Austin City LimitsAustin City Limits will be taping a performance by The Shins on Sunday, March 18, at 8 pm at ACL Live at The Moody Theater (310 W. 2nd Street, Willie Nelson Blvd). We will be giving away a limited number of space available passes to this taping. Enter your name and email address on the below form by 9 am Monday, March 12. Passes are not transferable and cannot be sold.
Radiohead taped Austin City Limits last night. It almost feels like that’s all we need to say. This was a highly anticipated show, not only amongst the fans, but for us as well. Radiohead has been highon our wish list for years, so that rush of “When’s it gonna happen? It’s gonna happen! Now it’s happening!” has been buzzing through all of our veins for a long time.
Needless to say, the band delivered. Not the hits, necessarily – Oxford’s favorite sons have never been the pandering kind. A progressive rock band in the purest sense, Radiohead is always pushing itself forward, deconstructing and reconstructing its own aethestic, experimenting with its sound and presenting its latest iteration, rather than falling back on old habits and familiarity. In Thom Yorke’s words prior to launching into one of the several brand new songs played during the night: “This is why we press on.”
In that sense, Radiohead gave us one hell of a show. “My face was melted at @radiohead” remarked @zee_funk on Twitter. Drawing almost exclusively from their last three albums Hail to the Thief, In Rainbows and The King of Limbs, the band blazed through some of its most daring material, adding drummer Clive Deamer (last on our stage with Robert Plant, who was in the audience) for extra polyrhythmic emphasis. “Little By Little” made perfect use of the band’s distinctive three-guitar attack, the interlocking six-string lines slithering in and out of the skittering rhythms. “Myxomatosis” and “Morning Mr. Magpie” were jittery rockers seemingly influenced as much by caffeine as the electronica the band weaves into its rock tapestry. “The Gloaming” hit a unique balance between dissonant and ethereal, the instrumental parts almost fighting each other while singer Thom Yorke floated over the top. “Arpeggi” and the new song “Identikit” built a generous amount of tension into their swirling arrangements, smartly ending before the anticipated Big Rock Climax could happen.
We love it when artists play brand new material, and Radiohead graced us with the atmospheric, rhythm-heavy “Staircase,” the piano-heavy “The Daily Mail” and the lovely “Skirting On the Surface,” as well as “Identikit.” The band also resurrected the odd, intriguing “The Amazing Sounds of Orgy,” an old B-side that Yorke described as having “disappeared like a wet fart in the wind.”
The band ended the main set with the bizarre “Feral,” a strange but compelling mix of dub and Latin rhythms, and the frenetic “Idioteque,” a Kid A gem that got a huge response from the crowd. But not as huge as the final song of the encore – the towering “Paranoid Android” still stands as one of modern rock’s greatest achievements, and everybody gave the band’s fiery performance the love it deserved.
“After Radiohead tonight, I don’t feel the need to RSVP to any more sxsw events,” claimed @chu16 on Twitter. “My experience has already peaked.” While we’d never claim that a single show summarized an entire concert-going career, once the rest of the world sees this performance on PBS in the fall they’ll understand the hyperbole. Radiohead’s show represents what can be achieved by an artist determined to dive deep into the heart of its muse. Or, as @HeatherCuriel put it more simply and breathlessly, “passion, life changing, beautiful. rock and roll is alive.”
But you don’t have to take our word for it – check out what Examiner.com, Austin Metblogs, KGSR, and Austin Bloggy Limits had to say about Radiohead’s ACL taping. And don’t forget to visit our Facebook and Twitter pages and let us know what you think.
Diehard Radiohead fans who did not win passes to tonight’s ACL taping have no doubt noticed the ads on Craigslist offering to sell tickets to this show.
We have messaged this in the past, but due to the high volume of ticket requests for this taping we feel the need to reiterate: ACL taping passes are never for sale. Attempting to sell passes jeopardizes our relationships with our donors and trade partners and, mostly importantly, inhibits our ability to contract with artists.
Also, as those you who’ve attended tapings in the past year have noticed, physical tickets are now a thing of the past. If you win passes on the blog, you’re getting a spot on the guest list, not actual tickets, and those spots can only be redeemed by coming in person and showing us your ID. So anyone on Craigslist or elsewhere who tells you they have tickets on hand to sell is, to be blunt, scamming you. They are counterfeit tickets and will not be honored. You’ll have spent an enormous amount of money for nothing.
We wish we could accommodate every fan who wants to see our tapings. But attempting to buy and/or sell passes to ACL tapings hurts us and hurts you. Please don’t do it. Thank you for your continued support of ACL and KLRU.
UPDATE: Ticket giveaway is over and winners have been notified by email.
Austin City Limits will be taping a performance by Alabama Shakes on Tuesday, March 13, at 6 pm at ACL Live at The Moody Theater (310 W. 2nd Street, Willie Nelson Blvd). We will be giving away a limited number of space available passes to this taping. Enter your name and email address on the below form by 9 am Friday, March 9. Passes are not transferable and cannot be sold.
You may not recognize the name Stanley Donwood, but if you’re a Radiohead fan, you’ve undoubtedly seen his work – he provided the cover art for the band’s latest LP The King of Limbs. He also, at the band’s request, designed the poster for Tuesday night’s ACL taping with Oxford’s favorite sons.
Here’s the extra cool part. In lieu of a fee, Mr. Donwood asked us to make a donation to Amnesty International in his name. We’d like to acknowledge his generosity and progressive spirit – it’s great to know that even in the music business there are still folks who use their talents for good. We encourage you to click on his link above to support his work, and if you’d like to join him in supporting Amnesty International, you can do so here.
The Gear Blog is a behind-the-scenes look at the instruments and equipment that graces the Austin City Limits’ stage. Our Audio Engineer Kevin Cochran goes in-depth to give our audiophiles their fix.
I hate deadlines. So much so that it’s been 2+ years since I’ve done my last gear blog, so let’s just jump in. We filmed Cheap Trick during the 2010 South By Southwest when we were both celebrating the beginning of our 36th year in business.
Rick Nielsen’s guitar tech is a busy, busy man. Rick changed guitars on every song. There was no point in the set that he played the same guitar twice. Rick is well known for his association with Hamer guitars, but his touring rig also has vintage Les Pauls.
Above, we have two Bo Diddley inspired guitars. One is a Hamer having the box like shape Bo was known and a red Gretsch Billy-Bo. On the far left is 50’s Fender Telecaster once owned by Jeff Beck himself.
Rick’s onstage amp setup is just as ostentatious as his guitars. Seen here are three Fuchs Train 45 heads. At the time, I noted that there is only one set of speakers in the center of the cabinets. Every other speaker cabinet actually contained head lights.
Off stage is a pair Mr. Nielsen’s original 70’s Deluxe Reverbs. As memory serves they were modded by Paul Rivera, by taking the heads out of the combo chassis and putting them into a roll-around rack. Above is Nielsen’s wireless system and only effect: a Dunlop Crybaby.
Hamer custom double neck. One has a Kahler vibrato system and one has a hard tail. Note the custom inlay.
If any guitar is associated with Rick, other than the Explorer style guitar, it’s this Hamer 5 neck. In addition to 12-string and fretless necks, there is also a Telecaster-style pickup configuration and two double humbucker configurations, one with a locking tremolo. Mr. Nielsen was kind enough to let anyone on the ACL crew pick it up, play it, or get their picture taken with it. It’s not as heavy as it looks, and except for one neck, it’s not in tune. Since Rick plays only one song with it, why bother?
Note the banjo style tuning pegs.
As you might have noticed, Rick favors a checkerboard motif on much of his guitars and equipment. Even his iPhone case had a checkerboard design.
We kept finding picks for months after the Cheap Trick taping. Mr. Nielsen is fond of flinging them into the audience and his stand will almost be completely bare by the end of the set. Surprisingly, for a man with so many picks, he likes to play with his fingers a lot.
Daxx Nielsen played drums for CT’s taping. This Ludwig drum kit has the same finish as one of Rick’s Explorers and a couple of Tom Petersson’s basses.
Tom Petersson’s road rig is just as exotic as Nielsen’s. Here is his signature Waterstone 12-string bass. It’s tuned like a regular bass, but with additional strings one and two octaves higher above the traditional bass note.
In addition to a couple of 12-string backups, Tom has a traditional 4-string Fender Precision bass in beautiful pink and a Gibson Explorer bass, to compliment Nielsen’s own Explorer fetish. And yes, that strange finish pops up once again on not one but two of Tom’s own basses.
Petersson splits his bass signal into a Reeves cabinet for the low end and a Vox amp for the higher register strings.
Robin Zander brought a smattering of Tele’s, a Rickenbacker, and a couple of Gibson electrics with him. My favorite was a 12-string telecaster.
The only acoustic of the entire bunch was this Bedell. To the right, clipped out of frame is a Mark Sandman-inspired Waterstone electric. I’m a sucker for gold.
Cheap Trick brought along two guest keyboardists to help along, Magic Cristian and the great Roger Manning Jr.
Finally, the set list for that night. Please note we have not used actual tape for years – it’s just that we did for 30 of our 38 seasons and calling it that is old habit. It does get quite embarrassing when we have to stop for a “tape change” and the band members or tour managers and asks, “You guys still use tape?”