My phone woke me up last night around 12am with a buzz-buzz. It was an email: Austin City Limits 2010 Festival line-up announced! I immediately grabbed my computer because the initial viewing would definitely require more dexterity than a Blackberry allows and what I got was an eyeful! Behold, the full line-up:
The Eagles Muse Phish The Strokes M.I.A Flaming Lips LCD Soundsystem Spoon Vampire Weekend Norah Jones Band of Horses Monsters of Folk Deadmau5 Sonic Youth Gogol Bordello The National Robert Earl Keen The Black Keys Broken Bells Slightly Stoopid Yeasayer Pat Green Rebelution Beach House The Sword Matt and Kim The xx Portugal. The Man The Temper Trap Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros Girls Ryan Bingham & The Dead Horses Local Natives Gaslight Anthem Lucero Devendra Banhart and the Grogs Blues Traveler Pete Yorn The Soft Pack Gayngs Amos Lee Robert Randolph & The Family Band Ozomatli Richard Thompson Martin Sexton Manchester Orchestra The Almighty Defenders Miike Snow The Mountain Goats Bear in Heaven Mayer Hawthorne & The County Midlake Foals Switchfoot Cage the Elephant JJ Grey & Mofro Kinky Angus & Julia Stone The Morning Benders Hockey White Rabbits David Bazan Asleep at the Wheel Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue Nortec Collective The Very Best Beats Antique Henry Clay People Blind Pilot GIVERS Dawes Band of Heathens Charlie Mars Two Door Cinema Club Lissie Sarah Harmer The Constellations T. Bird and the Breaks Chief Frank Turner Those Darlins Carolyn Wonderland TEACHERS Kings Go Forth The Relatives The Ettes Qbeta The Dough Rollers MyNameIs JohnMichael Basia Bulat Balmorhea Dan Black The Jane Shermans The Kicks Ponderosa Two Tons of Steel Caitlin Rose SPEAK Run With Bulls Maxim Ludwig Gospel Stars Heavenly Voices Wesley Bray & The Disciples of Joy Jones Family Singers Ashley Cleveland & Kenny Greenberg Buddy & The Straight Way Travelers Ruby Jane The Verve Pipe Frances England The Jellydots Elizabeth Mitchell Okee Dokee Brothers Tom Freund School of Rock Q Brothers
While I'm not going to be the first in line for the Eagles, the roster has an outstanding amount of both old school bands and buzz-heavy, Indie Rock favorites I would have previously expected only at Lollapalooza (this year there's a strong overlap in line-up).
In contrast to last year's Austin band love-fest, for 2010, Brooklyn groups like the The National, LCD Soundsystem, Yeasayer, The XX, and Vampire Weekend, weave throughout the list and have replaced the Todd Sniders, Alejandro Escovedos, Patty Griffins, Heartless Bastards, Daniel Johnstons, and Black Joe Lewis', resulting in less local flavor but I would imagine a much larger national appeal.
Then of course there is Phish headlining Friday night, which comes with its own hardcore posse and the Strokes, hailing from NY and fresh off a four-year hiatus. There's even a drizzling of SXSW sensations with the Broken Bells and LA band the Local Natives, who played recently at Austin's Antones to a room full of people that sang and bounced along to every track from their debut album. Texas will be represented to some degree with performances from old ACL standbys like Pat Green, Robert Earl Keen, Spoon and Ryan Bingham fresh off his Oscar win. Last, it seems like people can't get enough Nora Jones, Muse, or Flaming Lips, whose appearances are perhaps inspiring a few fist pumps from festival die-hards holding those sold out 3-day passes.
Food vendors have not been confirmed yet but Sponsors too have been revamped, introducing new brands like Southern Comfort, Budweiser and Honda to the main stages.
The festival will be Oct. 8-10 in Zilker Park. Single day passes ($85) and VIP tix ($850) are still available for each day, but act soon for Friday if you want to beat the Phish-heads to the punch. For me, the overall line-up and spectrum of artists gets a big thumbs up. Plus Austin is such a great city. Now let the anti-rain dances begin...