Full Moon Fever: Day One At Austin City Limits

Fifteen hours after the gates opened at this year’s Austin City Limits music festival, we were witness to the following: giant eyeballs bouncing over and on thousands of Yeah Yeah Yeahs fans, a massive ’90s party-rock dance-a-thon at the roadside smoking accessories stand, a hundreds-deep impatient mob overpowering a single traffic cop… and oh yeah, a hell of a lot of fantastic music.

And to top it all off, we landed the first ever interview with Them Crooked Vultures frontman Josh Homme, and asked all the questions you’ve been wanting to know about the Rock-god Frankenstein that’s only begun their path of sonic domination.

After Thursday night’s Crooked Vultures spectacle at Stubb’s downtown, the momentum came slowly as we made our way around the Austin City Limits grounds, which were held in Zilker Park – just across the river from lovely downtown Austin. The Avett Brothers were halfway through with their set by the time we got our bearings, but we joined the dancing masses and enjoyed the hell out of it. Brothers Scott and Seth Avett, as well as bassist Bob Crawford and cellist Joe Kwan, danced their asses off as they sampled material from their latest record and reached back to give new fans a taste of their history, with new edges on tracks like Laundry Room and Slight Figure Of Speech.

Before hearing Coheed And Cambria tear up the Livestrong stage in the early afternoon (throwing in a gorgeous cover of Under The Milky Way by The Church for good measure), we caught an impressive set by the The Walkmen, who didn’t have much competition in the 3:30-4:30 slot. They’re an interesting act, and the first ACL band that’s warranted a closer look by Antiquiet once we hop off this Texas tornado.

We weren’t thrilled to miss Daniel Johnston’s set, but it’s not everyday that Them Crooked Vultures decide to spill some beans and free cats from bags. I think we made the right decision.

After catching the guys from Blitzen Trapper smoking out of an apple bowl, and suffering the consequences of free festival guacamole indulgence, I inadvertently found myself onstage during Bassnectar’s performance, which was a mashtastic set that brought out more dancing fools than one would expect. Thievery Corporation followed, earning, if nothing else, the award for thickest clouds of weed smoke in the air all day. Brazilian singer Karina Zeviani joined later in the set, lacing worldly polyrhythms with a crowd-stirring energy. The revolutionary message may have been diluted by the peaceful party vibe of the day, but their show certainly wasn’t.

Them Crooked Vultures started early and played long, changing up the setlist from their performance at Stubb’s the night before and leaving a wake of jaws on floors from a crowd that was entirely unfamiliar with their sound. Speaking of sound, they were far and away the loudest band to set foot on ACL grounds thus far. 100 yards away, waiting for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs to begin on the AMD stage, screaming was still required for any conversation.

Moments after TCV played their last note, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs contrasted the rock blast with a sultry-groove set that spanned their entire career and featured no less than three semi-costume changes by the enigmatic and bizarrely dead-sexy Karen O. Peppered heavily with highlights from this year’s It’s Blitz (Skeletons was easily the best song of the night), the YYYs’ show was supplemented in no small part by multi-instrumentalist Dav Pajo (Slint), who played color man to Nick Zinner’s guitar tapestries. Karen’s feral lunatic antics of the past may have toned down, but she’s not above deep-throating a mic from time to time, as she showed during Dull Life.

Across the field, Kings Of Leon were playing all the hits and pulling chicks like Wilt Chamberlain at the Playboy mansion; the crowd was absolutely impenetrable from 200 feet out. Despite a reputation for not being the most visibly captivating live band, the brothers Followill and co. steadily built their set for a big payoff, which arrived when Eddie Vedder joined the band for the show-closing Slow Night, So Long.

Trading lines with Caleb and smashing tambourines while pogoing around the stage, Vedder gave me all the reminder I need of why I’ll be riding the rail at the Livestrong stage all day on Sunday: the energy and passion behind a standard Pearl Jam show is unparalleled, but their festival performances are notoriously amazing. More on them later – 4 AM will very soon be 10 AM, and there’s still plenty of rockin’ to do down in Austin. Stay tuned.

Antiquiet’s trip to Austin for ACL 2009 was graciously sponsored by our friends over at camelcamelcamel. They set up a cool little site that lets you track prices of items on Amazon and a bunch of other online retailers. Please do pay them a visit to show your appreciation.