While I was in town for the Austin City Limits Festival a handful of months ago I lucked out and got to go to a couple tapings of the tv show the festival was named after. I just noticed both the episodes recently aired on PBS and are available to watch online so a post is in order. I had been a few times before but never to artists as ‘big’ as Monsters of Folk and The National. Part of the reason I was so excited was because they’ve built a new studio downtown to record future episodes at and these shows were among the last at the 35+ year old sound stage on the University of Texas Campus.
I’m a big fan of the artists in Monsters of Folk but had yet to see them all play together. Jim James, M. Ward and Conor Oberst share songwriting and singing duties and it’s nice to have a band without a specific front man. Mike Mogis is also a part of the band but he’s doesn’t sing so much so he gets a bit less of the spotlight. Conor helped on vocals for Jim’s “Smokin’ From Shootin’” a mighty powerful song when performed by My Morning Jacket or Monsters of Folk. Local Austin favorite Will Johnson was sitting in on drums most of the time and also got to take center stage to perform “Just to Know What You’ve Been Dreaming,” one of my favorite memories of the night. The biggest surprise was M. Ward’s stage presence, especially during “The Sandman, The Brakeman and Me”. I’m used to the M. Ward that would hide beneath his baseball cap when he performed. Maybe the black suit he was wearing and his time with She & Him companion Zooey Deschanel helped bring it out of him.
The National are a band I’ve been into for quite sometime. They played with Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! at the Troubadour a long time ago and half the audience left before The National took the stage. I couldn’t believe how stupid LA music fans can be and I’m happy The National has gone on to become so successful and to play much, much larger venues. They’ve been on the festival circuit for the past few years and I see and hear them quite frequently. Being so spoiled I didn’t expect to be so impressed with their performance. I was wrong. The National appears to be a band that takes themselves pretty seriously and when they let loose a bit and have fun is when they really start to shine. On top of that they’ve put out three solid albums in a row and can tear through those songs nailing everything without much thought. The highlight of that set was the very end when they came out for an encore and played “Mr. November.” Since they drop dozens of F bombs in the song Matt Berninger, the lead singer, stated something along the lines of “well.. they’re never going to be airing this on PBS” and they loosened up even more with Matt climbing on the piano and walking through the crowd serenading fans. It was the perfect way to end their set.
Check out both performances, and numerous more at AustinCityLimits.org and here. While you’re there you should check out the original pilot episode with Willie Nelson from October of 1974. And… don’t forget to donate a few bucks or buy some ACL swag, I imagine they’re going to need to raise some money to help pay for this.
