Austin City Limits Festival 2009: Day 1 in Review (Part 2)

Believe it or not I spent some time at the rest of the 2009 Austin City Limits Music Festival. I have so many conflicting obligations when I visit the Festival, that I never feel like I see enough of the non-Austin Kiddie Limits music. The first part of the day was cool enough, but it was time for the adult in me to enjoy a little music without the kids. So after helping my wife, Miss Mary Mack, and Little Boy Blue get back to downtown Austin (they're not quite the festival hounds I am), I finally made it back to Zilker Park and made my to the Wildflower Center stage to see K'naan.

Every year there's one performance I didn't quite anticipate that ends up blowing me away. K'naan's set, or at least the last 30 minutes that I caught, was that experience for this year. How good was this Canadian hip-hop artist originally born in Somalia? I bought his album Troubadour at the Waterloo tent pretty much right after his set ended. His set-closing performance of "Wavin' Flag," of which he did an abbreviated version that I half-caught at the Austin Kiddie Limits stage, might very well be the single best musical experience I've had in 3 years of attending ACL. This YouTube clip can't do it complete justice, of course, but the way he works the crowd together freestyling for about 6 minutes before launching into the music is masterful. "When I get older / I will be stronger / They'll call me freedom / Just like a wavin' flag / And then it goes back / And then it goes back / And then it goes back." I'm still singing this nearly a week later.

K'naan - "Wavin' Flag" (Live @ Austin City Limits Festival 2009)

K'naan - "Bang Bang" (Live @ Austin City Limits Festival 2009)

On my way to the Waterloo tent after his set, I stopped by the BMI stage to hear the Greencards (nice bluegrass with a hint of gypsy and non-North American influences). After picking up the CDs, I made my way over the Xbox 360 stage to hear Them Crooked Vultures, a supergroup featuring Dave Grohl on drums, Josh Homme on guitar, and Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones. I'm not sure I'd buy their album and listen on a regular basis, but in a live setting on a beautiful evening, they absolutely rocked. Even a kajillion miles away I could see Grohl drumming away, grinning like Animal. Makes me happy everytime I seem him drum.

Them Crooked Vultures - "Mind Eraser" (Live @ Austin City Limits Festival 2009)

And, conveniently, I just needed to turn around and see the Yeah Yeah Yeahs open up on the AMD stage. But by that point it was getting late and I knew I had another 45 minutes (or more) of traveling before seeing my family again. So I stayed for 3 songs of Karen O and her boys, then took off in the perfect Austin night.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Runaway" (Live @ Austin City Limits Festival 2009)

Austin Kiddie Limits (ACL Fest) 2009: Day 3 Review

On to Day 3 of the Austin City Limits Festival 2009, or at least the Austin Kiddie Limits stage. (If you missed it, read my thoughts and watch YouTube from Days 1 and 2 here and here.

So remember all that rain from Saturday? Remember the nice green grass the city had installed with C3's money with great fanfare?

It wasn't, like, Glastonbury mud, but it was deep enough in some places that, as Gwyneth noted to me, it felt like it could suck the shoes right off.

Anyway, after meandering through the media area and (ever-so-briefly) the Artists' Lounge (cleaner than the media area, and with ice cream), we (Miss Mary Mack and I) headed to see Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears from backstage. Saw Bill and his family up there. Jammed to the last few songs of the set. Made our way through the mud to the AKL stage. There we saw Ralph's World play their second set of the festival. Ralph Covert has a pretty tight band at this point, and he's got his live act down pat...

Ralph's World - "The Rhyming Circus"

Ralph's World - "Dumptruck"

Ralph's World - "Sunny Day Rainy Day Anytime Band" (particularly apropos for the weekend, always a good set closer)

After Ralph, Romeo and the guys from BBoy City came on and did their stuff, which is pretty incredible and has been each year. Might have been Miss Mary Mack's favorite part of the festival...

(Check out this last one. Oh my.)

At this point, it was either fight the mud and crowds to catch the second half of the B-52s' set or stick around at AKL. And while I'd've been willing, asking Miss Mary Mack to do that before a long series of transportation options that would park us back home 5 hours later was too much.

Of course, at least we got to see another Secret Agent 23 Skidoo set...

Secret Agent 23 Skidoo - "Boogieman"

Secret Agent 23 Skidoo - "The Whalephant" (new, unreleased track)

And then we skidaddled across the mud, onto the shuttle bus, into the car, and after many more transportation changes, made it back home. I'm not finished yet with my AKL/ACL thoughts -- more to come...

Austin Kiddie Limits (ACL Fest) 2009: Day 2 Review

I know, I know -- I was so diligent about posting my thoughts about Day 1 of the Austin City Limits Festival 2009 (or at least the Austin Kiddie Limits portion thereof).

And now it's a full 48 hours later after Saturday's Day 2 mudfest, and I still haven't posted my thoughts. So let's get moving, eh?

We did get an earlier start on Saturday morning, and found a parking spot fairly quickly, but even so, we pretty much only caught the last 2 songs of Mr. Leebot's AKL debut. Lee was energetic, trying to get the rained-upon crowd moving.

Did I forget to mention it was raining? That it rained for, oh, most of Saturday? That I would still prefer my music festivals rainy and cool than hot and dry? Well, I would.

Mr. Leebot - "Robot Dance"

As I noted to Lee later that weekend, although it was raining for his set, nobody was flinging mud at him a la Green Day circa Woodstock '94.

Then it was time to get lunch, so we moved out to the Food Court (mmmm... cones from Hudson's on the Bend) and, desirous to get out of the rain, after we ate we went to the Wildflower Center stage, which besides having a really good set of artists has a solid roof. We enjoyed 30 minutes of a (not literally) roof-raising set from the Gospel group the Soul Stirrers (Sam Cooke's old band), then made our way back to the AKL stage.

Walking back to the AKL stage from behind the stage, you would have been forgiven if you thought that it was a guest artist set. The music from Quinn Sullivan did not sound like it should be coming from someone who could have gotten in free with a paying adult. Not kids music, but pretty amazing. Packed crowd, and when Sullivan said, "This was cool -- I hope I get to do this next year," I'm sure I'm not the only one who thought, "Yeah, on one of the other, bigger stages."

Then we stuck around for Secret Agent 23 Skidoo, who I was eager to see. Skidoo brought a full compliment for the show including his daughter Saki, performing on stage and not fazed in the least by the crowd out there. Good set, though I'm wondering if maybe the bass was a bit loud -- as we left after the set early so that my wife and the kids could go home early with the Official Brother of Zooglobble, we could hear "Gotta Be Me"... from about a third of a mile away.

Secret Agent 23 Skidoo - "I Like Fruit"

Secret Agent 23 Skidoo - "Sleepover"

After I came back across the bridge after dropping off my family with my brother, I was hoping to see more, but Lunch Money's set had started late, and between that and the rain, traipsing off throughout the rest of the festival seemed more of a pain than was worthwhile considering I had to leave shortly for another engagement.

Lunch Money worked harder than probably any other band at working through the "this is what you do in this song to be interactive" motions. Here they solicited foods that did the kids wrong, right, and had never been tried. You sort of take for granted that people know how to act at concerts, but those are learned traits, and it's just as important to learn the rock show rules of the road than the children's theatre rules of the road.

Lunch Money - "Ate Too Much of My Favorite Food"

If I have one regret from the Lunch Money sets it's that I didn't hear them play many of their quieter songs. Having said that, live, the band rocks harder than on record. Watch out Rush, the band's looking to claim your power trio crown.

Sad to have missed Milkshake's second set (though I did hear a song as I dashed back at one point to collect our stuff) and Ralph's World first set. Not to worry, though, Ralph was playing Sunday....

Austin Kiddie Limits: Day 1 in Review (Part 1)

Day 1 of the 2009 Austin City Limits Music Festival is in the books, and what did we learn? Apparently leaving a little later, great weather, and threats of rain for the rest of the weekend makes parking in downtown Austin a lot harder to find. As opposed to getting downtown around 11 AM, we got there around 12:30 PM, and it took us a good 20 minutes to find parking. By the time we actually found a spot, walked to Republic Park, took the shuttle, got our wristbands, and found our bearings in the media tent, it was 2:00 PM. So, sorry, Stoosh! Our bad, Paul Green School of Rock All Stars (I've seen you plenty, though)! And really sorry to have missed The Telephone Company. Maybe Sunday, guys!

But even with missing half of Friday's Austin Kiddie Limits stage, we still had a good time. They've changed the layout this year, so that the stage is on the east end of the area, facing (north)west, and the whole layout seems shadier. Or maybe it was just the 74-degree weather. Anyway, we got there in plenty of time to see Milkshake take the stage. They put on a good 25-minute-or-so set, mostly stuff from their new album Great Day, along with some older material.

One of the things I like about AKL (and ACL in general) is that artists do feel the need to step up their game a bit. So I don't know if Milkshake normally brings a couple dozen inflatable baseball beach balls for "Baseball" (they probably do), or if the band brings graying wigs for "When I'm Old," but it just shows the band's trying. Also, Milkshake in particular, with six folks in the band, sounds good live on stage. Kids on the ground seemed to enjoy it.

Milkshake - "When I'm Old" (Live)

Milkshake - "Enemies" (Live)

After Milkshake was a brief set from K'naan, which I couldn't pay full attention to because I was shuttling Little Boy Blue from activity to activity (including green punk hairdo), but I really liked.

K'naan - "Take a Minute" (Live) (for what it's worth, there were a fair number of kids, despite what the uploader says)

Then Lunch Money. It's OK, guys, you do indeed rock. Lots of dancing and a good-sized crowd (for AKL, anyway). They're also getting really good at incorporating crowd participation into their songs. Here's a new(-ish) song, with a couple more familiar ones to follow:

Lunch Money - "Spicy Kids" (Live)

Lunch Money - "Are You a Rabbit?" (Live)

Lunch Money - "Roller Coaster" (Live)

OK, there's more to talk about, but it's time to head back to Zilker Park before the skies open up.

Austin Kiddie Limits 2009 Preview

In years past, I've done a much more thorough job breaking down the Austin Kiddie Limits stage at the Austin City Limits Festival. This year, you're going to have to make do with a more abbreviated post.

Which doesn't mean the lineup isn't worth the effort; on the contrary, it's the most solid top-to-bottom lineup in the event's history. Anybody with a kid in tow at the festival can stop by at any given point and be guaranteed to hear something worth hearing, either some great artists for kids, or some kids doing amazing stuff. Here's the schedule -- some live YouTubery after the jump.
In the interest of time, I'll skip the kids doing amazing stuff -- Loose Cannons, Stoosh, Paul Green’s School of Rock All Stars, and Quinn Sullivan. The School of Rock will rock as hard as anybody on any of the other stages. Anyway...

Lunch Money (Friday 3:30; Saturday 3:15) -- happy happy, joy joy. Dance like crazy, folks.

Lunch Money - "Tiny Dinosaurs"

Milkshake (Friday 2:30; Saturday 12:30) -- I haven't actually seen Milkshake and their pop-rock live, so I'm looking forward to them for that reason alone. They will rock harder than they do in this soundcheck.

Mr. Leebot (Saturday 11:30) -- Making Austin proud, is Mr. Leebot. Get your 8-bit on.

Mr. Leebot - "Robot Dance"

The Q Brothers (Sunday 12:30) -- The Q Brothers always help out with the scratch table workshops, but they'll do another set of their hip-hop again. Here's a clip from their performance last year.

Q Brothers - "How It Was"

Ralph’s World (Saturday 4:00, Sunday 1:30) -- there's really no such thing as a headliner at the kids stage, but Ralph is definitely the biggest star up there. Great pop-rock and he brings it live, to use a phrase no 4-year-old fan of his would ever actually use.

Ralph's World - "The Rhyming Circus"

Secret Agent 23 Skidoo (Saturday 2:30, Sunday 2:30) -- I love Skidoo's beats and rhymes. He knows how to work a crowd, too, so I think this could be one of the most energetic sets of the stage.

Secret Agent 23 Skidoo - "I Like Fruit"

The Telephone Company (Friday 1:30, Sunday 11:30) -- Another Austin band made good. Maybe they'll play songs from their Panda Brain album, the Chinese Democracy of the kids music genre. (Which I say with great affection.)