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":
