Dallas Music Blog

​The early outlook here on the Day Three of the 2009 Austin City Limits Music Festival isn't too bad. The sun has peeked out from behind the clouds here and there, and, for the time being, the rain has held off.

Forecasts appear to indicate more rain as the day continues, though, and, surely, that will only add the the muddy mess that Zilker Park's grounds have become--a true shame, too, since everyone was raving about the fresh, gold course-like grass on Friday's beautiful afternoon.

Still, as yesterday proved, the weather won't be too likely to keep the already-paid crowds away--and certainly not for Pearl Jam's festival closing set, which faces no concurrent competition from any of the other stages.

As for other highlights, there are plenty: The Dead Weather, The Dirty Projectors, Passion Pit, Girl Talk, Dan Auerbach, The White Lies, The Heartless Bastards, and The B-52s among them. Locally, Dallas native David Garza performs an early set on the Austin Ventures stage, but the big one, surely, is the Toadies' 4 p.m. slot on the festival's main LiveStrong stage. Vaden Todd Lewis and Co. will face competition from the opposite end of the park, where the Arctic Monkeys will perform at the same time--so it'll be interesting to see the turnout and response offered the band.

We'll recap it all for you first thing tomorrow morning. For up-to-the-minute updates, though, please follow our DC9 at Night twitter stream, where we'll keep giving you updates on all things ACL as the weekend comes to a close.

All photos by Patrick Michels

​Though Nick Urata, front man for Denver-based gypsy folk-rock outfit Devotchka, joked that the only reason his band had a draw worth mentioning during its set at ACL's indoor Wildflower stage was because of the rain, consider his words simply a matter of humility.

Because, for the bulk of Devotchka's set, aside from a spattering of showers at its early evening start, the rain actually paused for the band's performance. No matter--the crowds still jammed themselves inside of the tent for a furious clap-along-fueled performance of the band's worldly, almost always enjoyable sounds.

All photos by Patrick Michels

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On the other hand, though, JT and crew had something to offer that few of Saturday's acts could. On this folk and indie-heavy day, the Dallas-based Southern rockers were able to provide audiences with a rousing brand of rock--the type of thing that encourages people to have a good time in the rain, as opposed to music that makes people feel worse about their situations. (I'm looking at you, Bon Iver.)

And, in a turn that visibly surprised and humbled Tyler and his cohorts, crowds showed up in impressive numbers for their set.

​Banter is not Grizzly Bear's strong suit--not in the slightest. Rather this is a band propelled by meticulous instrumentation and harmonies. And though the band failed in the first count, its moot apologies to the crowd for putting up with the rain falling flat, the band succeeded glorious on the second, offering audiences empirical proof that live shows can equal a band's output on record--even in the rain, even on a festival stage without the same set-ups afforded a band in a theater performance.

It was odd, though, that there even seemed some question as to whether Grizzly Bear could live up to its strong reputation on Saturday. Perhaps the questions bouncing about the festival grounds were simply a matter of uncertainty about the band's draw--for this show, the band was placed on the Dell-sponsored stage, which sits among the pair of second-to-largest sound systems and draws in Zilker Park.

All photos by Patrick Michels

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The radio announcer who introduced the band made sure to point out to the crowd that, despite whatever their programs may have said, this was not The Raveonettes. But, alas, the late arrivers to the XBox stage didn't necessarily hear as much.

So, great as Neon Indian may have been yesterday--and, make no mistake, they were pretty great, showcasing an increased on-stage confidence, and performing as a four-piece with Ronnie Gierhart back in the mix after missing the band's Monolith Festival debut--festival-goers throughout the day were consistently overheard talking about how they'd caught The Raveonettes earlier in the day and had enjoyed it, even if they hadn't been able to recognize any of the songs they'd heard.

​The Toadies may take the stage tomorrow afternoon in a prime 4 p.m. slot on one of the festival's two main stages, but make no mistake: Today is DFW's day at ACL.

As I write this, Sarah Jaffe is preparing to take the Austin Ventures stage, performing for the first time with her band as an eight-piece, featuring members of her touring partners from last summer, Crooked Fingers. Later today, Jonathan Tyler & The Northern Lights, meanwhile, after spending the bulk of yesterday afternoon being ushered from interivew to interview in the media tent with various outlets including Paste magazine, takes to the BMI stage a little bit later on in the day with its 4:30 p.m. time slot.

But the biggest news of the day., without a doubt, is the news that Neon Indian is set to perform a 1:15 set this afternoon at the XBox stage after originally not appearing on the ACL lineup at all. Yesterday afternoon, via MySpace, the band originally slotted for that set, The Raveonettes, announced that it would have to cancel its appearance because its drummer was stuck in Copenhhagen, unable to get his travel situations settled because of complications surrounding the Olympic Committee meetings in that city this week. Whatever, though: Makes things all the more interesting for us.

We'll have updates for you again tomorrow morning (or perhaps tonight), but in the meantime, keep an eye on our Twitter stream, where we'll be constantly updating our followers with our thoughts and observations on all things ACL.

Patrick Michels

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"I sure hope you mean that," he quipped, flashing a smile.

But how could the crowds not? Backed by an impeccably tight band and flanked by a pair of backup singers and dancers that offered Tempations-like synchronized dance moves behind Saadiq's own motions, the charming singer wowed the crowds at the XBox stage, re-opening the doors to the frozen-in-time sounds of Motown. Sliding, gliding and snapping his way about the stage as the audience hollered him on with encouraging hoots, Saadiq recalled a young David Ruffin, letting his on-stage prowess declare for all to see that this, ladies and gentlemen, is an impossibly charismatic and magnetic performer--one worth fair greater priase than the amount he's currently earning.

Patrick Michels

Phoenix's Thomas Mars.

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Adorable French ants with an impeccable knack for penning indie dance-pop gems. But ants nonetheless. So, on that note: Yay, for the screens flanking the stage sides!

First things first: Pangs of regret fill our hearts this morning at DC9--which, consider that today is Saturday, sounds about par for course. But, alas, today we have reason beyond our undiagnosed manic depression: Specifically, we missed the above seemingly once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to catch one Eddie Vedder jumping on stage and jamming out with the Followill clan at ACL last night. We just figured we'd see the Kings on Wednesday at the ACC. So, yeah, we missed the collaboration. Sorry. But, as always, Youtube's here to get us out of a bind.

So where were we at this point of the night? A couple hundred yards west, checking out the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, who were brought to replace the Beastie Boys after the three MCs and one DJ regretfully backed out of the deal earlier this summer. We were treated to a hell of a show ourselves (more on that later), but we'd be lying if we said we didn't care that we missed this. Oh well. There's always the next life.

(Via.)

​Pretty sure I'm in Austin right now--seems it at least; there's a whole bunch of young people running around acting like there's something going on. I dunno, this is a pretty early wake-up call for me.

But I digress: I'll be here all weekend long, along with Observer Web editor and photographer extraordinaire Patrick Michels, documenting this year's fest for your reading please both here and on our DC9 at Night twitter feed, which you should start following immediately, as it'll no doubt be easier for us to whip out our cell phones and wow you with 140 characters of our top-notch prose than it will be to find a place where we don't mind busting out our laptop and typing away...

Again, I digress: First up on our list of must-sees is School of Seven Bells, which is set to hit Zilker Park's far east main stage at 'bout a half past noon. After that? Not sure. The Knux? The Avett Brothers? The Walkmen? Definitely The Walkmen.

Anyway, we'll be in touch. Stay tuned...

We gave it the requisite thee days PLUS one (a hard and fast rule in this business), but we're ready this afternoon to unveil two new slide shows showing ACL at its seediest, hairiest, and knee-high sock-iest:

Hipsterwatch: Our top shots of that zany crowd at Zilker Park last weekend, along with...

Hipster Feet on Parade: Our look (down) at the true mark of an ACL enthusiast, the festival footwear. Enjoy! --Patrick Michels

Gillian Welch must have read our earlier post about Friday's redheads, Patty Griffin and Jenny Lewis. She and partner David Rawlings took the theme and ran with it in their cowboy boots. First there was "Red Clay Halo," from their touchstone album Time (The Revelator), and later there was "Knuckleball Catcher," a new song about Red Sox pitchers and the men behind the plate who've got only "one job to do." Read more.

Sharon Jones, with a little help from a new friend (Dawn Jones-Garcia)

The best fan-participation moment came during Sharon Jones’ set, when not one but two different random slobs got onstage to dance with the funky soul siren’s set. The first guy was a bearded, burly dude who came out from backstage and busted some impressive moves, not a bit intimidated by the powerful Miss Jones. A couple songs later, she called up a guy in khaki shorts and glasses who looked like he was interrupted from his hacky sack game and who got down on his knees and totally hammed it up. I later overheard the bearded guy swearing to somebody in the media tent that he hadn’t been a plant. (UPDATE: Turns out the "bearded, burly dude" was Nakia Daniel Reynoso of Southern rock band Nakia and his Southern Cousins, which performed at ACL Sunday.)

(Dawn Jones-Garcia)

I want to like the Foo Fighters, I really do. Since Nirvana, Dave Grohl has always come off as a really likeable guy for a rock megastar with a gift for catchy hooks and big rock choruses. But about a half hour was all I needed before the Foos’ songs started running together, and the band’s flying hair and rock poses started to look like watching a few friends play Rock Band on the easy setting.

The Foo Fighters performed Sunday night at ACL. (Dawn Jones-Garcia)

Don't miss our slideshow of select shots from our entire photo team -- but to delve a little deeper in to ACL's last day, check out more work by the classically trained Dawn Jones-Garcia after the jump.