ACL Day One Capsules: Mild Weather And A Green Lawn

When festivalgoers look back on the Friday of ACL Fest 2009, we suspect they'll remember it less for the performances than for the fact that this was undoubtedly the most pleasant day to attend the festival in recent memory. The crowds flowed in steadily through the day, making the park easy to navigate until around 5 or 6 pm. Food lines were fairly sedate until the dinner hour, when (as always) they got a little crazy. The new lawn at Zilker was beautiful and wasn't kicking up a speck of dust, making the air notably easier to breathe. And the weather! The breezy, low-80's temperatures had everyone in an amiable mood for the day of performances, which made it easier to accept that original headliners Beastie Boys weren't on the bill due to a saddening cancer scare.

As for the performances, it was above all a day to watch bands growing up. We started by watching Portland's Blitzen Trapper move from the SXSW stages of Mohawk and Radio Room to the enormous Dell stage, which had multiple-camera video production and a surprisingly huge audience for so early on a Friday. By and large, the band delivered, though some slower pacing in the first half of the set had some leaving early. The second half of the show featured quality Trapper songs like "Furr", "Sleepytime In The Western World", and "God and Suicide", which likely converted a number of casual observers into fans. The band's modern take on '70s storyteller rock wouldn't feel out of place next to Neil Young or The Jayhawks on your radio dial, and we suspect you'll see Blitzen Trapper continue to grow in critical and commercial stature over time.

An early highlight of the day was Dr. Dog's performance on the Dell stage a couple of hours later. The group were originally pegged as a Beatles homage due to some George and John riffing on early albums like Easy Beat. They've expanded their sonic palate quite a bit in the couple of years since we've seen them, as they now incorporate sounds referencing everything from Brian Wilson to Wayne Coyne. The overall mood from the stage was jubilant, as the weather, vocals, and pretty melodies worked in harmony to provide a memorable mid-afternoon performance from the young Philadelphia band. One had the sense that these guys really like each other, and that they are finally hitting their stride after years of paying dues touring and recording. Later in the evening, the group also graciously stepped in at The Parish Room to replace The Raveonettes, who were marooned in Europe due to visa issues.

In a stark contrast from their early day, side stage spot in 2006, the French pop-rock group Phoenix were slotted in a prime late afternoon slot on the AMD Stage, and you could see the surprise in their faces at just how many in the park chose their set (you'd have sworn Ben Harper was going to come out instead judging by the sheer enormity of the audience.) A set of the group's most well known songs followed, including newer numbers like "Lizstomania" and "1901" alongside old favorites like "If I Ever Feel Better" and "Run Run Run." The band were obviously having some technical problems onstage that marred the sound in spots, but vocalist Thomas Mars did his best to fill the gap during the roadie work with verses of Air's "Playground Love" (Phoenix used to back Air in their early days.) The sonic issues didn't seem to upset the crowds, who showed the power of internet file sharing in the way they belted out lyrics to Phoenix tunes en masse that have likely rarely been heard on Texas airwaves. It made you hope that we'll see them again soon in a venue like Stubb's where they have more time to showcase what has quietly become a great collection of work.

After the general sunniness of Dr. Dog and Phoenix, we were enthused to watch the retro-soul sounds of Raphael Saadiq, as we'd heard he was doing the same "pretend it's 40 years ago" thing that Sharon Jones is so good at, and his early performance of single "100 Yard Dash" was rock-solid. Unfortunately, what followed was both unfocused and underwhelming. Despite some great costume design and obvious vocal talent, Saadiq fell short on an odd cover of Iggy and the Stooges "Search and Destroy" as well as on original numbers like "Let's Take A Walk" (sample lyric: "I need some sex, some sex with you.") Yikes. It just didn't come together, which led to an exodus from the fringes during the set.