Bands.

Of these three, I think I'd probably go watch the zombie Ventures to see the guitar fireworks.  Future X is solid too, but The Ventures feel like an important slice of rock history.  More likely?  Order another pitcher at the sports bar and hope that Texas is beating up on the Okies.

1:30

Miller Lite	Slayyyter: Kinda nasty pop lady in the mold of Paris Hilton
BMI	Jessia: Poppy singer with good songwriting chops
Barton Springs	Lido Pimienta: Spanish language critical darling doing cumbia art-pop
T-Mobile	The Aquadolls: Surf rock like Best Coast listened to the Breeders

Aquadolls.  For sure.  Slayyyter was vying for my least favorite thing on the poster award. Just aggravatingly awful stuff.  The other two are fine but nothing special to me.

2:00/2:15

Honda	Adrian Quesada's Boleros Psicodelicos:  The guy behind Black Pumas and many other good bands playing Mexican boleros
Tito’s Tent (2:00)	Cimafunk:  Funky Cuban making very enjoyable tunes (I just wish I could understand them!)
American Express	The Midnight: More 80's redux schlock
Kiddie (2:45)	123 Andres: Bilingual kiddie fun times.

Cimafunk feels like the right call.  Go get sweaty in the Tito's tent grooving to some high energy, super-funky Cuban music?  Sign me up.  The Adrian Quesada project would probably be good too.  This might be the first thing we actually see this year, we'll see.

3:15

Miller Lite	Samia: Really great indie rocker with famous parents
BMI	Charlotte Sands: Pop punk from the second-most-popular Charlotte on Spotify
Barton Springs	Tyla Yaweh: More boring Autotune mumble rap/R&B songs from a friend of Post Malone
T-Mobile	Role Model: Generic bedroom pop and rapping.  Feels like the first release from a former boy band guy trying to make it on his own.

Why are all of the times off by 15 minutes?  Just start the shows on the hour!

Garbage hour right there.  Samia is my choice for sure, but that is just not a great set up of bands.  I like her sound quite a bit, but the rest of this hour is just lame.  Oh, and Omah Lay (Nigerian R&B guy with a Biebs co-sign) is playing in the Tito's Tent at 3, I missed him up there for some reason.

4:15

Honda	Conan Gray: Male Olivia Rodrigo?  Great songwriter either way.
Tito’s Tent	Maude Latour: Baby Lorde
Kiddie	SaulPaul: Acoustic hip hop (but also real beats) for the Kiddies
American Express	Wallows: B-list movie star band with great indie rock chops.

Finally, the first band of the day that I really, actually want to make sure I see.  Just a tough day overall.  Wallows for the win here, although it would be entertaining to go see Conan Gray and think about his massacre of the National Anthem at that baseball game.

5:15

Miller Lite	Sofi Tukker: Electronic dance music for the dumbing down of America
BMI	Aly & AJ: Ex-Disney actress sisters still out there making pop music
Barton Springs	Sabrina Claudio: Whispery, slinky R&B lady
T-Mobile	Manchester Orchestra: Very good indie rock (which makes it a mistake to have just also reviewed Death Cab and War on Drugs)

Easy pick here too.  Manchester Orchestra is a great band and puts on a cool live show.  I saw them a few years back and loved the energy.  I hated Tukker, didn't enjoy Claudio, and have no need to see ex-Disney pop.

6:15

Honda	Big Boi: Half of Outkast still making funky raps
Tito’s Tent	Purple Disco Machine: More 80's redux synth music, but with a little disco flair thrown in
American Express	Lil Nas X: The "Old Town Road" guy is still making insanely popular but mediocre raps

Gotta go with Big Boi, although I am surprised about two things here.  First, that they'd put two of the very few rappers against each other.  That seems crappy for the rap fans out there.  Second, that one of the eight main headliners on the initial poster gets a six o'clock slot.  Shouldn't X be the one at the end of the night?

7:20

Miller Lite	Diplo: Electronic kingpin with generally uninteresting songs
Barton Springs	Tobe Nwigwe: Houston rapper with a great range of voices who will fight you when Jesus won't
T-Mobile	The War on Drugs: Top notch indie rock band with a heavy touch of melancholy and classic rock flourishes

They really loaded up on the EDM stuff with Diplo going right before Flume.  I hope the kids are able to bring enough drugs to keep it going for two whole back-to-back shows.  Nwigwe is great fun - if you are wanting rap stuff this weekend, then this is your chance.  But I've wanted to see War on Drugs for a while and will definitely choose that show.

HEADLINERS:

Honda	Flume: EDM guy
Tito's	Silent Disco
Lady Bird	P!nk: Pop rock star from 20 years ago

Ehhh, I guess I'd go see P!nk?  Or maybe call it a night and just head out to get a cheap drink at the house?  I just don't care all that much about EDM.  Maybe we'll run in to some friends and just chill at the back of the Flume show and let the sweet bass drops happen from afar?  Meh.

ACL 2018: First Weekend Saturday Thoughts [EDIT]

Aw man.  I know I said earlier that first weekend Friday may be the best night of the whole weekend, but I don't know, dude.  Metallica?  Nelly?  Chvrches?  Some of these are very exciting.
I don't usually make it out there first thing on Saturday, but in the past I've done that if there were top notch early things to see.  This year I'll probably take the time to go eat and drink well before making my way down to Zilker, but maybe I'll push it to get down there to see Dizzy.  But the early stuff today is not must-see for me.

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).

Playlist!

12:00 – 1:00

Miller Lite	PARIS: Soundcloud rapper/singer who needs a new name
Barton Springs	Molly Burch: Torchy tunes with a sad bend but a nice voice.
Kiddie Limits (12:30)	Red Yarn: Kiddie Limits music with a barnyard/animal theme
Tito’s (11:45)	Bells of Joy: Gospel
BMI	Dizzy: Super chilled, dreamy pop from Ontario that I actually enjoy.
Home Away	Slenderbodies: Whispery, falsetto indie pop that still somehow grooves

These early morning offerings are pretty bland.  If I’m there this early in the day, I’d choose Dizzy. Although a few weeks after posting this, I've still been singing one of the slenderbodies songs in my head.  So maybe they're better than I thought.

12:45

Honda	Supa Bwe: Another sing/song rapper without much good to say.
Tito’s Tent	Jackie Venson: Austin blues rocker with a killer guitar.
American Express	Alice Merton: The "No Roots" lady.

Pretty weak hour, so I think I would probably angle for seeing Jackie Venson to see if she is as legit in person as she seems.  Local product too.  Also, I think listening to everyone go crazy for that freaking "No Roots" song, after napping through the first 42 minutes of Merton’s show, would make me crazy.  I witnessed this same thing with Capital Cities a few years ago, with that garbage "Safe and Sound" song, and it made me irrationally annoyed.

1:30 to 2:30

Miller Lite	Durand Jones and the Indications: Retro Soul goodness with a great live sound.
Barton Springs	IAMDDB: Generic mix of rap and R&B from a Brit lady
Tito’s (1:45)	Ikebe Shakedown: Funky instrumental jam outs with tons of horns
BMI	Naked Giants: Highly fun pop punk rock bounce from Seattle.
Home Away	Verite: Moody electronic pop and 1975 covers.

This hour is all over the map.  You can literally just choose the type of tunes you want.  Durand Jones is good, if you are looking for retro soul.  Ikebe Shakedown are super funky and groovy, if you want instrumental groove.  But Naked Giants are probably the best thing in this slot for my money.  I’ll likely go there.

(although I have to admit that I couldn’t recall the style of music for any of these bands, except for Ikebe, when I saw this line on the poster.  Not a great sign for their memorableness).

2:30 to 3:30

Honda	Mon Laferte: Spanish-language music I don't understand
Kiddie Limits	Kupira Marimba: Marimba music for kids to boogie to.
Tito’s Tent (2:45)	Curtis Harding: O.G.-sounding soul man.
American Express (2:15)	The Wombats: Highly fun Brit rock and roll with that Dance to Joy Division hit

On the one hand, Curtis Harding is pretty freaking cool.  I might be swayed to go over there and eyeball his style.  On the other, upper hand, I think I’d likely prefer high energy rock and goofiness of the Wombats.

3:30

Miller Lite	SMINO: Singer/rapper leaning more to R&B soul than hip hop.
Barton Springs	Japanese Breakfast: Great melodic indie rock to go with thoughts of sushi pancakes
BMI	Sweet Spirit: Local pop rock good time
Home Away (3:15)	The Breeders: Alternative rock's girl group from the 90's (yes, you remember "Cannonball").

Kinda tough call here.  Japanese Breakfast is one of the new things I’ve found through this process that turned me into a fan.  But the Breeders are a part of my 90’s alt rock upbringing.  I might make my buddy choose for me.  I think I’m leaning Breeders.

4:30

Honda	Brandi Carlile: Great lyricist walking the line between rock and Americana
Kiddie Limits	SaulPaul: Acoustic hip hop (but also real beats) for the Kiddies
Tito’s Tent	Sofi Tukker: Electronic dance music for the dumbing down of America
American Express (4:15)	Highly Suspect: Excellent alternative rock

This is where Saturday could become your hard rock day.  Interesting the way that the Fest has cooked up a three show run here at the AmEx stage where you could just dig in for a series of mosh pits and head bangs from 4:30 to 10:00.  If it weren’t for Chvrches, I’d be tempted.  Anyway, Highly Suspect will get my vote here, although Brandi Carlile is very very good.

For real, I'm playing the playlist up above as I painstakingly put together all of these little charts, and "Little One" just came on.  I've heard that song 40 times by now, and yet I still broke into goosebumps during the chorus and needed to belt it out.  Definitely doing HS.

5:30

Miller Lite	Blood Orange: Bummer R&B crooner over down-tempo synth beats
Barton Springs	Sharon Van Etten: Perfectly pleasant folky rock that I've already forgotten
BMI	Flor: Surprisingly fun indie pop rock.
Home Away (5:15)	Bazzi: Generic R&B guy made famous by a meme

This one is only hard because most of this is not good music.  I guess, when presented with these four choices, that Flor would be my choice, although I have to confess that before I just looked back at my review, they had slipped entirely from my mind.  At least I could remember that Blood Orange and Bazzi are terrible.

6:00 to 6:30

Honda	Chvrches: Excellent electronic dance pop from Scotland
Tito’s Tent	San Holo: More generic EDM
American Express (6:00)	Deftones: Mid-90's hard rockers with a few great tunes and then some Incubus and screaming sludge.

Chvrches, all day, for me.  A case could be made to go see the Deftones and relive some of my Nu Metal days, but I really want to see Chvrches again.  Also, they have shifted the times slightly, so you could theoretically go see 20 minutes of Deftones and still make the whole Chvrches set.

7:00 or 7:30

Miller Lite	St. Vincent: Quirky electro-indie rock
Barton Springs	Residente: Spanish-language EDM and hip hop from Puerto Rico
Home Away (7:00)	Nelly: THE St. Louis Rapper, as far as I'm concerned, with loads of hits you know

This is a harder call than it should be.  St. Vincent is legitimately good, and from what I have read, she puts on a great live show.  But come on, man, I’d just have to go bump and grind to Nelly.  I don’t think I could live with myself if I missed out on “Hot in Herrre.”  I’m very sophisticated.

8:00 or 8:30

Honda (8:30)	Justice: Old school electronic dance party
Tito’s Tent (2:45)	Silent Disco
American Express (8:00)	Metallica: Metal Gods

It is honestly too bad, because I think I would have enjoyed Justice.  Of all the electronic stuff coming to this year’s fest, they are the most approachable for an old person like me.  That being said, I would not miss out on Metallica.  I know I have been beating this into the ground, but they are seriously great live.  Even if you’re scared, just go anyway and let yourself be taken in by the power.  Also, note that Metallica's set just recently expanded to two hours (instead of just an hour and a half).

ACL 2018: Second Weekend: Saturday Thoughts [EDIT AGAIN]

Rock and Roll, baby.  This day could allow you to mosh your way into the end of the night, with three bands on the American Express stage from 4:30 on that are either hard rock or metal.  I'm curious to see if we get an influx of metalheads with their cool Hot Topic t-shirts on to show how O.G. their love for thrash metal really is.

But, even if you aren't into the metal world, you can get some other great bands this day.  Chvches, Trampled by Turtles, Highly Suspect, The Breeders.  Even smaller things like Wallows and Ruston Kelly.  This will be a good day.

I don't usually make it out there first thing on Saturday, but in the past I've done that if there were top notch early things to see.  This weekend, I think I'd like to make it out there for the 12:45 hour to see Wallows.  We'll see how that works with tiredness and our Lyft ride.

AAAAAAND they just added Lil Wayne to Saturday or Second Weekend only.  That is cool as hell.  Trying to make up for the loss of Child Ass Gambino.  BUT, for me, that makes things difficult.  Wish they would have added him to Sunday night instead, because now he conflicts with Chvrches and goes right up to the start of Metallica.

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).

Playlist!

12:00 – 1:00

Miller Lite	Lo Moon: Gently lovely indie pop.
Barton Springs	Mamafesta: Local jam band grooving out in the dark.
Kiddie Limits (12:30)	Barton Hills Choir: The elementary school choir from the campus closest to Zilker Park.
Tito’s (11:45)	Ty Morris &H.O.W.: Gospel
BMI	Charley Crockett: If Hank Williams Sr. liked to get soulful and bluesy every once in a while.
Home Away	Slenderbodies: Whispery, falsetto indie pop that still somehow grooves

These early morning offerings are pretty bland.  If I’m there this early in the day, I guess I'd go for Crockett (but will probably just show up a little later...) 

12:45

Honda	Donna Missal: Strong-voiced pop with a retro bend
Tito’s Tent	Harry Paradise: Forgettable electronic guy from Austin that even ACL doesn't seem to care about.
American Express	Wallows: B-list movie star band with great indie rock chops.

Wallows is the easy choice here for me.  Paradise is not good.  Missal is fine, but I'm not going to pass up rock for retro pop most days of the week.

1:30 to 2:30

Miller Lite	Durand Jones and the Indications: Retro Soul goodness with a great live sound.
Barton Springs	IAMDDB: Generic mix of rap and R&B from a Brit lady
Tito’s (1:45)	Ikebe Shakedown: Funky instrumental jam outs with tons of horns
BMI	Ruston Kelly: Very good Americana and alt country from husband of Kasey Musgraves
Home Away	Verite: Moody electronic pop and 1975 covers.

This hour is all over the map.  You can literally just choose the type of tunes you want.  Durand Jones is good, if you are looking for retro soul.  Ikebe Shakedown are super funky and groovy, if you want instrumental groove.  But Ruston Kelly is legitimately good.  I've been listening to his new album even after being done with all of these bands, he was one of the few bands in this whole thing that have stuck in my head.

2:30 to 3:30

Honda	Mon Laferte: Spanish-language music I don't understand
Kiddie Limits	Lard Dog & theBand of Shy: Kiddie Limits silliness
Tito’s Tent (2:45)	Curtis Harding: O.G.-sounding soul man.
American Express (2:15)	The Wombats: Highly fun Brit rock and roll with that Dance to Joy Division hit

On the one hand, Curtis Harding is pretty freaking cool.  I might be swayed to go over there and eyeball his style.  On the other, upper hand, I think I’d likely prefer high energy rock and goofiness of the Wombats.

3:30

Miller Lite	SMINO: Singer/rapper leaning more to R&B soul than hip hop.
Barton Springs	Japanese Breakfast: Great melodic indie rock to go with thoughts of sushi pancakes
BMI	Lucie Silvas: British pop early, morphing into rootsy almost country, with dramatic violins always involved.
Home Away (3:15)	The Breeders: Alternative rock's girl group from the 90's (yes, you remember "Cannonball").

Kinda tough call here.  Japanese Breakfast is one of the new things I’ve found through this process that turned me into a fan.  But the Breeders are a part of my 90’s alt rock upbringing.  I might make my buddy choose for me.  I think I’m leaning Breeders.

Note, however, that they just adjusted the time for that show to 3:15.

4:30

Honda	Brandi Carlile: Great lyricist walking the line between rock and Americana
Kiddie Limits	Ralph’s World: Kiddie Limits silliness
Tito’s Tent	Rhye: Beautiful falsetto-driven chill tunes
American Express (4:15)	Highly Suspect: Excellent alternative rock

This is where Saturday could become your hard rock day.  Interesting the way that the Fest has cooked up a three show run here at the AmEx stage where you could just dig in for a series of mosh pits and head bangs from 4:30 to 10:00.  If it weren’t for Chvrches, I’d be tempted.  Anyway, Highly Suspect will get my vote here, although Brandi Carlile is very very good.  If you get to go both weekends, then go see her for one of them.

For real, I'm playing the playlist up above as I painstakingly put together all of these little charts, and "Little One" just came on.  I've heard that song 40 times by now, and yet I still broke into goosebumps during the chorus and needed to belt it out.  Definitely doing HS.

5:30

Miller Lite	Blood Orange: Bummer R&B crooner over down-tempo synth beats
Barton Springs	Marian Hill: That Apple commercial song with the wall dancing.
BMI	Trampled by Turtles: Bluegrass traditionalists who can haul ass on the banjo
Home Away (5:15)	Bazzi: Generic R&B guy made famous by a meme

This one is very simple, because most of this is not good music.  Trampled by Turtles is fun and exciting bluegrass music.  Maybe you don't like fun music and want to go suffer through bad R&B or bands with one massive hit and then a bunch of detritus.  Be my guest!  

6:00 to 6:30

Honda (6:30)	Chvrches: Excellent electronic dance pop from Scotland
Tito’s Tent (6:30)	San Holo: More generic EDM
American Express (6:00)	Disturbed: Oooo wahahaha!  Nu metal rockers with a schlocky side.

Chvrches, all day, for me.  A case could be made to go see Disturbed and relive some of my Nu Metal days, but they just dive too deep into some bad tunes in their shows.  If they would just play "Down With The Sickness" over and over for 45 minutes, then end with the dumb "Sound of Silence" cover, I'd consider it.  But as is, Chvrches.

Just noticed this will be the first show that takes me from the Amex side of the park.  I need to lobby the C3 folks to move swap Chvrches for Disturbed so I can just stay on that one side of the grounds.

7:00 and 7:30

Miller Lite (7:30)	Sylvan Esso:  Glitchy-sounding electronic indie pop that weakens after the Get Up Get Down one.
Barton Springs (7:30)	Residente: Spanish-language EDM and hip hop from Puerto Rico
Home Away (7:00)	Lil Wayne!  Self-proclaimed best rapper alive.  I don't go that far, but he can drop some perfect one liners (among a bunch of groaners).

Now this got all jacked up because of stupid Childish Gambino.  Justice got move up to the headliner slot here, and St. Vincent got yanked from this hour (and day) and put onto Sunday night.  
So, that totally changes the question here.  Where did Sylvan Esso come from?  Ah, they used to be Sunday night.  WTF.  Both of these are not good, so this will be the time when I get up close to see Metallica.
Wait!  Now they added in Lil Wayne to this spot!  I'm going to go crazy trying to keep up with all of these changes, I can only imagine what the people are C3 are feeling like right now.  BUT, with him playing at a 7pm slot, that jacks up me seeing Chvrches.  Too bad they didn't add him to Sunday night, rap lovers could have done Staples, then Wayne, then Scott.  Oh well.  As it is, I'll miss this hour to go from Chvrches to Metallica.

8:00 to 8:30

Honda (8:30)	Justice: Old school electronic dance party
Tito’s Tent (2:45)	Silent Disco
American Express (7:50)	Metallica: Metal Gods

Travis Scott is out, moved to Sunday night headliner.  Now you get Justice, who is actually pretty legitimately good for electronic dance.  That being said, I would not miss out on Metallica, regardless of who was in this slot against them.  I know I have been beating this into the ground, but they are seriously great live.  Even if you’re scared, just go anyway and let yourself be taken in by the power.  Also, note that the Metallica show has been expanded to two hours and ten minutes (instead of just 1.5).