Category: Taping Recap

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News Taping Recap

Punch Brothers debut on ACL

“We’ve wanted to do this for so long!” declared Chris Thile before launching into the first number of the Punch Brothers’ Austin City Limits taping. While it was the band’s first time on ACL, it was not the first for Thile, who has graced our stage three times before with his former group Nickel Creek and as part of Dolly Parton’s backing ensemble. So the Punch Brothers show was a debut by an ACL veteran.

Paradoxes aside, the quintet killed it with their unique take on acoustic music. Set up with bluegrass instrumentation but just as influenced by jazz, classical music and pop as anything old-timey, the Punch Brothers performed a stunning array of tunes that slipped through the fingers of specific genres like hyperactive toddlers. From the stop-start rhythms of “Who’s Feeling Young Now?” and “Hundred Dollars” to the straight pop melodies of “New York City” and “Don’t Get Married Without Me,” the band delivered a restless, intensely creative set of songs.

Tradition didn’t get short shrift, either – the instrumental “Watch’at Breakdown” and a cover of Jimmie Rodgers’ “Brakeman’s Blues” delivered plenty of old-fashioned bluegrass thrills. The band combined their experimental and traditional sides midshow by seguing a judiciously dissonant cover of Radiohead’s “Kid A” into a blazing take on Gillian Welch’s “Wayside/Back in Time” .

The band returned to the stage for an encore with heartfelt and fun tributes to recently fallen heroes – Earl Scruggs with the banjo master’s “Groundspeed” and Levon Helm with the Band’s “Ophelia.” Throughout the show the band used their instrumental virtuosity only for good, never soloing to the point of tedium – their taste was as impeccable as their musicianship. The Punch Brothers’ set was as fine an example of unclassifiable contemporary acoustic music as anyone could hope for.

“When you start a band, this is all you really want to be able to do – play Austin City Limits,” noted  Thile halfway through the show, as he cited the Season 15 show with Strength in Numbers as a catalyst to his desire to make music. We’re always happy to host great musicians who’ve grown up with ACL. Hopefully future generations will be inspired by the Punch Brothers when the episode airs  this fall on your local PBS station. Check our Facebook and Twitter pages for more info as the year progresses.

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News Taping Recap

Bon Iver’s intimate pop anthems mesmerize

When Justin Vernon created the acclaimed For Emma, Forever Ago in his family’s cabin in Medford, Wisconsin in 2008, he probably never thought that his candid creation would lead his band Bon Iver to the Austin City Limits studio. But here he is, playing to a packed house at ACL Live at the Moody Theater.

Joined by eight multi-instrumentalists, Vernon turned his intimate confessionals into orchestral pop anthems that kept the crowd mesmerized. They played all but one song from 2011’s Grammy-winning Bon Iver, Bon Iver, but left plenty of room for gems from For Emma and beyond. Making good use of controlled cacophony on “Perth” and “Creature Fear” and soft-to-loud dynamics on “Calgary” and the hit “Holocene,” the band deftly demonstrated its range and depth. (“Holocene reminds me of driving along the West Coast and feeling so insignificant, but in a good way,” tweeted Miranda S.) Bon Iver pulled back for the folky “Skinny Love” and the lovely “Re: Stacks” (performed by Vernon solo) and revved back up for the catchy “Towers” and the rocking “Blood Bank.”

As if Vernon didn’t already have the audience in the palm of his hand, he appealed to their local pride with what Julia Brash described as an “overwhelmingly beautiful” cover of hometown heroine Patty Griffin’s “Nobody’s Crying,” before engaging them in a mass singalong for “The Wolves.” “All we needed was a campfire,” noted Zackary Wilburn, “and we would have been in that cabin up in Wisconsin!” Bon Iver closed out the night with “For Emma,” in many ways the song that started it all.

“This is the only good, perfect, wonderful music show that we have,” Vernon asserted during the encore. Such high praise makes us blush – we’re as happy to have hosted Bon Iver as its leader was to be here. Bon Iver’s enchanting episode will air in the fall – check with your local PBS station for airdates and showtimes. You can also keep up with Season 38’s progress via Facebook, Twitter and this very blog.

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Taping Recap

The Shins bring their best to Austin City Limits

What a whirlwind week it’s been here in Austin, TX.  And what better way to end our SXSW experience than with a taping of ACL with The Shins. Their new album Port of Morrow is out tomorrow and the band previewed a half dozen new tunes last night for our ACL fans.

“The Rifle’s Spiral” colored an epic pop tune with keyboardist Richard Swift’s electronic blips and swoops. “September” provided some Shinsized country music – it’s in much the same vein as their older tune “New Slang” (which was also performed).  “It’s Only Life” is a simply a brilliant song. “No Way Down,” “Bait and Switch” and “Simple Song” added a trio of magnificently shiny new pop gems to The Shins’ already stuffed jewel box.

The group rolled out plenty of classics as well, kicking the show off  with “Caring is Creepy,” the first song from their first album. “Australia” (“one of my favorites,” commented singer-songwriter Mercer) and the hit “Phantom Limb” upped the bouncy pop quotient, while “Mine’s Not a High Horse” and “So Says I” mined the band’s loud rock vein. The Shins really pushed themselves on “Kissing the Lipless,” which moved from quite to blasting and back, and “One By One All Day,” which closed out with a psychedelic guitar/pedalboard solo from guitarist Jessica Dobson. The band saved the best for last, bringing the show to a close (barring a redo of “Bait and Switch”) and the crowd to a roar with an amazing “Sleeping Lessons” – as @erinegg commented, “Holy rock n roll!”

This was The Shins second appearance on the ACL stage. (They last appeared in Season 30 in 2004). Perhaps one of our Twitter followers summed it up best:  @TStorm_Warning said: “New Shins is sounding as good as old Shins.”

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Featured Taping Recap

Crowd goes wild for Alabama Shakes

We love introducing you to your next favorite band. And we’re pretty sure Alabama Shakes is going to become that for you once you see their smoking hot soul.

While we had a few guests in the audience last night from out of town thanks to SXSW, it was a primarily Austin crowd – many getting to experience the Shakes for the first time.

The evening started off with “Going to the Party,” which flowed directly into “Hold On.” The power of “Hold On” was hard for the audience to resist,  as evidenced by Brittany Howard’s broken guitar string. “I think I was playing it too hard” she said as she switched to another guitar for “Hang Loose.”

The band continued with “I Found You” and “Always Alright,” which led  SoundcheckMag  to write, “You know a band is truly great when you feel like you’ve heard every song one thousand times before.”

Howard spent time introducing “Boys & Girls” to explain it was about a time in her childhood when she was told she could no longer be friends with a boy because they were too old. This touching song brought the energy in the room to a whole new level and sparked an amazing rendition of “Be Mine,” which will have people talking for years to come. ATXSocial said “Damn, Alabama Shakes just rocked it!”

They followed with “Rise to the Sun,” “You Ain’t Alone” and “I Ain’t the Same,” each one building off the last for a soulful storm of emotion. Once the crowd was in a frenzy, Alabama Shakes slipped into “Making Me Itch,” adding a little sexual tension to the set. They carried that over into the next song – just before “Heavy Chevy,” Howard demanded, “I want to see some shakers and some movers!”  And our ACL audience delivered.

The band returned to the stage for an encore, including “On Your Way.” And in just about an hour, the Alabama Shakes had won hundreds of new fans.

‏ @MatthewLillard “Watching the birth of a legend right now. @Alabama_Shakes. Buy stock early. A legend is born in Austin. No shit. Divine genius.”

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Featured Taping Recap

Radiohead’s ACL taping is a triumph

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.

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Taping Recap

The Civil Wars Take ACL to Barton Hollow

Last night, we formally kicked off Season 38 of Austin City Limits with a taping of the Grammy Award-winning The Civil Wars. The duo made an appearance last year in the ACL Presents special Americana Music Festival 2011, which is when we knew we had to have them do their own episode of ACL. Their performance exceeded our expectations.

Despite having met only three years ago, Joy Williams and John Paul White sound as if they were born to play together. “We couldn’t be more different – in every way,” remarked Williams, but it doesn’t inhibit their musical chemistry. Since she’s not tied down to an instrument (except on “Poison & Wine” and “C’est La Mort,” on which she plays piano), Williams could let the music take her wherever it could – her dances and gestures were, pardon the pun, a joy to watch. White is quite a picker, using his guitar as both melodic and rhythm instrument on the rocking “Oh Henry” (an as yet unrecorded song), the waltzing “Forget Me Not” and the bluesy “Barton Hollow.” The way the pair wove their voices around each other on “Falling,” “Tip of My Tongue” and “20 Years” was magical – as @timbasham commented on Twitter, “one guitar, two voices, an enormously beautiful sound.”

While they won Grammys for Best Country Duo/Group and Best Folk Act, they showed that they’re comfortable with more than just Americana during a fascinating range of covers. Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” (the second time that song has been performed on the ACL stage – see the Mos Def episode) became a bluesy, playful ramble, while the Jackson 5’s great pop tune “I Want You Back” transmuted into a slow, heartfelt plea. The pair’s version of Smashing Pumpkins’ “Disarm” – “the one place we do kinda cross,” remarked White after explaining how different the pair’s musical tastes are – stayed true to the original recording’s intensity. Their take on Leonard Cohen’s “Dance Me to the End of Love” was simply transcendent.

And we have to give a shout-out to the beautiful ACL audience. The Civil Wars’ music is quiet and austere, and the crowd showed their love without talking over the songs or the pair’s charming and witty between-songs patter. (“The @thecivilwars comedy is almost as good as their sound,” remarked @atxgingerman on Twitter.) The band went on a special journey and the audience was right there with them the entire time.

“This is one of many things on our bucket list,” said Williams between songs. “We are so amped to be here.” And we were so happy to have them. We don’t have an airdate lined up yet for this episode, but we can’t wait for you to see The Civil Wars on Austin City Limits.