And in the blink of an eye, Austin City Limits came to an end for yours truly for another year. But not before one more day of some incredible music, with Atoms for Peace (pictured) and Lionel Richie closing out the festival.
Things kicked off with Vancouver based four piece Bear Mountain. They’re a band who we’ve featured in our single streams before and we also got the chance to interview them at the festival – but this was the first time I had the opportunity to see them live, and they did not disappoint.
With unique vocals, great beats, high energy and excellent stage presence, this is a band who deliver their layered, catchy material live in style, with highlights including the track “Congo” and “Two Step”. Though I must digress its difficult to nail down an apt description of their sound. There’s 80s influence in there, electronic elements, jangly guitars, bass, drums… And even their lead, Ian Bevis (who originally created the project as a solo affair), adds some beats into the mix. A cover of “Everybody Wants To Rule The World” by Tears for Fears went down a treat, as they made it their own. Definitely a band to check out.
Austin’s Courrier, continuing the trend of misspelt band names, were covering the classic 80’s track “Bizarre Love Triangle” by New Order when I arrived, adding some more cowbell into the mix and showing themselves off as a finely tuned four piece. Their original material was among the best I discovered all weekend; featuring phenomenal lead vocals, with influences from the late eighties and early nineties (think early U2 and INXS, perhaps), with a reinvigorated feel. Their banter was entertaining too, “we grew up thinking this festival was really cool so now we’re playing it we have to pretend we don’t”, and if pushed by the right people, there could be some easy triple j hits in there.
It seemed the tendency of day three was towards new discoveries, and few shined brighter than Typhoon, with a lead singer who heralds comparisons to Conor Oberst and Frightened Rabbit’s Scott Hutchison. There were some eleven members on stage, with brass and strings producing epic, beautiful music. “Summer Home” was the sort of amazing that there aren’t nearly enough adjectives for. “Common Sentiment” ended the stellar set.
MS MR‘s Lizzy Plapinger emerged with green and yellow hair and the acclaimed duo – performing as a four piece – wasted no time jumping into musical proceedings, with “Bones” opening things up ahead of tracks like “Salty Sweet” and “Fantasy”. The set was high energy, and the band showed themselves off as a tight unit, though for the portion the set I saw, the mix a bit off – though I’m told it improved throughout the art. The Wild Feathers, meanwhile, had great energy, showing themselves off as a solid jam band; not to mention accompanied by some fantastic songs . Dawes sounded similarly brilliant on one of the main stages.
One of the first non-American bands to take the stage on the final day of the festival, was London outfit Noah and the Whale, with their sweet electric guitar and violin blend, as they continue to celebrate the release of their latest record “Heart of Nowhere”. “Blue Skies” was a fitting tune, with typical Austin weather showing itself off. “2 Atoms in a Molecule” was a recent addition to the set thanks to a request, featuring an awesome beat, and showing that they’re always keen to please their fans! Everyone clapped along to the sweet grooves of tracks like “Shape of my Heart” and “Rocks and Daggers”.
Paper Diamond amassed a HUGE crowd in spite of being one of only two electronic artists the whole weekend; the other being Kaskade. Safe to say he got the kids dancing… and even crowd surfing during the set’s heavier moments. The lack of electronica at this year’s event has been much talked about amongst US media; will be interesting to see how they address in 2014!
More typical of the sorts of bands on the lineup, were triple j darlings Grouplove, who whipped out tracks like “Shark Attack”, “Hippy Hill”, “Spun”, the Pixies infused “Rasberry”, the ever popular “Tongue Tied” and of course “Colours”. It was a strong set from a very easy to love band. Speaking of… Franz Ferdinand are back, and the set’s their delivering at the moment are some of the best I’ve seen from the group in years. There was a fabulous repore on the stage between the members; they were almost having too much fun up there. For a band who have had the success they have had, and been through all the paces, it’s fantastic to see that sort of energy. It would have helped that they received one hell of a reception from the crowd, who sung and danced along to tracks like “In the matinee”, “Evil Eye”, “Do You Want To?”, “Walk Away”, “Can’t Stop Feeling”, “Michael”, “This Fire” and the obligatory “Take me Out”. Talk about a hit filled set! These guys always deliver, but they were particularly on form today.
I only got to witness The National perform “Terrible Love” to close their set, but it was a beautiful thing. Tame Impala, meanwhile, accompanied by a stuffed tiger (Gavin the epileptic tiger), held the flag high for Australia as they, too, delivered a set full of great jams and all their singles, from “Half Full Glass of Wine” all the way to “Solitude is Bliss” and “Feels Like We Only Go Backwards”, which was led into by an epic instrumental introduction. They are sounding better than ever live, and it will be good to see them back on home soil for the Big Day Out.
I’d been waiting all weekend for this one, and couldn’t be more thrilled to have the opportunity to see Atoms for Peace, featuring Thom Yorke and Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Flea. The set jumped between tracks from the A4P record, Thom’s solo material, alongside a couple of surprises, including “Paperbag Writer” off the Radiohead Com Lag EP and the stunning Rabbit in Your Headlights” by UNKLE (DJ Shadow & James Lavelle), on which Yorke was the features vocalist. A track I’ve always wanted to hear live, and it was given plenty of love in the set. Yorke wasn’t the happiest of performers though, notably annoyed by some sound and fold back issues. Still, he danced his little dance while Flea strutted around the stage with his signature swagger, who even got in on some vocal action himself. “Harrowdown Hill” was another well received track, as the band walked off stage after only an hour, re-emerging for a 7 track encore (in two parts) that included “Feeling Pulled Apart by Horses”, “Atoms for Peace” and “Black Swan”, which closed out the set. Though the material isn’t considered as strong nor as well known as that of Radiohead, it was nonetheless a pheonemally well received set, and a true pleasure to see these songs in action. it is highly unlikely, after all, that it will ever make it to Australia.
The festival closed out with the surprising choice of Lionel Richie, who notably – and perhaps understandably – just seemed happy to be there. His set was career spanning, with plenty of Commodores material and even “We Are The World”, which is wrote with Michael Jackson and used to end the night. Tracks like “Dancing on the Ceiling”, “All Night Long”, “Through My Eyes” and “Brick House” had everyone singing and dancing along with cheesy grins. It was a lot of fun, and Richie was on form, entertaining the crowd every step of the way.
And with that, the festival was over. It was a great weekend that with a few minor technical exceptions, ran incredibly smoothly. C3 – the company who presents the event – have the festival model down to a tee. In spite of the weekend being sold out, the atmosphere was great, you could always get a spot for the bands you wanted to see, there was never a line for anything and the music was world class.
Austin City Limits is without a doubt one of the finest festivals in the world. Don’t pass up an opportunity to attend, should it come your way. I for one am already counting down until next year.
