Austin City Limits Music Festival: Day Three 2006

Sunday September 17th saw the last day of the Austin City Limits Music Festival. It has been a successful fifth year that has pleased fans the world over. Yes, fans come from around the globe to catch the festival; I met a couple who flew in from Rome for ACL this year. Yes, Rome, Italy and not Rome, Texas.

If you haven't already, you should check out the highlights from Day One and Day Two. But don't ask me if the sightings of Matthew McConaughey, Lance Armstrong, and Jake Gyllenhaal are true. I only thought I caught Jake at Ray LaMontagne the first night. I thought I was seeing things, but with two of the three being local boys who don't hide their lives in Austin, it wouldn't shock me if they partook in the Austin City Limits Music Festival this weekend.

The morning started with some rain. Rain in the Texas summer doesn't cool things down as one would hope. No, rain just makes it even more humid and thus very hot. Several of the bands early on in the day mentioned it.

The rains welcomed Rocky Votolato. I'm a fan of his softer material but he proved he is more than capable of opening his mouth and letting it all go. His crowd wasn't as large as he deserved, but it was raining. Plus with the noon timeslot, he didn't have an ideal spot in the day to really attract as many new fans as he could. I still really like Rocky Votolato.

I had a Canadian segment of the day starting with Kathleen Edwards. She had to cancel her performance at the ACL Music Festival in 2005, so her appearance was an extra treat for her fans. Her music is classified as alternative-country and I've never been quite sure what that really means as some bands are more country and others not so much.

Kathleen Edwards had a touch of country influence, but not enough to annoy those who don't like country music. Apparently someone mistook her for Aimee Mann this weekend to which she claimed "Yeah, I am Aimee Mann with ten more hamburgers." I can see the similarities that someone could confuse them. And her music adds to it as it feels like an alternative-country with Aimee Mann influences. Maybe that's why I liked her. She was decidedly different than Aimee, but within the same realm of the music world.

The next band was another Canadian act, though much more rockin'. The Sam Roberts Band hails from Montreal. Is it me or has ACL had the Montreal Invasion this year? Either way, Sam Roberts was an enjoyable act. And boy did they look like they were having a good time as they were all over the stage. I'm not sure if it was the humidity or their active performance, but they were covered in sweat. I am glad I caught Sam Roberts and fully intend on buying their CD soon. It wasn't the pop rock that several of the currently popular Canadian bands play, so they are set apart from much of the bands from north of the boarder.

After two Canadian bands, a switch was in order. Scottish cutie, KT Tunstall was up. She has found absolutely no difficulty in finding her songs and album, Eye of the Telescope, on the Billboard charts this year. She played a couple of her radio singles, to which the audience reacted positively. Oh who am I kidding; the audience enjoyed all of her performance. She did, however, call her band the "melting band" because of the heat. I really enjoy KT Tunstall and am very glad I was able to catch her performance.

Texas artist, and in fact an Austin boy, Jack Ingram was next on the list. He's become a staple of the Austin City Limits Music Festival appearing all five years. He's a bonafide star now, as he rides the wake of his recent Number 1 single, "Wherever You Are." I admittedly only have one of his albums, but his sound has put a lot more rock into country.

I suppose that is what Texas country is really, but it's good stuff. Even though he plays in Austin and around Texas quite a bit, he still lured a large audience. There is something about Texas boys and playing guitar that just really works. And maybe that is why Jack Ingram told his audience to "Remember this moment; hold on to it" before telling the audience to let others know they are loved as he introduced his song "Love You."

I took a bit of food break to just sit and take it all in before heading to the first of two bands that were the real reasons for me buying my three day wristband. When I heard The Flaming Lips would be at Austin City Limits, I just had to see them. I didn't catch their special performance at South By Southwest, but I heard a great deal about it. And walking to the AT&T stage where they would perform, it really felt like I was at an outdoor festival. People were sitting everywhere, obviously camping out for their perfect spots. I made my way towards the front of the stage in time to see a ton of Santas, Aliens, and Superheroes crowding onto the stage. The Flaming Lips certainly come to entertain.

Lead singer Wayne Coyne got things started by jumping on top of the audience in a giant bubble. He ran around on people's heads for a bit before making his way back to the stage. After the first song, Wayne commented on how hardcore Ben Kweller had been the day before and asked for women to throw tampons up on stage for him as he was going to pour fake blood all over himself. He couldn't be shown up by some youngster, now could he?

Having been around in some form since 1983, The Flaming Lips have quite a collection of material. I enjoy stuff from throughout their history, with 2002's Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots being my favorite album. Yes, that means "Fight Test" is my favorite song (they did not sing it) and "Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots Pt 1" being my second favorite (they did sing that). They sang a combination of songs from early in their career like "She Don't Use Jelly" to some of their newest stuff like "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song." I think their most mainstream hit is "Do You Realize" from Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, which everyone sang along to.

The problem with The Flaming Lips show was they performed for an hour and only sang a handful of songs. This was due to large breaks between each song. That and the somewhat failed attempts at getting audience participation. I was singing along for each song, but I don't think most of the crowd knew all of their tunes, let alone the fact they were camping out spots for the next act.

Instead of going on with what he got, Wayne Coyne would stop the song and heckle the crowd to try and make them louder. Can you tell that is a pet peeve of mine when a band does that? If they had just kept playing song after song with only a short intro between instead of long pauses, they would have been excellent. But the huge balls, confetti cannons, and stage theatrics made for quite the spectacle anyway.

After The Flaming Lips was the ultimate reason I wanted to come to Austin City Limits Music Festival this year: Tom Petty. His crowd easily beat any other I have ever seen at Austin City Limits. Ever. Seriously. His audience was so vast I couldn't see the end of it, the cameras on stage getting shots of the audience reaction couldn't see the end of it; it was the never-ending audience.

He played the first single, "Saving Grace," from his newest album, Highway Companion. I really enjoy it and it was well received as a live performance. Four songs into his set, the skies opened up above Zilker Park and stagehands rushed to cover up everything on stage. The winds, thunder, and lightning on top of the rain made several folks take their cue to leave. Not hearing anything about it being canceled, I refused to leave and 30 minutes later Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers were back on stage. Keep in mind he went on at 8:30 and was supposed to end at 10.

Tom Petty came back in full force, donning a cowboy hat. Ten O'clock came and went and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers just kept on jamming. With the slightly thinned crowd after the rain, he thanked us for sticking around. Tom Petty was also able to get the audience participation without asking for it. He sang and we were right along with him. At one point he even complimented the ACL fans on our singing.
Something about the rain, which did cool things off this time, really changed the audience. No one was merely singing along, but everyone was dancing and going wild. As a band that has been around since the early 70's, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers know how to put on a good show that audiences of all ages will enjoy. There were entire families there with even their youngsters matching Petty word for word.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers rocked on in the rain until nearly 11 and were definitely the highlight of 2006's Austin City Limits Music Festival. Dancing in the rain made singing along with Tom Petty the most perfect ending ACL could have hoped for.

If you weren't able to catch Austin City Limits Music Festival this year, don't worry too much. iTunes will be releasing some live recordings from the festival in October.