Austin is hot. We’re chugging water just to keep up with the torrential downpour of sweat escaping our pores, but it may be a losing battle until some clouds roll in on this beautifully brutal sunshine. At any rate, we’re having a blast at the Austin City Limits festival, and Day Two of events was a strange collection of greatness and oddity after Day One kicked our asses in the best of ways. With sets from Father John Misty, Twenty-One Pilots, A$AP Rocky, TV On The Radio and more, we hit our festival stride just in time for the town’s thermostat to melt. Great.
Sweating Rivers of Meta Hipster Sarcasm: Father John Misty
As it turns out, rocking out to an altra-meta sardonic anti-hipster in a man bun in hundred degree heat can drive someone a bit nuts. Lathering sunblock and clearing rivers of sweat was a constant distraction early on Saturday at Austin City Limits as opener Father John Misty and his angelic falsetto sarcastically championed materialism, vampiric social opportunism and other key features of modern American culture value.
Opening with the title track to his spectacular I Love You Honeybear album, Josh Tillman’s hour-long set was seasoned by his intellectual musings and deadpan mockery of pageant, which gave inside-joke accents to “Strange Encounter,” “Chateau Lobby #4,” and the edged “The Ideal Husband.”
“I’d like to turn things up a notch with a sarcastic meta-ballad about despair,” Tillman offered in his introduction to the devastatingly accurate “Bored in the USA.” His every move was a mock celebration, plucking an iPhone from the sea of disconnective capture gadgets to shoot his own selfies.
10 Artists Who SHOULD Be Playing ACL 2015
Covered in Covers: Mister Wives
I had never heard of Mister Wives before I checked the schedule to find out who was soundtracking my midday joint with a cover of The Weeknd’s “Can’t Feel My Face”. They then pulled me in with a glorious take on Michael Jackson’s “PYT”. Gonna do some homework on these cats when we’re done messing with Texas.
Adderall Rap-Pop Steals The Show: Twenty One Pilots
Saturday’s strongest performance had nothing to do with songs about shit-jizz (check Drake’s “Truffle Butter” singalong later for that), contrary to the claustrophobic headliner crush of the night. Twenty One Pilots have millennial-baiting spaz-pop anthemics down to a science. Despite the searing afternoon heat, it’s a hero’s task not to be caught up in the amphetamine rap whirlwind, packed with call-and-response hooks, pop theatrics (at one point singer Tyler Joseph scaled to the top of the entire Samsung stage scaffolding) and wild visual stimuli at every turn. Besides, the boys seem earnestly sincere in their mission.
If you’re sick of that “Tear In My Heart” song bouncing all over the radio, don’t fret. It can be actively challenging to just listen to the music when costumes are changing from skeleton pajamas and ski masks to crazy alien faces and bodypaint, as Tyler sang upwards into a microphone dangling from a crane. His cohort, drummer Josh Dun, pummels his kit with metronomic ferocity and the kind of charisma that divides the screaming would-be groupies.
“This is my father’s favorite song that I’ve written, which is why I keep it in the set,” Joseph offered before the punchy pop strut of “The Run and Go”.
What went wrong with Unknown Mortal Orchestra?
There’s some element missing here, some velocity of their soul psychedelia flavor that seems to have been sapped from the promising but underwhelming band. Saturday’s pre-sunset performance pulled from their impressive new record, but a general sense of aimlessness anchored the energy, and singer Ruban Nielsen’s unwillingness to connect with the crowd at all set the experience on its side.
TV On The… What?
It was impossible to truly enjoy TV On The Radio’s set over the cacophony of sirens and bass drops coming from Deadmau5’s set. Goddamnit.
Overblown Hype: A$AP Rocky
“I want you to spread the love, the positivity and the powerful drugs,” A$AP Rocky said after taking the stage twenty minutes late for his set. But the maniacally enraptured crowd didn’t seem to mind – it was, after all, his birthday. Legions of white girls in American Apparel uniforms screamed along with every word in their most arm-flailing thug impressions, erupting through “Shabba Ranks”. But as charming and charismatic as he was, it was starkly clear through song after song that the guy is far more hype than substance. I’m as big a fan as any of “Fuckin’ Problems,” but the rhymes he delivers are basic braggadocio, uninspired, disconnected.
Proof? Check out the lyrics to set closer “Electric Body”. He’s got big hits and his name is everywhere, but fuck a dude who skips a third of his set and sounds like a guy at the bus stop trying to convince you to buy his mixtape, making idiot herds scream along with “shake that ass girl, make that coochie wet”.
Kanye’s putting up “Lost Throne” signs around town
Then came Drake. The usurper to Kanye’s throne closed out Saturday night at the Austin City Limits Music Festival with a headlining set on the Samsung Galaxy stage that transcended fan expectations. The anticipation was palpable – two different girls tripped over me while sprinting to the stage prior to his set – but if you’re not pulling the chemical lever, if you’re over 25, it’s not easy watching pubescent girls singing with full gusto about the results of getting fucked in the ass – that’s “Truffle Butter,” for the unenlightened.
But amidst the bizarre cultural cross section, Drake delivered through tremendous showmanship, pyrotechnics and a run of hits that leaned away from the singing and more for the aggressive rhyme spitting. The crowd was along every step of the way, chanting along to every line of the Meek Mill takedown “Back to Back” with relished menace.
Somehow we ended up at Austin Music Hall to see Alt-j after pivoting away from this madness, ending the night with a 3am pizza devouring session at a random food truck around town. Austin is dangerously perfect for red-eyed hungry night owls.
ACL Day Two Highlight Video:
See you on the fields for ACL Day 3!
