Austinist's ACL Thoughts: The Good, The Bad, and The Scene

After a month of guesswork, the ACL Fest lineup is here. And it's quite a good one. While the wild speculation of headliners like Neil Young and Stevie Wonder once again proved false, the key items one sees this year are depth and balance. Having spent yesterday looking over the roster, we have the following observations on the 2007 edition of ACL.

The Good:

A Great Top 10. Had you told us that we'd like all ten of ACL's headliners this year, we wouldn't have believed you. But it appears that the jam bands were sent packing this year, and we couldn't be happier. So now ACL crowds get classic rock from Dylan, howling garage-blues from the White Stripes, beautiful weirdness with Bjork, arena-rock fun with The Killers and Muse, Britrock next big things Bloc Party and Arctic Monkeys, avant-garde alt.country from Wilco, and some flying V action from Queens Of The Stone Age and My Morning Jacket.

Fantastic Medium-Sized Acts. If you're on an indie iPod or an NPR pledge drive, you're playing this fest. Scandinavian indie-pop from Peter, Bjorn, and John? Check. A reunited Crowded House trekking in from New Zealand? Yep. Argentinian hipster grooves from the wonderful Gotan Project? Uh-huh. Hometown heroes Spoon debuting a new album? Indeed. And the cream of the singer-songwriter crop with Lucinda Williams, Regina Spektor, and Andrew Bird? Sure. This year's hour-by-hour lineup should be more consistent that any ACL ever, which is really saying something.

Strong UK Representation. The London music scene and Austin have forged a loving trans-continental relationship in recent years, especially during SXSW. ACL's lineup reflects this with a 'who's who' of big UK acts, with Arctic Monkeys, Kaiser Chiefs, and Bloc Party (all of whom have had #1 UK albums this year) along with the over-the-top stylings of Muse, who are popular enough in England to headline Wembley Stadium this summer. Throw in the hugely popular Amy Winehouse and London rapper M.I.A., and you can guess that more than a couple of Brits will be hopping a plane for a September vacation to Central Texas.

Not All Things To All People. There were times last year where people who weren't fans of jam bands or bluegrass were screwed. ACL's post-festival surveys apparently inspired them to jettison some of the jam bands to concentrate on two crowds: the indie fans/college kids, and the KGSR/NPR set. These two audiences will each be really fulfilled by the artists booked for 2007. Nothing reflects this better than yesterday's chatter on 101X and KGSR: we heard DJ's mention a dozen acts from the lineup on both stations, and the only crossover name on both lists was Bjork.

Some Gems In The Early Day. The ACL bookers always throw in a few random small acts just because they like them, and this year is no exception. Last year, early arrivals got great sets from Centro-Matic, Husky Rescue, and Phoenix. This year, it looks like The National, Midlake, and The Broken West will win some new fans during the afternoon heat.

The Bad:

A Few Acts Absent And Unaccounted For. A couple of acts that are perfect for the fest and are touring new albums are surprisingly absent. We thought Ryan Adams, Interpol, and New Pornographers were no-brainers this year. We understand that the fest might not want to repeat too many acts year-on-year (The New P's played in '06), but the other two omissions are surprising.

Again, No Radiohead Or Pearl Jam. This isn't CAP's fault: they're been chasing these two bands to headline ACL for years. But scheduling difficulties interfered again, meaning that ACL audiences are deprived of an "enormous" headliner that's used to rocking a crowd of 50,000+ people. That doesn't mean it won't happen eventually, but the wait continues.

No Hip-Hop Or Classic Soul. Aside from M.I.A., the hip-hop scene is pretty dead at ACL. It would've been nice to see indie favorites The Roots or Blackalicious on the bill for a nice change of pace during the day. There's also not the "soul legend" spot that went to Solomon Burke and Al Green in previous years - perhaps next year ACL can talk someone like B.B. King, Etta James, or (dare we dream) Bill Withers into appearing and creating some ACL magic.

Price Increases. Ticket prices jumped another $15 this year, which is always unfortunate. The original $120 discount tickets also sold out in 2 1/2 hours (it took a day last year), which left many people who purchased tickets that morning cursing at their computers despite being fairly prompt.

The Scene:

Tickets Will Sell Out This Year. ACL Festival organizers reported that over 30,000 3-day passes have already been sold for 2007 before the lineup was announced. With the increasing popularity of vacationing at rock festivals and the solid bookings this year, we're guessing the festival will actually sell out by mid-summer. So book promptly. Don't count on the Craigslist discounts of last year, as the geezerish headliners had a lot to do with that after market.

Night Shows And ACL Tapings Are Back. Keep an eye on Frontgate Tickets for aftershow on-sales sometime in June or July. La Zona Rosa, Stubb's, and Antone's will likely host multiple extra shows from festival bands for those either unwilling to brave the heat or to spend the cash for a 3-day pass. The Austin Chronicle also reported that the Austin City Limits studios may host tapings from The Decemberists, Wilco, and The Arcade Fire during the festival weekend. Before anyone asks in the comments, those tickets will not be released until the last minute and (although free) will be tough to come by.

Complainers Abound, But Austinist Is Big-Upping This Fest. Overall, there's a lot to love about ACL 2007. It's obvious that the Trey and String Cheese crowd is annoyed, as are the classic-rock KLBJ'ers who don't know The Arcade Fire from the arcade at Chuck E. Cheese. But the reality is that organizers figured out who was spending the majority of money to come to the event, and concocted a bullseye of an artist list for their best patrons. Anyone complaining about a "lack of talent" or the obscurity of these acts either (a) listens to too much Clear Channel radio, (b) hasn't listened to much new music in the last half-decade or (c) was hoping for a jam band heavy line-up more appropriate for Bonnaroo. It's no surprise that Austinist and BrooklynVegan commenters were largely enthusiastic yesterday, while the more old-guard Austin audience at the Statesman's site was grumpy. We'd urge the complainers to listen to some of these acts before writing them off - you won't regret doing so.

Austin City Limits Festival
Friday-Sunday, September 14th-16th
Zilker Park [map]
$145/3-day pass [tickets]

Decemberists ACL image via Rich Anderson on Flickr.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@austinist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Tom Thornton on May 11, 2007 2:22 PM 0 Comments

Comments [rss]

Mike

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austinnonhipster

Boycott a music festival because they take money from many companies, including one that is building an office building right next to a huge semicon fab complex? Just because its construction phase stormwater controls were filmed failing (probably sabotaged by the SOS alarmist filming the "horrible pollution", i.e. silty water?

Why don't you "coll off" back down I-10 from where you came? You do know it goes west as well as east, don't you?

lahipster

boycott this corporate acl festival taking hush money from AMD ( one corporatesponsors of the festival stages )until they stop the new office complex on has Polluted the Barton Springs watershed in Zilker Park with huge amounts of sediment that washed off their sites with modest rains on March 26Th(1.49 inches at Camp Mabry and 1.2 inches at the airport). It was enough to wash untold amounts of construction pollution off two large building sites in the fragile Barton Springs watershed. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) polluted the Barton Springs segment of the Edwards Aquifer with dirty runoff leaving their construction sites. Fortunately, we were there to take pictures and video of the pollution.

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) is building an 860,000 square foot office complex in the Barton Springs watershed. Rains on March 26Th washed construction sediment over, around, and literally through AMD's erosion and sedimentation "controls." The result is muddy, silt-laden water leaving the site and flowing into a tributary of the Barton Springs segment of the Edwards Aquifer.

Save Our Springs Alliance and many other groups and thousands of citizens urged AMD not to move to the Barton Springs watershed, in part because of concerns that they would pollute the aquifer and springs during construction. AMD insisted that they would their project would be "green.The City of Austin has reportedly given AMD a notice of violation of city rules, but the City did not issue a stop-work order or fine AMD.

please tell all the bands this there will be a protest this year will presidential hopefuls coming to Austin where the fuck you going to coll off if it gets into the 100,s like most years Visit the SOS Alliance Website

221 E. 9Th Street, Suite 300, Austin, TX 78701

ultradave

I think it's been mentioned before but the reason why ACL is in september is purely scheduling -- it's apparently easier to get bands to committ at the end of the touring season. Any later in the season and the lineups would not be possible, from what I have been told by ACL staff.

Then again I could be totally wrong so if someone wants to correct me, that's fine too. This year will be my fourth ACL and I'd love it to be later in the year but honestly I'd rather put up with the heat for a few days and see an awesome lineup.

Mack Brown

Please, please, please set ACL for an October weekend. It DOES NOT, I repeat, ABSOLUTELY FUCKING DOES NOT have to be on a weekend when the longwhorns have a bye week. A regular away game weekend should suffice. There are several available in October. The temperature will be considerably better.

Mack Brown

Please, please, please set ACL for an October weekend. It DOES NOT, I repeat, ABSOLUTELY FUCKING DOES NOT have to be on a weekend when the longwhorns have a bye week. A regular away game weekend should suffice. There are several available in October. The temperature will be considerably better.

KEB

great post tom!

alison

i'll be headed to acl again this year, and happy to do it. and i will be a "chair person" for the first time ever, as i'll be 6 months pregnant. i didn't think i was going to go at all, since being hot and preggers didn't seem like too much fun, but how could i pass up this awesome line-up?!? wilco, white stripes, and freakin' bob dylan!!!

so i'll be there, in my chair (behind the chair line), and introduce the little baby in my belly to one of the many amazing reasons why i live in austin.

I heart ACL

ACL anyday, even in the heat with the hippies, over SXsowhat. At ACL, you get to see (or at least, hear) every band on the bill for the price of your wristband, unlike SXSWsux, where you spend 65% of your time standing outside club after club (even if you have a godawfully expensive badge these days) hoping and praying you might get in. And even if you do, most of the bands get only a 20 or 40 minute set. What a rip-off. For a music fan, the ACL Fest is definitely the way to go. I would happily pay for 3 days in the hot sun and the crowded festival grounds than the over-crowded, uber-faux-cool, over-vomited sidewalks of SXsixthstreet. And many of the same bands come through Austin every September and play ACL after SXdidn'tpaymybandtoplay, because ACL does pay them to play. I have started to have a real problem with paying SXcallsthefiredepttoshutdownparties any money to see bands, because none of that money goes to the bands who play. I love knowing that some of the ticket price of ACL actually pays each band on the bill.

hip williams

I"ll trade anyone Blue October(?!?!) for a first ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead show at ACL!!!

Wes

There's nothing wrong with chairs behind he chair line.

Wes

What's wrong with chairs behind he chair line?

John

I think 107 was a September record, or something. Last year it was actually pretty nice.

jess

free water? where? how?

craig

I'll take Bob Dylan over Pearl jam any day. Bob won't be around forever, y'know.

Patrick C.

I've opted out of buying tickets this year -- as an Austin resident, I think at the end of the day I can make that $140 stretch much further by going to local venues throughout the year -- but this is no doubt a good lineup for people who are into the outdoor music festival scene. I think there was a definite, palpable sense of excitement about the festival coming from nearly everyone I talked to about it, and that's a great thing.

I totally get making the festival appeal to the dual audiences of hipster college kids/KGSR fans, but I am hoping they don't go too far overboard with it. I don't want them to lose out too much on the bluegrass, soul, blues, gospel and rap acts... hell, even the jam bands have their place, in moderation. A too Pitchfork-friendly ACL would kinda suck. The first couple of years of the festival might not have attracted the big acts you see today -- hell, the motherlovin' Arc Angels headlined year one, which you'd never see today -- but they had their charms, which I hope planners keep in mind as the festival grows and evolves. I hope they try to keep at least some focus on genuinely local artists -- on that note, Sound Team and Jon Dee Graham, are, I guess, encouraging.

One of the fringe benefits of ACL, I think, is that it also establishes that there's an audience for these kinds of outdoor festivals, and help make other, if less ambitious, outdoor shows possible. I'm hoping in the future we'll see other, smaller-scale events helping fill the spots Austin City Limits doesn't. I had way, way more fun at the Fun Fun Fun Fest then I expected, for instance, and I'm hoping more cool events like that spring up.

mermaidshoes

free water is available and there are definitely at least two trees in the park, plus shade/misting tents. it is still pretty damn hot and miserable, but you just gotta realize that going in and make the best of it. one complaint i have is that the people in the medical tent are not particularly helpful or organized (or at least they weren't when i had to go there last year). i'd really hate to have a serious medical issue at the festival.

personally, i was a LOT more excited about last year's lineup, but maybe that's just because i'm a flaming lips freak. plus, i've also already seen most of the bands i like who are coming this year. but my lack of interest just means everyone else has a better chance to get a ticket to sweatsville!

ol'pappy

Oh, it'll be at least 107 degrees this year since it's 107 degrees every year. And why can't the chair people sit on the grass like everyone else? I'm old and I sat on the grass the one year I went to the festival. That was a good year - I got free tickets from a friend that worked at Capital Sports & Entertainment. it was hot and grimy and nasty as fuck though. I had a three day pass and only went Saturday, promising myself I would never do that again as long as I live. I wouldn't go back if you paid me and gave me a free vacation to Hawaii at the conclusion of the damn thing. I love a lot of those bands but I do not understand how anybody can put up with the heat and the expensive water and the chair people and those ugly hat people. The year I went there was one tree in the whole fucking park and every piece of ground under it was taken up by the goddamn chair people (may they rot in Hell).

Selma

You know, it IS possible to love both bluegrass and--gasp!--bands like the White Stripes, Arcade Fire, etc. We don't all march in musical lockstep, fer chrissakes.

odam

probably the best lineup yet.

austingal

Two comments:

One: we aren't all 20ish, I can't stand around all day so I bring chairs but I'm all for a standing only area at the front. I especially enjoyed the excessively drunk hipster from a few years back who tried to deck me when I stepped on her blanket (one of 15 her group had put edge to edge to effectively take out the right quadrant of the park). How about approval for civilized "Chairpeople"?

Two: I heard Ryan Shaw on KUT yesterday and his voice was amazing! I can't wait to see him!

SteveHopson

To relive the music of past festivals, come check out the photos on my ACL tribute pages at stevehopson.com.

heyzeus

chairs in front of the rope should be enforced.

chairs where they belong? life saving; quityerbitchin.

s

yes! yes! i've been saying this forever! the chair-people must go!!!

Jammer

Can someone please tell me that I'm not insane when I want to complain incessantly about the fucking chairs? The fucking people who try to reserve space at outdoor festivals...that shit should be outlawed. And hey, CSE- ENFORCE THAT SHIT- your stupid ropes and signs don't do a thing.

John

I agree, ACL is going to be awesome.

Thanks for the Arcade Fire video, I was at that show and it was one of the best of my life. I can't fucking wait to see them again this September. Hopefully, it won't be 107 degrees again when they play.

eliz. s.

Oooh, thanks for reminding me about the after-ACL concerts. I forgot that's how I saw Guster and Gomez last year. I'll plan on hitting those again; if ACL sells out, one day passes won't be an option, right?

Carl Spackler

Who has been complaining about this line-up? No one. Only hipster doofuses would whine that the extremely over-rated Ryan Adams is not on the bill, the Jam Band scene is extremely content with My Morning Jacket over the wannabe Tim McGraw known as Trey.

This line-up rocks, only a fool would think otherwise.

Carl Spackler

Who has been complaining about this line-up? No one. Only hipster doofuses would whine that the extremely over-rated Ryan Adams is not on the bill, the Jam Band scene is extremely content with My Morning Jacket over the wannabe Tim McGraw known as Trey.

This line-up rocks, only a fool would think otherwise.