Austin City Limits bits: Day one

by Erin Rice

The following blog post is in no way expected to be of use to anyone:

It was a late start to the event of the late summer, but there were still plenty of bands to check out and ogle. One of the most notable was Hot Chip. Hot Chip, from London, is like the music competition scene from Revenge of the Nerds. Take a few slightly geeky guys and add electro-indie talent. The lead singer was the most socially inept person to get laid in Austin tonight, dressed in an all white jump suit with his bandmates. As the night began to set and the weather wavered towards coolish, the crowd warmed up by dancing to the bit-pop beat. On a stage over, N.E.R.D. were solid, but their sound was not full enough to carry to the far reaches of the crowd, and lost some of us after a while.

There was a competition for fans during the final sets of the night. In the right corner was Manu Chao, whose sound reminds one of their beloved ska of yester year with a latin fix. Meanwhile, The Mars Volta was playing across the field. While the Mars Volta had a sizable crowd, for the most part, onlookers were watching while standing still. Manu Chao, on the other hand, had every member of his crowd moving to the beat. Despite the fact that most of his songs contain the same exact fast-paced beat, its infectious nature was far too much for us too ignore. Manu and his energetic band stole the night and had even the least Latin among us moving our hips.

Looking forward to getting a much earlier start tomorrow, and most importantly, avoiding that Austin rush hour traffic.