Austin City Limits 2008

Last weekend my cousin and I went down to Austin to catch some of the tunes, beer, dust, and grub of the 3-day Austin City Limits festival at the world famous Zilker Park. When it was all over, we left sore and tired, but with an even greater appreciation of the musicians that, frankly, make our worlds go round. We saw a lot. Here’s a quick review of some of what we saw and what I thought:

Vampire Weekend: It’s hard to believe they only have one album because every song they do is so damn catchy. I found myself singing along even though I didn’t know the words. A great way to open the fest. Grade: B+

M.Ward: Ward is a true musician being able to jam out equally well acoustically and electronically. His band of talented musicians is the kind you want to sit and listen to in lounge somewhere with a nice glass of wine. Grade: B

Mates of State: This married duo, to me, was the surprise of the festival. They rock on drums and keyboards with great vocal harmonies and overlapping lyrics on top. Grade: A-

The Swell Season: They sound just as good as they did in the film “Once.” They totally stick to their Irish roots and Glen Hansard rocks some Van Morrison like no other with his old busted guitar that was featured in the film. Grade B+

Old 97’s: Trying to classify this band’s genre is difficult, but it doesn’t matter because they succeed in whatever group you put them in. A quality Texas product. Grade: B+

Bavu Blakes and the Extra Plairs: When a band gets you to stop on your way somewhere else, then they must be good. This band shows us that Hip Hop CAN be done live. Grade: A

Man Man: When you hear the first song, you say “Wow, this is weird cool,” but after about 5 songs of the same campy stuff you get kind of tired of it. Grade: C

John Fogerty: Purely because of nostalgia, John puts on a good show that you can sing along to. The thing is I had to be reminded that I saw him. What does that say? Grade: B

Robert Plant & Alison Krauss: I’m stunned on how good these two sound together. They’re beyond complimentary. Doing some Zepplin and one from “O, Brother…” was appreciated. They would get an A, but I wanted a few more songs. Grade: A-

Flyleaf: I like their song on the radio, but something about this performance wasn’t right. I’m not sure if it was poor sound or the fact that the group members just didn’t seem to belong together. Grade: C

The Kills: The guitar and VV’s achy vocals over driving drum machine sounded wicked cool, but you could tell that the early stage time and the Texas heat prevented this performance from reaching its full potential. Grade: B

Blues Traveler: After the loss of their bassist and health problems for Popper, this band still knows how to jam. Their new ones successfully modernize their bluesy sound. I bought a harmonica because of this performance. Grade: A

Gnarls Barkley: How that butter voice comes out of Cee-Lo’s gangster tattooed body, I’ll never know. Every song by Danger Mouse has you bobbing your head. Grade: B

Foo Fighters: The Foo put the Rock in Rock show and when I say they rocked, I mean they @#$%ing rocked! You don’t realize how many hits they have until you hear two hours of songs and realize you know every one. They were more than worthy of the title ‘headliner’ and every musician should see a Foo show and take note. Grohl is the definition of frontman and Hawkins’ drum solos will blow your mind. It was the perfect ending to a heluva good time and single-handedly made the ticket worth the price. Grade: A+