We again started the day with breakfast at Dan’s Hamburgers, though I couldn’t bring myself to eat at a place called “Dan’s Hamburgers” a second time without getting a hamburger. Breakfast of champions, there. It was a decent burger, but nothing to write home about. (Though apparently enough to blog about. :-)) Our final day at the festival began with a quiet folk-pop set from Elizabeth Willis. Next we headed over to the WaMu tent to see The River City Christianettes, a high-energy gospel/soul group who put on a very fun, entertaining performance. From there we strolled over to the Austin Ventures stage to see Scott Biram, who refers to himself as a “dirty old one man band.” His unique style of the blues is hard to describe — he sings through a harmonica mike the whole time, giving his voice a strange, distorted sound as he grunts out lyrics over the dirty boogie of his guitar. After that it was back to the WaMu tent where we saw Nakia and his Southern Cousins. Nakia’s music is a little reminiscent of Joe Cocker, although with more of a soul bent. After taking our leave of the WaMu tent, we strolled over to the AT&T Blue Room stage where we caught a few songs from The Kills before taking our place at the AMD stage for Gillian Welch. Gillian Welch put on a great rootsy-folk set, and brought Alison Krauss out for one song. After that we were hot, tired, and hungry, so we grabbed a bit to eat and relaxed in our chairs at the BMI stage for awhile, before finding our way back to the AMD stage for Neko Case. Next we stopped by the Austin Ventures stage where we caught a few songs from fellow Cincinnatians, the Heartless Bastards before moving back to the WaMu tent for Shooter Jennings. Shooter Jennings plays countrified southern rock, which he and his band blast out as loud as possible. Lots of fun. While I stayed to watch the rest of Shooters’ set, Shelly snuck over to the AT&T stage to see Blues Traveler and then went over to the AMD stage to see The Raconteurs. Meanwhile I made my way over to the BMI stage where I relaxed while watching The South Austin Jug Band before meeting back up with Shelly to cap off the night watching Kevin Fowler. Kevin Fowler plays a rock-inflected country music, singing fun party songs such as “The Lord Loves Drinkers,” “Don’t Touch My Willie,” (That’s referring to a Willie Nelson CD, of course! My, you have a dirty mind!) and “Beer, Bait, and Ammo.” He also included a few surprising covers, including “Sweet Emotion,” “Crazy Train,” and “Fat Bottomed Girls.” And that was it for the 2008 Austin City Limits Festival. Hot, dusty, and tired, we got back to the hotel and collapsed.
↧