ACL Day 3

Day 3: Rodeo Day
Three days, two ruined pairs of shoes, two boxes of film, hours of back pain, and a load of mud-drenched laundry later: worth it. I arrived a little after noon today to find a thick layer of mud covering every square inch of Zilker Park. The entire festival smelled like a rodeo, this impression was furthered as I watched festival staff literally spreading hay out over the mud in hopes of making it more manageable; no such luck. I accepted that this was the last day my shoes would see and headed to the AMD stage to catch the remainder of local favorites Black Joe Lewis and the Honey Bears.

Though I am an Austinite and it is perhaps sacrilegious, blues is not my forte. That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed Black Joe and the Honey Bears. In the spirit of James Brown, they played an energetic and very accessible brand of blues and R&B and delivered it with an authenticity that few can. I am a sucker for horns and harmonica, and both run aplenty in the bands gritty tunes. It was a nice way to start my day, and after a few minutes I got used to the rodeo stench and forgot that the park smelled at all.

Black Joe was followed by the much anticipated B-52’s. From the first note of the first song, it was apparent that age had not slowed the group a step. The band gave everyone what they wanted to see, playing their most popular songs and donning their colorful retro garb. “Hello Austin, here’s a lesson in ancient history’ front man Fred Schneider informed the audience before erupting into ‘Mesopotamia.’ Yes, the song is about history, but one could not help but think that Schneider’s comment had a double meaning. The set was enjoyed by young and old alike, dancing to every song. Yet you could almost see the thought bubbles hanging among the rising clouds of smoke over the audience: ‘Rock Lobster…Rock Lobster…’ and then it happened. The song was greeted with a roar from the crowd and a mass shouting of the lyrics. With their performance, the B-52’s solidified my vote for band of the day.

That is not to say that the rest of the day was a letdown, quite the contrary in fact. The Arctic Monkeys took the stage next, and while the group’s new long hairstyles may not be their best yet, the new album is. The band played an energetic set, complete with everyone’s favorite songs and Alex Turner’s wry social commentary. It’s hard to believe these gentlemen are only 23.

Passion Pit (the band that started as a Valentine’s Day present), may very well be the best Valentines day present ever. This band is just fun, and Michael Angelekos’s playful falsetto prompted the crowd surfing of a fan dressed in a green spandex suit, like Charlie from ‘It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia.’ Seeing green man crowd surfing made the show all the more entertaining. My best ACL costume award goes to green man, congratulations green man.

Everyone wants to know what Jack White is going to do next, which is why I weaved my way through groups of mud-caked dancers (kind of creepy) and to Livestrong stage to see the latest of White’s wildly successful side projects. The Dead Weather delivered an hour of unrelenting southern psychedelia with White keeping the beat on drums. It did look like four very, very, very confident rock stars but this is neither surprising nor offensive when you consider who is in the super group. The Dead Weather closed their set with Jack White giving the audience what they’d all been hoping for and coming out from behind the drum set to shred on the guitar. Of course the guitar playing was fantastic, but did anyone see Jack White’s white pointed toe leather boots? This man has the best taste in footwear. Best ACL footwear goes to Jack White.

Girl Talk was essentially a party. Being as how Greg Gillis writes no songs and plays no instruments, it’s interesting that he’s achieved this level of success. I think it’s probably because he does it the best. He does a good job of picking samples everyone knows and making the show very participatory, almost a sing-a-long. Though I had trouble shaking the feeling that I was at a Frat party, which is uncomfortable for me, I saw what was enjoyable about Girl Talk. More importantly, I saw someone in the crowd flying the Texas ‘Come and Take It’ flag. To this person, I give the award of best ACL flag.

I left after Girl Talk. I’ll leave Pearl Jam to the other 40,000 of you to tell people about. While the stink may fade, the mud may wash away, and the newly sodded grass probably got trampled to death, the memories of ACL 2009 will live forever.