ACL Day Three Capsules: B-52's, White Lies, Arctic Monkeys
Conditions aside, this was probably the best day musically to be at ACL, as the lineup was stacked from open to close with emerging and established talent. While we intended to start with The Dodos, the prospect of slogging through the entire field had us glad that local heroes Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears were playing right by our entrance. We wandered over to watch Lewis' soul revue run through their vintage-modern take on soul shouting and R-rated party jams like "Get Yo Shit." As when we last saw them in July, the band is tight, and had the audience in the palm of their hand. It made us grin to see how well the music translated to the big park, though some of the lyrics got lost in the sound mix. This might have been for the best given both the number of kids in the crowd and the singer's fondness for salty language, so it was hard to complain.
After a quick break for Hudson's Chicken Cones, Torchy's Green Chile Pork tacos, and a few songs from David Garza, we returned to AMD for the promise of a dance party with The B-52's. The band were shaky at the outset, as singer and ringleader Fred Schneider was coughing and looked a bit under the weather. Thankfully, the backing band did a great job of articulating both the camp and the craft in the B-52's tunes, and vocalists Cindy Wilson and Kate Pierson were still largely able to carry the harmonies. Pierson, in particular, looked like the most youthful member of the group, despite the fact that she's actually 61! The beehive hairdos, silly dance poses, and general fun survived intact from the B's last early-90's comeback, though it was hard to see the band as anything but an oldies act at this point. That didn't prevent us from enjoying every second of "Roam", "Love Shack", "Private Idaho", and "Rock Lobster", though. The "Rock Lobster" surf guitar lines, in particular, seem destined to live forever, and as we exited, you could even see folks in the beer lines totally unable to help themselves from dancing.
One could see the logic in booking White Lies in one of the 'up and comer' spots Sunday afternoon: the band have spent much of the year opening for Coldplay and Kings Of Leon in arenas and stadiums around the world. The London group's opening notes even showed some promise - it sounded like Britrock mixed with some licks and keyboards from The Cars. Unfortunately, after that, it was all downhill. Each song sounded similar to the next, and the group's black backdrop, black outfits, and song titles like "To Lose My Life" and "Death" only helped to reinforce the sameness. Every song brought another band to mind: Interpol, Editors, Franz Ferdinand, Joy Division - only without the life. Only in the closing moments did White Lies manage to bring the crowd to life with fist pumping and singing, but by then, our decision to brand them as "just OK" was already made. It was a true disappointment during a weekend of great performances.
After the dispiriting hour from White Lies, it was a relief to know that some quality Britrock was in store from Arctic Monkeys. The band drew a large audience, and proceeded to try and blast them out of the park with a set front-loaded with louder, riff-heavy tunes like "Brianstorm" and "The View From The Afternoon." The group's most recent effort (2009's Humbug) was partially produced by Josh Homme of Queens Of The Stone Age, and he's obviously rubbed off on them. While the Monkeys have never been a quiet group, Sunday's show was about getting loud and staying loud. The band finally have enough quality tunes to sustain a longer set, and new single "Crying Lightning" sounded great next to older ones like "This House Is A Circus." We didn't notice many people leaving, and the group continued to bond with Austin and increase our respect for what they're crafting.
