{"id":23587,"date":"2014-02-26T14:05:22","date_gmt":"2014-02-26T19:05:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hmmagazine.com\/dvanpelt\/?p=23587"},"modified":"2014-02-26T14:05:22","modified_gmt":"2014-02-26T19:05:22","slug":"acl-fest-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hmmagazine.com\/dvanpelt\/acl-fest-review\/","title":{"rendered":"ACL Fest Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

ACL Fest 2013<\/strong><\/p>\n

While doubling this massive three-day festival over two weekends might\u2019ve been a grand experiment, the only way a visitor might notice that something was different was by hearing a performer ask the crowd, \u201cSee you next weekend?\u201d<\/p>\n

It went off without a hitch, running as smooth as a well-oiled machine, offering thousands of fans muy-primo performances with plenty of room and eats, arts and great weather to enjoy.<\/p>\n

MUSE<\/strong><\/p>\n

MUSE played the enormous Samsung Galaxy Stage, which was a perfect fit, since it features all the bells and whistles that a visual and technologically-savvy band like this can artfully wield. The band came on stage knifing away with the aggressive riffing of \u201cSupremacy\u201d like they were artisan revolutionaries calling a nation to liberate itself from apathy.<\/p>\n

It was an immediate payoff for the audience of, let\u2019s say 50,000. And then the power went off \u2013 no music, no images on the video screens and no lights. The band was still playing for a minute, but the audience wasn\u2019t getting it. The band sauntered offstage, looking kind of frustrated, yet no one gave us an explanation. It was a big, bad tease and it sucked. But we waited, confident that we would all still be taken to a special place that a million well-placed video images and hundreds of music notes at 120 db could take us.<\/p>\n

After an awful wait of 15 minutes or more, the lights were back on, the video screen came to life and the band marched out to \u201cSupremacy\u201d again, playing it in full \u2013 only missing the element of surprise of starting the set with the first song from The 2nd<\/sup> Law<\/i>. It felt like all was finally<\/em> right with the universe on this night. They lit into the large-sounding and quick-paced \u201cSupermassive Black Hole\u201d with its big, fat and phat basslines. The giant video screen behind the stage (spanning the width of the entire stage) and the screens on either side of the stage displayed shattered glass silhouettes flying around. The swells in the song seemed to naturally move the audience at will.<\/p>\n

Frontman Matthew Bellamy played \u201cThe Star Spangled Banner\u201d on his guitar sans the Hendrix-ian feedback and divebombs we\u2019ve all become accustomed to. This led into \u201cHysteria,\u201d which had falling digits behind them a la The Matrix<\/i> throughout. This was followed by the bombastic Queen-like \u201cPanic Station,\u201d which was accompanied by giant monster animations that danced to the beats on screen. It added a nice humorous element that underscored that this pompous and glorious band certainly doesn\u2019t take itself too seriously.<\/p>\n

Things shift to a bit of seriousness with the guitar squeals that Bellamy coaxes out of his instrument before they launch into \u201cPlug In Baby\u201d with all pistons firing. The band as a unit certainly rocks out with the best of them. \u201cStockholm Syndrome\u201d followed with more power riffing.<\/p>\n

\u201cFollow Me\u201d had Bellamy playing his guitar on his knees several times during the song, which featured dancing lasers and giant intelli-beam columns of light that shined down and then rotated out over the audience.\u00a0I notice a little over halfway through the set that MUSE wasn\u2019t crafting dynamics into their show with soft numbers or ballads, but simply letting the rests between songs do the trick (and allow the audience to catch their breath between pummeling riffs and pounding drums).<\/p>\n

\u201cLiquid State\u201d started off with bassist Chris Wolstenholme <\/em>taking the darkened center of stage nonchalantly with his frets lit up. He handled the vocals for the mid-tempo, pulsating rocker. \u201cMadness\u201d took the band\u2019s visual side a notch higher with Bellamy sporting super-sized sunglasses that displayed giant video images of the lyrics\u2019 words. He would look right into the camera in front of him to fill up the large screens with his face and glasses. With a dark stage and the brilliant white lights, each letter and font stood out. I wish we had numerous photos of this set to display, but our photographer, I believe I was told, went to catch another set. Sigh.<\/p>\n

\u201cTime Is Running Out\u201d was a special moment, which had the crowd singing along loudly. Bursts of columned smoke accented the shouts. They finished with \u201cUnnatural Selection\u201d and left the stage. After a moment a video showing abandoned factories and a gang of kids running from something provided a long intro to the first encore \u2013 \u201cUprising.\u201d It was a glorious moment \u2026 and was followed by another with \u201cStarlight.\u201d This is one of my favorite songs from the past decade. It’s just a bouncing, upbeat song that also has epic dynamics with both great vocal lines and ethereal guitar sounds.<\/p>\n

Bellamy finally got on the giant piano that sat on the stage and played \u201cSurvival.\u201d It was a nice moment of reflection before the Beatlesque BGVs were set to kick in \u2026 and then the power went out again. The explanation for the first power outage was generators running out of gas, so we assumed it was either more of the same or the city of Austin trying to enforce some sort of noise ordinance, since the band\u2019s set had lasted six minutes past the ten o\u2019clock hour. More dead air\u2026<\/p>\n

When the band returned to the re-powered stage, they did not bother to finish the song, but instead Wolstenholme <\/em>came out and laid into a sweeping, long note harmonica solo like Supertramp\u2019s \u201cTake the Long Way Home.\u201d Then the rest of the band kicks into the grand finale of \u201cKnights of Cydonia.\u201d It was accompanied by a cool desert cactus animation that transitioned to 3-D line art and back to illustration.<\/p>\n

I left satisfied. My body got rocked with massive beats, my musical soul celebrated the crafted instrumentation and sung melodies, plus my eyes were tantalized with a super visual show. Well done, mates. Thank you, ACL.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ACL Fest 2013 While doubling this massive three-day festival over two weekends might\u2019ve been a grand experiment, the only way a visitor might notice that something was different was by hearing a performer ask the crowd, \u201cSee you next weekend?\u201d It went off without a hitch, running as smooth as a well-oiled machine, offering thousands […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":23589,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[102,103,3614,938,1389,2104,2414,3613,3343],"class_list":["post-23587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-acl","tag-acl-fest","tag-beatles","tag-doug-van-pelt","tag-hm","tag-muse","tag-queen","tag-supertramp","tag-u2","cat-17-id"],"yoast_head":"\nACL Fest Review - The Original Heaven's Metal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/hmmagazine.com\/dvanpelt\/acl-fest-review\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Doug Van Pelt\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hmmagazine.com\\\/dvanpelt\\\/acl-fest-review\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hmmagazine.com\\\/dvanpelt\\\/acl-fest-review\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Doug Van Pelt\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hmmagazine.com\\\/dvanpelt\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/b155afeb7086c8182b3bb3b435e68c4b\"},\"headline\":\"ACL Fest Review\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-02-26T19:05:22+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hmmagazine.com\\\/dvanpelt\\\/acl-fest-review\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":980,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hmmagazine.com\\\/dvanpelt\\\/acl-fest-review\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hmmagazine.com\\\/dvanpelt\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/02\\\/MUSE_photobyNickSimonite.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"ACL\",\"ACL Fest\",\"Beatles\",\"Doug Van Pelt\",\"HM\",\"Muse\",\"Queen\",\"Supertramp\",\"U2\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Blog\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hmmagazine.com\\\/dvanpelt\\\/acl-fest-review\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hmmagazine.com\\\/dvanpelt\\\/acl-fest-review\\\/\",\"name\":\"ACL Fest Review - The Original Heaven's Metal\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hmmagazine.com\\\/dvanpelt\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hmmagazine.com\\\/dvanpelt\\\/acl-fest-review\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hmmagazine.com\\\/dvanpelt\\\/acl-fest-review\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hmmagazine.com\\\/dvanpelt\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/02\\\/MUSE_photobyNickSimonite.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-02-26T19:05:22+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hmmagazine.com\\\/dvanpelt\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/b155afeb7086c8182b3bb3b435e68c4b\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hmmagazine.com\\\/dvanpelt\\\/acl-fest-review\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/hmmagazine.com\\\/dvanpelt\\\/acl-fest-review\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hmmagazine.com\\\/dvanpelt\\\/acl-fest-review\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hmmagazine.com\\\/dvanpelt\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/02\\\/MUSE_photobyNickSimonite.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hmmagazine.com\\\/dvanpelt\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/02\\\/MUSE_photobyNickSimonite.jpg\",\"width\":997,\"height\":662,\"caption\":\"Photo by Nick Simonite\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hmmagazine.com\\\/dvanpelt\\\/acl-fest-review\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hmmagazine.com\\\/dvanpelt\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"ACL Fest Review\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hmmagazine.com\\\/dvanpelt\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hmmagazine.com\\\/dvanpelt\\\/\",\"name\":\"The Original Heaven's Metal\",\"description\":\"Former Editor-in-Chief. 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