ACL Festival, Music, Reviews

ACL 2011 Review, Photos: Young the Giant, Saturday, AMD

September 19, 2011 10:18 am by: Angela Maldonado

Young the Giant, ACL 2011. Images via Sean C. Murphy.

Playing a fairly early slot at 2pm, California-natives Young the Giant took the AMD stage by storm, literally. Frontman Sameer Gadhia instantly connected with the rainsoaked crowd and off they went. Longtime listeners got to show off their devoted fandom when the band played songs from their days as The Jakes. Their crowd was huge and incredibly enthusiastic. Maybe it has something to do with their recent performance at the VMAs. Their hit “My Body” was met with synchronized jumping, clapping and hand swaying as if the whole thing had been rehearsed. Young the Giant played a really solid set and are on their way to being the next big thing. One passerby told me it was the “best show he’d ever seen in his life!” And that’s a bold statement for a fourteen-year-old to make these days....
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ACL Festival, Music, Reviews

ACL Review, Photos: Iron and Wine, Saturday, AMD

Sam Beam offered his family a knowing glance as he walked off the stage Saturday afternoon. He directed it up to the rafters above the AMD stage (second only in capacity to the Bud Light stage on the opposite end of the park) where they’d been watching him perform as Iron & Wine. It was one of those eyebrow-raised, half-smile-looks – as if to say: “that was pretty cool.” Beam is a soft-spoken Southerner when he’s not onstage (he grew up in South Carolina before relocating to Virginia, Florida, and now just outside of Austin in Oak Hill), and, before the last couple of records, he’d gained popularity for the quiet folk songs he began recording in his bedroom years ago – just Beam and a guitar. But the performance he and his eleven-piece band gave at this year’s ACL...
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