ACL 2010: LCD Soundsystem

I’d have to say that my personal favorite at this year’s Austin City Limits was LCD Soundsystem – and this is coming from someone that probably wasn’t a fan before this year. James Murphy was definitely the kind of artist I never truly understood, for whatever lame reason, and it was This Is Happening that changed my views. It’s still probably my most-heard album of the year and the one that continues to amaze me with every single repeated listen.
Saturday right, as the sun (that's it up on the banner) was setting, was LCD Soundsystem’s time at ACL. They played from 530-630 and now, when I look at these pictures, it’s crazy just how light to dark it went, fast. I don’t remember the sound being nearly this loud but I absolutely love it when Murphy screams “Don’t you want me to wake up?!” There are just so many one-liners on this song, on this entire album, that it’s astounding. And I didn’t even used to dig “Drunk Girls” too much but now, it’s nothing more than a dance-your-troubles-away, catchy, bumpy ride, or is that what “Dance Yrself Clean” is about?

I definitely need to apologize because as I’m finally listening to this for the first time, hearing my voice against such beautiful music is annoying so seriously, sorry for that. To try and place this into some kind of contextual meaning: you always want to see your favorite bands/artists when they’re at their utmost peak. I’m getting ahead of myself but LCD Soundsystem is definitely one of the greatest bands of our current time. I’m still in awe of the simple fact that we got to stand there, in an hour of mesmerizing music and where I definitely danced till I felt myself clean (lame!) and listen to LCD Soundsystem play “I Can Change,” “All My Friends,” “You Wanted a Hit,” and end with “Home.” – Bryan

Lcd Soundsystem live @ ACL 2010 by nico43

The Mayer of ACL

Possibly one of the most anticipated acts for myself this year at ACL was homeboy right here. And let me tell you, Mayer Hawthorne came prepared! In my eyes he was the most rehearsed and best prepared act of the entire festival. His performance was spot on, and each song blended into the next almost seamlessly. Nothing against other acts at the festival, but his set was golden from begging to end. One surprising thing I found was that he has a truly monster singing voice. There's no production magic going on when you hear him sing on his album, "A Strange Arrangement", its just pure talent from the Michigan native (he even threw in a "GO BLUE" remark in front of the pro UT crowd, ha). One thing you notice at the festival is a lot of the acts do at least one cover during there set, and Mayer was no different. Where he did differ though was the decade he chose to pick his cover from. Where you have bands like Broken Bells covering The Black Keys, Band Of Horses covering Cee-Lo Green, Mayer on the other hand chose The Doobie Brothers' "What a Fool Believes". And Honestly it was perfect, a little funny at first, but Mayer and The County knocked it out of the park. As always I was able to record the entire show and it came out pretty decent. Though I did cut it up so it would be easier to listen to. The recording below is my favorite part of his set and includes 2 brand new songs, "I Need You" and one I heard for the first Time, "No Strings" which is available for free download here , though in my opinion the live recoding is almost better ;) The recording starts out with a pretty funny story that apparently happened at one of my favorite establishments in Austin, Waterloo Records. The rest of his amazing set will hopefully be up soon, but for now, enjoi this. -Nick
Mayer Hawthorne Live @ ACL 2010 by nico43

ACL 2010: The Black Keys

The first band we made sure to get up and close for was The Black Keys. It was pretty startling to get to the park at 3PM and already see so many people there but as you've probably already heard, this year's Austin City Limits Festival was ridiculously packed. Still, it made for amazing moments where the bands fed off the audience's energy and delivered awesome performances.
The Black Keys were certainly no exception as they rocked the crowd with intense energy. They played a few songs as a duo and then brought out a bassist and pianist to flesh out songs like "Tighten Up." I dug the smooth chug of "Everlasting Light" the most but it was also pretty great to hear older songs. Their sequencing was especially remarkable, as if they were improvising the entire set.
In the end, I don't remember being that blown away with my first performance in the three years I've been to ACL. It definitely made me forget that I was sacrificing Beach House to catch these rocking brothers. Maybe it was the fact that they're one of the trendiest bands right now, maybe it was that their new album is pretty spectacular or maybe just the fact that they're a tremendous band, did me in. - Bryan