Last Night: The Decemberists at Austin City Limits

After the bands sold out performance at Stubbs last Monday The Decemberists stuck around Austin to perform at their second Austin City Limits performance and their first at the new venue. This band was born for this kind of taping and quickly drew the audience in with a collection of tracks from their latest release as well as some of the essentials.

Colin Meloy has a certain undefinable characteristic that makes The Decemberists that much more endearing. Its easy to imagine that most bands would not reach such a level of success as they have given the content of their songs. They don't make it easy and challenge their listeners in a time of short attention spans and iTunes singles. But Meloy and the rest of the group perform and write with the utmost conviction that you follow them along for the ride.

Not to say that it was all serious. Meloy and the others poked fun at the cameras, comparing them to freaky robots. He also jumped into the seats at one point and played a portion of the song while seated with the crowd. It was also the only ACL taping that I have attended that had so much crowd participation. At one point they instructed the band to scream as loud as they could when given a gesture to which the crowd cheerfully obliged. It remains to be seen how much of that will make it in to the actual show.

And on a happy note it was nice to see that band member Jenny Conlee was able to fly into Austin for both the Stubbs performance and the taping. She was diagnosed with breast cancer on May and is currently recovering from chemo. She seemed in great spirits and will be playing handfuls of dates during this leg of the tour with plans to full resume her duties in the future. You can see the full setlist from the show below.

It was recently announced that Coldplay would be doing a taping during ACL in addition the already announced tapings with Arcade Fire, The Head and The Heart, Gomez and Randy Newman. To enter for a chance to attend a future taping or to see see info on airing, previous tapings and other great stuff check out: AustinCityLimits.org and ACL-Live.com

Set list photo cred @Andylanger

Last Night: M. Ward @ Austin City Limits Taping (w/ Setlist)

While we didn't get to attend the M. Ward show at Antone's on Tuesday evening, we'd like to think we got the better end of the deal. Seriously we say this every time, but it doesn't get much better than watching a performance at the ACL Studios!

M. Ward has appeared on the show on three separate occasions while supporting other artists (Spoon, Bright Eyes, and Norah Jones) but last night it was all about him. The incredibly full studio erupted in applause as ACL producer Terry Lickona introduced the singer.

He started the show appearing on stage by himself for the first few songs, including opening with "Duet for Guitars #2" and "Duet for Guitars #3" . The man has some incredible guitar skills. M. Ward and his amazing band proceeded to perform songs off from all his albums, except for End of Amnesia for some reason. I especially love "Sad Sad Song" and was excited to hear it live. Other standout tracks included a fantastic version of "Poison Cup" and Ward on piano for "Hold Time". Joining him onstage for the last five songs were members Oakley Hall as they finished the set strong with two of our favorite songs off his most recent album, the Buddy Holly cover, "Rave On" and "Never Had Nobody Like You". He also announced since they were in Austin it was only fitting to end with a Daniel Johnston cover "To Go Home", one that also appeared on M. Ward's 2006 album Post-War.

Last Night: St. Vincent's Austin Weekend

After weeks of touring and stops at various festivals around the country Annie Clark aka St. Vincent stopped in Austin for what seemed like a victory lap. Over the course of two days she made stops at Waterloo Records for an in store, had a triumphant show at The Mohawk and finished it all off with a beautiful set for the Austin City Limits program. We were lucky enough to make 2 out of the 3 performances (sorry Waterloo) and were able to get some amazing shots. We also tried a new thing letting our Twitter followers choose which songs they wanted us to record. Both "Marrow" and "Now, Now" had the highest votes so we went ahead and shot them both. Also check out Austin Bloggy Limits and Austin Kleon for more recaps from this weekend.

The line outside of the Mohawk was insane leading up to show time but we managed to get in just in the nick of time. Clark came out and you could see that she was both pleased and surprised with the adoration. She played what I think was a near perfect set in pretty much the order I would choose if given the opportunity. Given that it was the last show of the tour during the encore they invited Pattern Is Movement out and toasted the crowd (and themselves) with a bottle of champagne. So fitting.

St. Vincent Set List - The Mohawk 6.19.09

"Marry Me"

"The Strangers"

"Save Me From What I Want"

"Now, Now"

"Actor Out Of Work"

"Paris Is Burning" (solo)

"The Bed"

"Laughing With A Mouth Of Blood"

"Black Rainbow"

"Marrow"

"Just The Same But Brand New"

Encore:

"The Party"

"Your Lips Are Red"

Seeing that the set at The Mohawk was so amazing the night before I knew that I could expect close to perfection for the Austin City Limits taping. Maybe setting the standards a little high? Yes, but I have to admit it came pretty close. I have to take a second to say that the staff for the tapings are the most amazing people. Everyone that is involved is extremely friendly and helpful from beginning to end. Thanks for that! But back to the show. The taping began promptly and was amazing throughout. She played a set that focused heavily on her latest album Actor and included a fantastic cover of the Beatles song "Dig A Pony". She apparently wasn't happy with her first take of Marry Me so came out after the initial encore for a second shot. No complaints for the crowd. I also picked up this limited poster for the show(below). It was designed by Farley Bookout and the inspiration for the artwork was drawn for her love of war propaganda illustration and Victorian history. Very fitting.

St. Vincent Set List | Austin City Limits

Marry Me

Strangers

Save Me From What I Want

Now Now

Actor Out of Work

Dig A Pony (Beatles Cover)

The Bed

Laughing with a Mouth of Blood

Black Rainbow

Marrow

Just the Same But Brand New

The Party

Your Lips Are Red

Marry Me (redux)

Last Night: Duffy @ Austin City Limits Taping

Back in August, if you remember we were fortunate enough to see My Morning Jacket at our first ACL taping. Well, yesterday afternoon we were lucky enough to attend another taping of the famed ACL show, this time Duffy was making her 6A studio debut. The show was originally scheduled to take place at 3:00 pm but was instead pushed back a half-an-hour because of a false fire alarm.

Once inside we were greeted with free beer and a program for the show. We took our seats and eagerly awaited the beautiful, soulful Welsh singer to make her entrance. Introducing Duffy was producer, Terry Lickona. He told the story of how he discovered Duffy's music after seeing her perform at Stubb's during SXSW. By chance, he and Duffy bumped into each other on 6th Street and he approached her about doing an ACL taping and the rest is history.

Duffy looked gorgeous as she took the stage in a red and black dress. During her first song "Syrup & Honey" she was accompanied by a lone guitar player. The simple, yet powerful song definitely showed off her voice. As the song drew to a close and everyone finally took a breath, Duffy's band walked onstage. Her band included an acoustic guitar player, a bass player, an electric guitar player, a drummer, a keyboardist, and a guy on the bongos.

Duffy introduced herself to the audience and thanked us all for coming. During "Serious" she busted out her cute choreographed dance moves and even twirled around the microphone. After that, launched into a b-side called "Breaking My Own Heart" and even played a new song called, "Rain On Your Parade" which we thought was great. After playing a song that no one knew, she remarked that it was time to play a few more familiar songs. Her next soon-to-be-hit-songs, "Warwick Avenue" and "Stepping Stone" seemed to be favorites of the crowd, but the song that got the biggest response was her first single off her debut album Rockferry, and last song of her set, "Mercy". Looking around, you could see most of the crowd singing and clapping along to the beat of the song. Her set list had her coming back to the stage to perform two more songs, "Scared" and "Distant Dreamer" but she never made it back out, not sure if the false fire alarm had anything to do with it.

It was a little shorter set (about forty minutes) than we would have liked, but nonetheless an outstanding performance by an extremely talented singer. I was hoping she might play her cover of Hot Chip's "Ready For The Floor", but no such luck. Her confidence has definitely grown since her first U.S. television performance on The Tonight Show back in April and at this year's Lollapalooza. Today marks the day Duffy starts her U.S. tour and even has a slot opening up for Coldplay on a few of their tour dates.

Duffy - Austin City Limits Set List

We'd like to give a special thanks to the AWESOME people at Austin City Limits and KLRU, we had a great time!

[Austin City Limits Official Site]
[Austin City Limits Blog]
[KLRU Official Site]

[Duffy Official Site]
[Duffy Tour Dates]

Here is the official video for "Mercy":