ACL Friday
I took the day off from work on Friday and made it down for ACL early Friday afternoon. I took the downtown shuttle, and was clever enough to skip the wristband redemption line at Republic Square where it would've taken twenty minutes and used the one at Zilker Park that took two minutes.
I could hear Vampire Weekend as I was walking in, but didn't go to that stage to get a closer look. Instead I sat down at the BMI stage in time to see the last few songs by Sunny Sweeney and plan my next move. She's got a video on MEtv now, and she played that song last. I remember seeing her several times at the Poodle Dog Lounge a few years ago and it's cool to see she's going places.
Jamie Lidell is a British guy doing soul music. Most of it was very minimal, with just his vocals and either piano or electric piano on the nord. They had a guy playing two saxes at once. I've never seen that before and it was kinda cool. Also I couldn't tell but it looked like Jamie was humming some bass parts.
Mates of State was just OK. They also have a video out that I've seen a few times. The drummer is as gangly as he appears on the video. This band is a husband/wife duo. That usually bothers me for some reason. Their disco beat was excessive and their vocals were out of tune with each other a bit.
I wasn't close enough to Hot Chip to really hear and enjoy them. That AT&T Blue Room stage is too quiet this year. They used a lot of keyboard effects, and got jammy/repetitive too soon, so I got bored.
Jenny Lewis at the WaMu stage was great. I got close enough to see her facial expressions, and her vocals were amazing. She used what looked to be a real piano, but with only four or so octaves. What do you call that? Also, the cool pedal steel didn't actually have pedals at all. It looked extremely portable. Maybe this is the kind I should get.
David Byrne was much better than I expected. I'd read some reviews of his latest stuff that weren't too great. I didn't expect any, but he did several Talking Heads tunes "Once in a Lifetime" (my favorite) and "Life during Wartime." I really enjoyed watching the weird dancers. They were dressed in white and doing some really silly looking moves. I worked my way up to the side of the stage so I could see better.
I watched a little of the headliners Mars Volta and Manu Chao but didn't get into either, so I left early. Walking back to the car took awhile with pit stops at Uncle Billy's and Shoal Creek Saloon.
There were a few early bands I would've liked to see today (Old 97's and local band Black and White Years), but I got going too late. I'm going to try my bicycle, but I'm in no rush now. I'll get my normal Saturday migas and probably be down there between 3 and 4. Tomorrow I really do want to get there early to see Nicole Atkins, but we'll see. That would be a really long day if I watch the whole Foo Fighters set.
I could hear Vampire Weekend as I was walking in, but didn't go to that stage to get a closer look. Instead I sat down at the BMI stage in time to see the last few songs by Sunny Sweeney and plan my next move. She's got a video on MEtv now, and she played that song last. I remember seeing her several times at the Poodle Dog Lounge a few years ago and it's cool to see she's going places.
Jamie Lidell is a British guy doing soul music. Most of it was very minimal, with just his vocals and either piano or electric piano on the nord. They had a guy playing two saxes at once. I've never seen that before and it was kinda cool. Also I couldn't tell but it looked like Jamie was humming some bass parts.
Mates of State was just OK. They also have a video out that I've seen a few times. The drummer is as gangly as he appears on the video. This band is a husband/wife duo. That usually bothers me for some reason. Their disco beat was excessive and their vocals were out of tune with each other a bit.
I wasn't close enough to Hot Chip to really hear and enjoy them. That AT&T Blue Room stage is too quiet this year. They used a lot of keyboard effects, and got jammy/repetitive too soon, so I got bored.
Jenny Lewis at the WaMu stage was great. I got close enough to see her facial expressions, and her vocals were amazing. She used what looked to be a real piano, but with only four or so octaves. What do you call that? Also, the cool pedal steel didn't actually have pedals at all. It looked extremely portable. Maybe this is the kind I should get.
David Byrne was much better than I expected. I'd read some reviews of his latest stuff that weren't too great. I didn't expect any, but he did several Talking Heads tunes "Once in a Lifetime" (my favorite) and "Life during Wartime." I really enjoyed watching the weird dancers. They were dressed in white and doing some really silly looking moves. I worked my way up to the side of the stage so I could see better.
I watched a little of the headliners Mars Volta and Manu Chao but didn't get into either, so I left early. Walking back to the car took awhile with pit stops at Uncle Billy's and Shoal Creek Saloon.
There were a few early bands I would've liked to see today (Old 97's and local band Black and White Years), but I got going too late. I'm going to try my bicycle, but I'm in no rush now. I'll get my normal Saturday migas and probably be down there between 3 and 4. Tomorrow I really do want to get there early to see Nicole Atkins, but we'll see. That would be a really long day if I watch the whole Foo Fighters set.
Labels: music
posted by PlaysByEar at 12:43 PM
3 Comments:
How do you play 2 saxiphones at once? The fingering requires 2 hands. I played from 6th-10th grade and if I remember right the left hand was on top and controled the higher notes. To climb to higher notes you basically released fingers (which released pads) going from the bottom to the top. When you were releasing notes with the right hand, all the left-hand pads were closed and you never (or rarely) closed a right-hand key if the left hand keys weren't all closed. So you basically can only play about half the notes with only the left hand and can't do much of anything with only the right hand.
You see the game last night?!?
SM: I played clarinet in HS and I know the fingering is similar. He was playing one normally with the left hand and for the other sax he was reaching over the top to cover the left hand pads with his right hand.
J: I did! Close one!
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