Friday

Asleep At The Wheel
– I thought I had heard these guys at ACL before, but I guess not. They were alright, but nothing special. Typical southern rock.

Heartless Bastards
– I decided to check these guys out because I recognized the name, but didn’t know where from. Once they started, I realized I saw them open for Lucinda Williams earlier in the year. Their performance was MUCH better this go-around.

Pete Yorn
– I love this guy; he’s one of my favorites. But I was a little disappointed in the show. He just wasn’t on. The music was great, but the energy level wasn’t there. That could easily be due to the sun.

Peter Bjorn and John
– I only caught a little bit of their act, but what I heard was pretty good.

LCD Soundsystem
– These guys were a pleasant surprise. I didn’t know what to expect, really. I heard a couple of songs on Sirius, but that’s about it. I don’t really know how to describe the music, but it’s really good and the show was cool.

M.I.A.
– Not my cup of tea

Queens of the Stone Age
– I don’t really have a review for them. They were just really good.

Kaiser Chiefs
– Show of the day, hands down. They totally rocked that stage and had fun doing it.

Björk
– She is SO weird…and yet, she’s brilliant. I only stayed for 45 mintues – but it was sheer bliss.

Killers
– They really stunk it up, which is disappointing since I like their music. I think they were actually worse than the crappy performance by R.E.M. in 2003, and that’s really saying something. Worst.live.performance.ever.

Friday Night After-party

EOTO
– These guys rock. It’s two guys from The String Cheese Incident doing their own project. The keyboard guy is on drums, and the drummer is on keyboards and sound mixing. They played for 3 hours solid with no break at all. I don’t know how anyone can drum that long. The venue was this cool outdoor place called The Enchanted Forest.

Saturday

Augustana
– We waited for 30 minutes to see Stephen Marley only to be let down. They bumped up everyone’s time slot at the AT&T stage by 2 hours since The White Stripes cancelled their show. Augustana is your typical pop crap that those 13 year old girls love.

Railroad Earth
– The only reason I went to this show is because I met the bass player at the afterparty show the night before. He’s the nephew of one of Matt’s friends, so I went with them to check it out. They turned out to be the act of the day. Bluegrass rockabillie at it’s best.

Cold War Kids
– I was a little let down by this one, but they were still good. I only got to hear a couple of songs anyway.

Blue October
No rating – Something is seriously wrong with this stage. I was dead center, and not even that far back, but I couldn’t hardly hear anything. This was a huge letdown for me, as I was really looking forward to their act. In addition to the sound problems, I think the singer lost his voice in a previous show. He was obviously struggling.

Zap Mama
– I was looking for Matt and heard a few of their songs…not impressed, but it didn’t exactly hurt my ears either.

Arctic Monkeys
No rating – Same thing as Blue October…very disappointing. I love Arctic Monkeys, but I didn’t get to hear them!!

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
– Better than I expected – I really enjoyed the show. The sad thing is, I didn’t move from the spot I was in for Arctic Monkeys and I could hear these guys better even though their stage was further away.

Arcade Fire
– They were on the crappy stage too, but I could hear them because I walked up close to the stage. ACL had a chair check this year where you could leave your chair and pick it up again the next day, so I walked over to it during Arcade Fire. The booth was near the stage, so I could hear. Good performance…I dig it.

Sunday

The National
– Performance of the day. This was another pleasant surprise for me. I only knew two of their songs going in, and I liked them both. But I liked everything they did on stage. Great stage presence and great performance.

Robert Earl Keen
– I heard later in the day from some people that he was off his game for this show, but I wouldn’t know ’cause it was my first time to see him live. I liked it a lot. He ended with The Party Never Ends, and it was great!

DeVotchKa
– I wish I could have heard more of them, but I was hungry. Sounded great though.

Midlake
– I may have well just listened to their CD, ’cause hearing them live wasn’t really any different. I was laying down, though, so maybe it would have been better if I had been watching. I nearly rated them at 3.5, but they get an extra half-star for letting a fan propose to his girlfriend on stage. She said yes.

Bloc Party
– Ouch. They suck live. Not as bad as The Killers, but yikes…

Lucinda Williams
– She was much better in Dallas

Regina Spektor
– Another disappointment. I like her music, but her live performance leaves much to be desired.

Wilco
No rating – This one pisses me off. You’d think they would have fixed the sound on this stage overnight, but no. I couldn’t hear, and there were so many people crowded in for this show that moving up close was impossible. I was really looking forward to this show, but the sound was aweful.

Filed under: Archives, Music by Travis