Austin Sound Check

ACL Redux : Saturday Soul

by Ana Wolken on October 1st, 2008

ACL Saturday kicked off with a couple decent sets by The Old 97’s and Langhorne Slim. My Saturday Soul afternoon really got kicking when Bavu Blakes & The Extra Plairs took the Austin Ventures stage.

Bavu Blakes is an Austin scene veteran, both on and off the stage. He’s a former ME TV VJ and a show-stopping frontman. The Extra Plairs set was filled with surprises, including Bavu in an Obama mask with his hypeman following suit as Hillary Clinton. Covers of Katy Perry’s I Kissed A Girl and Creedance Clearwater Revival’s Bad Moon Rising got the crowd bouncing unlike any that I’d see at ACL for the remainder of the weekend. It was my first time seeing Mr. Blakes & Co. and it certainly won’t be the last. Especially if they bring Gary Clark Jr. out again.

Next on the agenda, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings kept the funk groove going. During their set, I kept getting Tina Turner flashbacks. That’s a good thing for this music fan. I still jam What Love Got To Do With It from time to time. Sharon Jones has remarkable style and stage presence, making it incredibly easy to see what all the blog buzz is about. Where other blog bands like Vampire Weekend fail, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings succeed as they have the experience and stage show to warrant all the hype.

Next we  moved to the WaMu stage (or is it The Bailout Stage?) for the only time this weekend, to catch Eli “Paperboy” Reed & The True Loves. I saw Eli Reed & The True Loves for the first time at SXSW 2008 at the Red Eye Distribution dayshow and was absolutely blown away. Eli has incredible soul for a white boy from Massachusetts. When you combine that with the 50’s motown swing of The True Loves, it’s an irresistable throwback concoction.

All the music I’d seen throughout the day was a mere warmup for the set that would end up bowling me over. Erykah Badu is it, folks. If you haven’t seen her yet, do it. Now. You won’t regret it. Her combination of soul/funk/groove is sonic love. Erykah Badu is also a strong, fiercely independent woman who has worked her way to the top of the music industry heap and shows no signs of letting up. I left Erykah Badu’s set with the utmost respect for her both as a musician and a modern philosopher.

John Fogerty’s set was rife with Creedance Clearwater Revival hits. As he played Bad Moon Rising I couldn’t help but feel the day had come full circle since seeing Bavu Blakes earlier in the day. Moving on from Fogerty/CCR, I saw a few minutes of Alison Krauss & Robert Plant. What an incredible let down. With their combined years of experience in the music industry, I thought Krauss and Plant would be a hit. Unfortunately their combined material bears little resemblance to either artist’s work previously. There’s ten minutes of my life I’ll never get back.

Waiting for the Krauss / Plant snoozefest left me regrettably watching Beck from the back, but all in all his set was fantastic. Beck played most of my favorites from Odelay and the mandatory recent hits. It was a great way to end a soulful swinging Saturday at ACL. On to day three…

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POSTED IN: ACL, Austin Locals, Live Reviews