Austin City Limits 2008, Day 2: Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, CSS, Man Man

Festivus

Let me add this to Kate’s Fleet Foxes write-up: Though they seemed more than a little overwhelmed by the immensity of the AMD stage (“We’re not used to communicating on this scale,” lead singer Robin Pecknold apologized) when the awkward banter finally dissolved into music, it was fantastic. “Ragged Wood” always gives me goosebumps—and even today, in the heat of the day, they rolled right up my sweaty legs.

We headed back over to AMD later for Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings. Speaking of sweaty, these folks are not known for dressing for the weather. A few months back at Bonnaroo, Sharon looked hot in a sequined black mini-dress—and I do mean hot, like a super fabulous solar panel. And her Dap Kings, then as today, were decked out in full-on suits—those dry-cleaning bills must be ridiculous, abecause you know they sweat right through them. It just wouldn’t be the same if they came out in khakis and wifebeaters, though today Sharon seemed to have made a wise choice of a floatier-looking white floral sundress. She still had on some confoundingly fancy silver heels, but those came off, too, for one of the highlights of the set, a wild song and dance tour through her personal ancestry. Another highlight was “How Do You Let A Good Man Down?” for which she called down a random good man from the VIP deck to dance with her. We learned later that the burly, eager volunteer was Nakia Reynoso, who’s performing at the fest tomorrow with his Southern Cousins.

A bit later, CSS continued this trend of completely baffling festival performer style, taking the AT&T Blueroom stage with one guitarist sporting a flannel shirt, Fleet Foxes style, and lead singer Lovefoxxx decked out in a full-on floral bodysuit and draped with what seemed to be an enormous black, furry mass of animal pelts. Whatever it was, the band had barely made it halfway through the first song before it was chucked to the side of the stage, leaving her to swelter in the unitard.

Over on the Dell stage, Man Man proved to be the most appropriately attired group of the fest thus far. In white undershirts, white cut-off jeans and with smears of white paint on all their faces, they bounded through their set of more-than-slightly-cracked whacko klezmer funk like deranged lifeguards.

About to reapply some sunscreen and head over to my most anticipated performance of the festival: Roky Erickson on the Austin Ventures stage. After finally seeing You're Gonna Miss Me last weekend, I'm more in awe of this brilliantly talented-- and tragic-- musical legend than ever, and can't wait to see what he unleashes on this hometown crowd tonight.