Music

It had been 15 years–according, at least, to one of Eddie Vedder’s asides during the closing set of this weekend’s Austin City Limits Music Festival–since Pearl jam had played what he called “The Live Music Capital of the Nation.” And, as such, Vedder promised the mud-covered audiences at Zilker Park,…

Like the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s set on Friday night, The Dead Weather’s ACL offering captivated audiences not because of Jack White’s part, but rather because of Alison Mosshart’s enthralling efforts at the front of her supergroup. Mosshart prowled and posed and teased before her audience on Sunday, appearing as if…

The Dirty Projectors may have been around since 2002, but make no mistake: 2009 is the Brooklyn-based act’s breakthrough year, thanks tot he success of the band’s phenomenal earlier-this-year-released Bitte Orca, a true gem of a folktronipop of a record, riff with lush instrumentations and as impressive a colelction of…

Surely, it was with their tongues planted firmly in their cheeks that the members of the Toadies opened their 4 p.m. set at the festival’s main stage on Sunday with longtime Rubberneck favorite “I Come From The Water.”But, a funny thing about the Toadies’ set on Sunday afternoon: For the…

It wasn’t the heat so much as it was the humidity–just like they say, really. But this humidity… on this day… in this mud… it was all pretty overwhelming at first. While their feet dragged through the mud, the rest of the attendees’ bodies were forced to swim through the…

The rains from Day Two at ACL may have held off on Day Three, yeah. But, make no mistake, the repercussions off dropping that much water onto a confined space? Those were definitely still felt by all in attendance on Sunday.Indeed, Zilker Park was one giant mud pit on Day…

This time around, White’s cohorts in crime include Alison Mosshart (of The Kills and Discount), Dean Fertita (of Queens of the Stone Age) and Jack Lawrence (of The Raconteurs and The Greenhornes). Now, I know it seems like White forms a supergroup just about every weekend, but this newest creation…

The Dodos, House of Blues, Friday, Oct. 2ndThe San Francisco psychedelic folk trio is having a charmed year. They scored a Miller Chill commercial song placement, and in November they’ll head off on a European tour. But they were cool enough to stop at House of Blues in Dallas first…

Saturday’s downpour raised the stakes for yesterday’s ACL acts, and while !!! did a fine job firing up the soggy crowd, Flogging Molly was another of the acts best suited for the rain.Starting with a few more shots from their set, through the doldrums of Bon Iver’s muted performance and…

The early outlook here on the Day Three of the 2009 Austin City Limits Music Festival isn’t too bad. The sun has peeked out from behind the clouds here and there, and, for the time being, the rain has held off. Forecasts appear to indicate more rain as the day…

Though Nick Urata, front man for Denver-based gypsy folk-rock outfit Devotchka, joked that the only reason his band had a draw worth mentioning during its set at ACL’s indoor Wildflower stage was because of the rain, consider his words simply a matter of humility. Because, for the bulk of Devotchka’s…

Jonathan Tyler & The Northern Lights had a lot of things working against it as its 4:40 p.m. timeslot neared. The rain was coming down at its hardest, the crowds were starting to tire, and, at this point, it was more than clear that there was no hope of sunshine…

Banter is not Grizzly Bear’s strong suit–not in the slightest. Rather this is a band propelled by meticulous instrumentation and harmonies. And though the band failed in the first count, its moot apologies to the crowd for putting up with the rain falling flat, the band succeeded glorious on the…

All photos by Patrick Michels The rain came down–and came down hard–just after !!! lanched its party-funk sound in the still-early afternoon of Day Two at ACL. But, perhaps because the crowds weren’t yet completely soaked, there was a certain novelty to the precipitation–and !!! frontman Nic Offer used that…

The radio announcer who introduced the band made sure to point out to the crowd that, despite whatever their programs may have said, this was not The Raveonettes. But, alas, the late arrivers to the XBox stage didn’t necessarily hear as much. So, great as Neon Indian may have been…

All photos by Patrick Michels In short, the weather made​ for a rather miserable day on Day Two of the 2009 Austin City Limits Music Festival.Gray skies hovered from the day’s start–and it didn’t take long for the clouds to unleashed their fury. Shortly after 2:30 p.m., the day’s first…

Along with Pete’s takes on some of Friday’s biggest sets here at ACL, we already brought you shots of Phoenix, Raphael Saadiq and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs — so before we head on out for another day in the front row (for the first three songs anyway, before they kick…

The Toadies may take the stage tomorrow afternoon in a prime 4 p.m. slot on one of the festival’s two main stages, but make no mistake: Today is DFW’s day at ACL. As I write this, Sarah Jaffe is preparing to take the Austin Ventures stage, performing for the first…

Dressed like a character belonging more to Pan’s Labyrinth than anything of the natural world, Karen O led the Yeah Yeah Yeahs through a fantastical, epic performance at Zilker Park last night.And it was all thanks to O’s doing. Beyond charismatic and magnetic, Karen O’s on-stage persona is a mixture of…