Austin City Limits Music Festival Day One

One thing can be said for the 5th Austin City Limit Music Festival. It certainly has variety. And many choices have to made as a result.

With 40-some odd bands playing every day for three days, the only way anyone could see everything is have their own private golf cart, preferably one that hovers over the crowd. Getting from A to B to C and back to A can be a tiring process, but the reward is usually excellent music from just about any group playing.

The day started with strains of the Cotton Eyed Joe as performed by Asleep at the Wheel wafting out of the park as we approached the front entrance.

First up was the melodic rock of Guster, whose lead singer imparted band festival wisdom to the crowd. "Whenever you are playing a festival, mention the name of the state as often as possible" said Ryan Miller, vocalist for the group. And sure enough, he did his best to mention Texas between several songs, and even dropped it into the lyrics of one.

Tristan Prettyman was delightful, with a silky smooth country/folk voice. Stars, the Montreal band got political, announcing to the crowd that "your long national nightmare will be over January 20th, 2009."

Gnarls Barkley seemed to be the band that everyone wanted to see Friday, mostly because of their hit this summer "Crazy" which seemed to be played on every radio station recently. And Cee-Lo (Thomas Callaway)and Danger Mouse(Brian Burton) did not disappoint. They followed their band members onto the stage, all dressed in white lab coats and broke in with a cover of Thomas Dolby's "She blinded me with science". The women in the band a distinct look of Robert Palmer girls.

Danielia Cotton was excellent, closing her soulful set with a rocking cover of AC/DC's "Back in Black." Gomez, the spanish sounding but British based band, probably turned in the most solid sets of the day.

Perennial Texas favorite Jimmie Dale Gilmore charmed the crowd with his very distinctive voice and excellent songwriting. With lyrics like "You can not stay, but you can not stay away" delivered in Texas Twang that leaves you wanting more, what's not to like.

So day one ended with crowd favorite Ray Lamontagne, who had the most people singing along that I heard. Van Morrison turned in one of his best performances. And it was off to rest for day two, Saturday, which promises to be very diverse indeed.

David Sprague