The weather is perfect, with a cool breeze, bright sunshine and plenty of shade everywhere. Only complaint in that department is the clouds of dust kicked up by the thousands of festivalgoers, which explains the popularity of dust masks and bandanas worn bandit-style. With so many people in shades, hats and something covering their noses and mouths, there's no telling how many people I know whom I've crossed paths with and didn't recognize. Today would be the perfect day to pull of a heist in downtown Austin--there'd be thousands of suspects.
Just a quick update during something of a lull in the schedule. With P.O.S., Polvo and The Hold Steady coming up before the headliners, it's gonna be nonstop can't-miss performances until fest's end. But I'll try to provide a few more thoughts before tomorrow via Twitter at @dallashophead.
Deakin
This solo project from Animal Collective's Deakin (or Deacon, or Josh Dibb) was just as psychedelic, but in more of a dub vein, with spacey, ambient guitar over echoing reverberating distorted drum-pad beats. A pair of smoking-hot yoga-body hipster girls were dancing throughout--no idea how they found a beat to lock into, as loose as the rhythm was, but none of the guys nearby were complaining.
Kylesa
Super tom-heavy, sludgy, groove-metal with two drummers laying down a thick, ominous, thundering beat. The lead guitarist, a female who screamed and droned in her shared vocal duties with a male rhythm guitarist, played great melodic leads that weren't flashy but fit perfectly with the heavy rhythm section.
Toro Y Moi
Chazwick Bundick announced that it was his 24th birthday today; the biggest, most enthusiastic audience of the day so far must have been a nice present. His band tends to get lumped in with chillwave, but it seemed to have a propulsive krautrock underpinning and poppy, soulful vocals that makes it seem a bit more approachable live.
