Sunny Days, Rockin' Music: Austin City Limits 2010

[This is a tad late, but better late than never]
Austin City Limits, October 8 - 10, 2010 Zilker Park, Austin, Texas

This year’s Austin City Limits, October 8 – 10, took place under brilliant sunshine. And when the sun went down, headliners came out, and then we all rushed back for no shortage of fantastic aftershows.

In the midst of all the great music emanating from multiple stages, several bands over the weekend took the opportunity to deliver political messages to their large crowds. Both Gogol Bordello and Ozomatli touted their pro-immigration message to cheering fans. And the Dallas-based gospel-funk band The Relatives (pictured here) reflected on the difficulty of growing up black in the south and asked everyone to rejoice and sing in celebration of black-white unity.

Friday musical highlights: Spoon showed up with a full horn section and Brit sung his heart out. The Black Keys rocked but it was a mob scene at that stage. Seemingly, the entire festival crowd congregated there as they were virtually unopposed (no offense, Pat Green). Always a treat, Robert Randolph & the Family Band got their blues-rock jam going in the tent. Donovan Frankenreiter was a last-minute addition to the early-Friday schedule, and a welcome one, as Those Darlins hurt me ears. A nice surprise was the Swedish trio Miike Snow, who had a fun synth-pop thing going on.

As for Friday’s headliners, I hung around for some of Phish, out of curiosity and to get a contact buzz from all the smoke in the air. Good stuff! Also caught a bit of the Strokes on the way out and they sounded excellent, as ever.

Saturday was packed with non-stop good tunage. Grace Potter & the Nocturnals did a rockin’ bluesy set as her powerhouse vocals filled the field. Was unusual to see Zilker so crowded so early in the day but understandable given this lineup. Pete Yorn then came out on a nearby stage in a black cowboy hat and did an upbeat set that featured a few new songs but was packed with first-album goodness. (I think my scream deafened some young lad in front of me when Pete broke into “Murray.” Sorry dude).

Saturday afternoon, Gaslight Anthem was a bit too hard rockin’ for me, so I wandered over to Lucero, an alt-folk-rock band from Memphis, which was more my speed. Then, enjoyed the vocal harmonies of Atlanta’s Manchester Orchestra. Next up, Broken Bells, driven by super-duo Danger Mouse (Gnarls Barkley) and James Mercer (singer from the Shins), gave us an hour of their outstanding shoegazer pop. After that, I took a Temper Trap nap, while my friends left me for the XX, an excellent band as well.

But I had to stay put because next up was Gogol Bordello, those crazy Ukrainian Jews who now call New York home and who perform a wacky mix of klezmer, rock, reggae and whatever else they feel like…all bundled into a sound they call “gypsy punk.” My quick feet then raced over to catch the end of LA’s Ozomatli, who were as energetic and rockin’ as ever. Also caught a couple of Deadmau5 deejay tunes and loved their light show. British rock sensation Muse headlined and was outstanding.

Sunday presented a late-day conflict. Four things we wanted to see. So we stuck around for a bit of the National (can’t resist Matt Berninger’s gorgeous deep voice), wandered over to Cage the Elephant (ouch, not my thing!), enjoyed some Richard Thompson, and then caught the end of Norah Jones whose extra mellow songs got swallowed up on that huge stage, especially when the Eagles started early and drowned her out across the field. Not nice, Henley!

Sunday’s best for me was Trombone Shorty & Orleans Ave. in the tent. They belted out their New Orleans jazz and funk, complete with their full horn section. Shorty (aka Troy Andrews) closed with a medley that included his awesome Louis Armstrong impersonation as well as the theme song to the HBO series Tremé, which he has appeared on. Other good stuff earlier on Sunday included: Foals, Devendra Banhart, and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.

And then, when the sun went down:

Night Shows:

Thursday night: Austin faves Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears rocked the socks off of the crowd at Antone’s. He sounds like Lil’ James Brown with an attitude to match and, of course, the honeybear horn section.

Friday night: We took a night off from tunes to spend several hours imbibing at Ginger Man.

Saturday night: Who knew the Continental Club on South Congress had a little upstairs room. In this tiny room was the Mike Flanigin Trio featuring none other than Jimmie Vaughan (pictured below with ClubD) . What a treat! After the set, we noticed familiar faces playing in the main bar. Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears! They weren’t on the ACL schedule this year but they sure made up for it in aftershows.

Sunday night: Blues Traveler played the midnight show at La Zona Rosa with Martin Sexton opening the gig. Outstanding. Popper turned his back to the crowd every 6 minutes or so to take huge drags on his cigarettes. A highlight was his cover of “Imagine” in honor of what would have been John Lennon’s 70^th birthday that night.