Austin City Limits

This weekend it is the acl festival 2005 in Zilker Park Austin. Apart from the fact that it is stinking hot and as Tom from Keane said 'us English aren't designed for this heat' it has been a great show so far. It seems that most of the good bands are British or Irish (except for the Texas country musicians of course).

On Friday I was very impressed with Kasabian who really rocked and I shall be buying their CD. Keane put in another clinical performance and played a few new ones which sounded good. Slightly Stoopid were pretty interesting and on the country side of things Asleep at the Wheel were a lot of fun. In the evening Lyle Lovett and his large band played. They are not really my thing but musically they were very impressive.

Saturday’s CD to buy came from The Frames from Ireland. One for Howard, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band who play some great jazzy funky brass tunes. Another CD to buy came from Bloc Party who had impressed me on a web cast from The Glastonbury Festival 2005 and were equally as good here preceding Oasis to end the night. The set was awesome and it was great to hear those songs we used to dance to at Rock City in Nottingham ten years ago – some good hairs on the back of my neck standing up action. Liam is still a ‘insert profanity here’ and I still don’t like the attitude but I had never noticed before how awesome Noel is on the guitar. To me his sound is quite unique and very tuneful. A very good set indeed. Worthy of mention is also Widespread Panic who had two sets again this year. If you like to listen to a good band just jam then this is your band.