Saturday was arguably the weakest billed day of the festival, and along with some uncommon Texas rain, made the goings on a bit unpleasant. I wound up being familiar with few of the acts today and decided to make it mostly a day of band exploration.
I decided to rep the locals by stopping by for Caveman‘s early set. They’ve been a good choice for chill indie rock following last years debut LP, CoCo Beware. They debuted some new material here and kept the downtempo vibes.
I wandered over to the land of DEV, realizing the familiarity of her beats from the club scene. It wasn’t hard to get down for a bit. For a noon set, it wasn’t a bad set. Statuesque backup dancers made for an interesting human stage prop.
Over on the small stage, Wheeler Brothers were playing, who are one of many alt country acts trying to make it in a big world. They still need to stand out more.
On to Rufus Wainwright, who was my favorite unknown act of the festival. This singer/pianist/guitarist/personality has some serious stage presence and really mixed up his live show with an interesting mix of guest vocalists and varying stage compositions. He definitely has a new fan here.
Father John Misty‘s set didn’t seem too compelling. I wound up instead debating internet psychology with some dude who saw my Nyan cat shirt.
Andrew Bird was a violin and rock act that was pleasant to space out in the grass to.
The Shins… are actually kind of disappointing live. I’ve heard this criticism before, but had to see for myself. I’m not sure if the seemingly spotty speaker system should take some of the heat however. I definitely had trouble hearing them.
I ventured into uncharted territory to see Bassnectar, a dubstep DJ. Didn’t really enjoy him. Community opinions I sourced were highly positive about his set, but I just don’t think this music is my thing. I hope this style of electronica is just a fad.
Neil Young as a Saturday night finale made for a pretty cool history lesson. This guy seriously still knows how to rock it.
