Andy picked seeing Emimem over My Morning Jacket at Lollapalooza while Caitlin and I were confident in our MMJ pick. Andy also picked Stevie over MMJ at ACL, but after Stevie had sound issues, he caught about 5 MMJ songs, including some with The Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Caitlin and I chose option c), The Arcade Fire ACL Live taping. If MMJ and M83 were playing at the same time, I’d have a really tough time deciding. I do have an opinion on which song I’d rather hear though.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I have never wanted to tell someone to suck a bag of dicks, as much as I did when the sound system wasn’t functioning properly for Steve Wonder at ACL 2011. I gave up and headed to get an early jump on the shuttle line. My Morning Jacket redeemed the night. I managed to catch five or so songs, while in line for the shuttle. It was exciting to see them go from the late night powerhouse I saw them to be at Bonnaroo, to the festival headlining spot they’d earned. As for today’s song, “Outta My System,” there is just a quality to that song that it hard to pinpoint. It has a great feeling to it. Like it would be the song in any movie when the main character puts on headphones, or as an alternate song choice for the Beta Band scene in High Fidelity. I can’t explain why. It just is. Ok? -Andy S.

Click here to view the embedded video.

When I announced that we were thinking about songs for this year’s contest, Rob H. said he was confident M83 would win it all. I have them losing in the finals, but I agree that when I think of 2011, I’ll think of them first. Their double LP is as gorgeous to listen to as that translucent blue and pink vinyl is to hold. I love a number of the 22 tracks Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming holds, but “Midnight City” is bombastic. It starts out with those synth horn sounds that just leap out and grab you. The rest of the song ebbs and flows masterfully and keeps me dancing all throughout. MMJ has a lovely song here, but it’s ultimately forgettable. In 5 years I’ll only remember this M83 track. -Zack T.

Take Our Poll

I was so busy coming up with my own Hey, Girl‘s, I almost forgot there were bands and comedians on stage performing relevant* entertainment for me to enjoy. Now that it’s been a week since we were blessed with The Gos in our lives, I decided to look at the very best of Fun Fun Fun festival and see how it stacked up against Gos standing around and being amazing at posing. I’ll post a picture or video of something great that happened at Fun Fun Fun and you can vote whether it was better than Gos.** 

This tiny little girl rode a mechanical bull in a hilarious way while I narrated.

Gosling not only posed with a little kid in an E.T. shirt, he pointed! He actually pointed all weekend long if you look at the blog, he does it at least 3 times. And they’re all amazing.

M83 played through smoke and delivered arguably the best set of the festival to a packed crowd. (Photo by Eric Pulsifer)

Gosling battled through way more smoke and managed to still stand up and be handsome. (Photo from Ryan Gosling at FFF)

 Take Our Poll

Big Freedia got all the booties shaking for the second year in a row, winning over tons of new fans.

Freedia got the only fan that matters to take his iPhone out to capture his very recent tattoo. (Before you vote, it’s worth noting that Gos was on stage during Big Free. Oooh, this pic is even better. Gos taking a pic of Freedia’s ass. So much booty! So meta!)

Slayer closed out the festival with a raging fury, coming out behind a gigantic curtain with a wild display, hiding their massive Marshall stacks.

 That was super bad-ass, but was it more bad-ass than this snarl?

Brian Posehn did a wicked impression of Glenn Danzig and his love of French Onion soup.

Gos loves himself a fudge pop. Oh, to be that melting chocolate.

Flava Flav took time after Public Enemy’s set to pose with a Cop who looks way too excited. Photo by Melissa Montes

Wayne wasn’t even playing with the Flips this weekend. He just came to hang w/ Gos and give him that rainbow necklace (I assume)

I think we all know the real winner is Gos and, by the transitive property, us, for being near the greatness that is the Gos. Enjoy this video of him walking.

He lifts his shirt five seconds in! You’re welcome. Also, a pic of Gos’ ass by Shivvy. Enjoy the cream in your jeans, readers.

*Sorry, I’ll stop Hipster Runoff-ing this post now. I kept slipping into the voice when writing this.

**Yes, I’m aware that Ryan Gosling vs. Puppy exists.

Fun Fun Fun brought back the skate park, wrestling ring and mechanical bull, and I found myself stopping by to catch an entertaining video of each one. As much as I loved watching the bands and comedy, sometimes a back flip on a bike, a flying elbow in the ring and a little girl struggling to say on a mechanical bull is too entertaining not to watch. 

Little Girl on Mechanical Bull

As far as I can tell, Mechanical Bulls were solely invented so overly sexual women can show you how they will ride you like  a cowgirl. How sexy is that! Sigh. I won’t pretend I didn’t have fun riding one last year and catching a football with one hand, but for the most part, I’ve found them entirely unnecessary. Then Caitlin and I walked by this adorable little girl riding for the first time. She doesn’t sit on the bull, she lays across it and clings on for dear life. Pretty darn cute.

Wrestling Elbow Drops

I was always one of the kids who made fun of kids who liked wrestling because it was fake. Sure, the wrestlers may be fighting with planned moves and a pre-determined outcome, but some things you can’t fake. They’re actually beastly human beings flying around, even if all their hits aren’t hitting. If anything, I got more respect for the wrestlers on TV after seeing how difficult it was to pull off an entertaining match in person. This was the best big I caught. Some actual talent in here.

Backflip on bike

I didn’t catch any cool tricks on the half pipe, but the bike jump was impressive. I would have been terrified to go down this thing at all, let alone attempt a backflip in the dark while two riders were right in front of me. It even lets me forgive the bikers who decided to watch shows in the middle of the festival while still on their bike. Not cool. This flip was, though.

As much as me and Caitlin were drooling over the prospect of a Spoon after-show, we talked ourselves out of it the night before. We’d have to miss Public Enemy (and maybe more) to get to the ND in time for the doors at 9, and had no idea what the line situation would be for free Spoon at an intimate venue that only holds about 350. After getting our fill of “Yeah, boiii’s!” and “Fight the Power” with our fists held high at Public Enemy, we headed for the shuttle. We got on just as they were about to leave and they took us directly to our parking spot, at the ND. Since the show happened to be at the exact spot they dropped us off at, a block from our car, we thought we’d at least get close enough to see if we could hear a song as we walked by. We were shocked by what we saw. 

We get to the entrance and it felt like it could have been a weekday Soapbox Spellbinders show at Red Eyed Fly. Just a few people waiting to get in, absentmindedly holding their IDs. Wait, what? We peek inside around the two guys checking ID’s and not checking a list and see Rob and The Other Caitlin excited (drunk) to see us with their arms raised up. The bouncer asks if we’re on the list. We actually had RSVP’d as soon as it was announced, but surely there were thousands more who tried this before us, right? It’s a long, uninteresting story, but basically they screwed up the list, turned people away and then decided to just let people in. We happened to come at an incredibly lucky time. As much as we were looking forward to getting food and relaxing, there was no way to turn this show down. We caught the last several songs by a band named Boy* who was pretty solid guitar rock, but we were ready for Spoon.

Stage hands set up light bulbs around the mic stands that let Spoon be in the dark much of the night with a gorgeous effect. The band came down the ND steps a little after 11 to a nearly packed (but not at all uncomfortably crowded) room to warm applause. It’s always good to have the hometown boys make good back in town. We were able to comfortably stand 5 rows back, dead center and come and go as we please (Rob making numerous beer runs.) They started the night with “Take a Walk” off of 2001′s Girls Can Tell and as Eric was tweeting the night before, early Spoon is perfection. I got my 4s out to record all five minutes of 2010′s “Written in Reverse,” which received yelps from the crowd.

The crowd seemed more into newer Spoon than old stuff, but we got a nice mix, so everyone seemed happy.** The first five songs were all off of different albums, with no singles being played until “I Turn My Camera On” seven songs in. I bet Caitlin that the over/under on when Britt would pull out his trademark “I’m using my guitar as a machine gun” move and decided on 2.5 songs in. He didn’t really do it until they were walking off stage. In a lot of ways, this was a more mature Britt Daniel on stage. I’d written a whole article saying how I felt like I knew all his moves and how they were starting to feel repetitive. Daniels said that this was their first show in a while, so maybe he was out of the rhythm of touring and had put away his usual schtick (like using the echo pedal heavily) and just got down to playing his incredible catalog of songs. It was refreshing. I won’t make a bad pun about it, but I recorded “I Turn My Camera On.”

Next up on the setlist was “SM ST/Finer,” which of course meant “Small Stakes” off of Kill the Moonlight into “Finer Things” on Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. It took me a minute to remember that “EHAO” on the set-list meant “Everything Hits at Once,” another gorgeous track from Girls Can Tell. I wouldn’t have minded a 10-year anniversary performance of that whole album. It was stunning. They dug back to their breakout single “Way We Get By,” which they don’t play live as often as one would think and the crowd ate it up. The drunk guy was still yelling for “Jonathan Fisk,” though.

They closed the set down with four absolute favorites. “You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb” and “The Underdog,” got it going before that dude finally got his “Jonathan Fisk” and Caitlin’s favorite “Black Like Me” wrapped it up. She sang along especially loud to her favorite line, “All the weird kids up front, tell me what you know you want.” I got a taste of that. At this point, I slid by two rows of people to grab a set-list and three kids tore it out of my hand and said “This is ours!” OK, OK weird kids up front. I went back to my spot and settled in for four more.

The encore was when I remembered why I don’t usually have energy for after shows. I was running on fumes, but Britt’s incredible solo’s (like this show closer on “My Mathematical Mind”) and Rob drunkenly leaning on stage amps and turning around to sing the lyrics at me and Caitlin kept me going with a smile on my face. It was the kind of show that makes you fall in love with a band all over again, after letting them slip into the “I’ve seen them enough, I don’t need to go out of my way to see them category.” They still belong in the top flight of touring bands. I feel lucky to have caught this one. And that I get to see them again tonight. 9.5/10

*Caitlin pointed out how terrible this band name is. The argument comes down to this: Good luck finding them online. Hint: searching “Boy band” won’t help.

**Especially the kid who yelled for Jonathan Fisk after every single song until they played it as their 17th song. After the 10th time he yelled it, like a “Free Bird” dick head, I turned to him and said “They have a set list, you know.” “Is it on it?!” Sigh.

Setlist From Spoon FFF Nites at the ND 11/04/11:

M83

Yeah, he’s not exactly under the radar any more (you can still get extra street cred if you pronounce “M83″ in French), but how can you not get excited about seeing songs from the lovely double album Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming live? Since it first worked its way into my brain, I’ve been convinced that “Midnight City” is going to be 2011′s “Kids” — you know, the song that starts out brilliant and ends up being picked up by your music-ignorant bros and played ad nauseam to the point of disgust. (Please prove me wrong here, world. If you don’t know who or what M83 is, don’t go see him. Don’t listen to his records. Don’t make his songs your ringtone. Don’t ruin the magic for me. You know he’s French, right? How about Passion Pit, huh? OMG! Did you know he made those first songs for his girlfriend?)

Purity Ring
Though they only have three recorded songs to their name, they’re three damn fine songs. This chopped and screwed electro pop, which somehow isn’t a disaster. Get to the Blue Stage bright and early Saturday morning to catch these up-and-comers right after…

Active Child
Active Child was a last-minute addition to the lineup and ended up getting the first slot of the day Saturday morning, which should mean a sparse crowd. Good for us. I’ll be the tall guy up front rocking out way too hard to “Wilderness” at 12:55 p.m.

Chidish Gambino
Yes, this is Donald Glover of Community fame. Your literate middle-aged friends call it the best show on TV, so they’ll be sure to catch Don G. as his rap alter ego Childish Gambino or as himself doing stand-up on the Yellow Stage. He’s a funny dude, and, it turns out, a good rapper. Watch the un-funny but awesome video for “Bonfire.”

tUnE-yArDs
tUnE-yArDs’ beautiful, experimental debut, BiRd-BrAiNs, is a weird and wonderful mix of folk, loops and blasting beats. With a powerful voice and a beat-up ukelele, Merril Garbus’ eerie lo-fi tunes translated well to the live stage at South by Southwest this year. It will be interesting to see how the more polished W H O K I L L plays out during the solid Saturday afternoon-evening block at the Orange Stage.

Ty Segall
Don’t fear the Black Stage. It’s not all metal and smelly aging punk rockers. There’s also loud garage rock! Ty Segall (for the uninitiated, think of a less polished version of The Black Keys; to Ty Segall fans, I apologize for that comparison) is the business. If you see a guy wearing flannel at Fun Fun Fun Fest, chances are he’s heading to see Ty Segall. He’ll probably also stick around for…

Thee Oh Sees
You should too. They’re probably the least scary band playing the Black Stage (excluding Blonde Redhead).

YACHT
If dancing is more your scene, skip Ty Segall and Thee Oh Sees and check out the Blue Stage from 4:15 p.m. Fun Fest veterans YACHT return the fest hot on the heels of their second album, Shangri-La. (Appropriately, your friends who spend all their disposable income at Shangri-La are probably really into YACHT.) While their stage presence left something to be desired in 2008, I’m itching to see how “Dystopia (The Earth is on Fire)” goes over live.

Future Islands
Like the similar-sounding Twin Shadow, I have a suspicion Future Islands may be a band best enjoyed on album. I’m hoping they prove me wrong.

MNDR
MNDR’s full-length album still isn’t out yet, but she’s released an EP and a couple of singles worth of dance-friendly gold since a demo of her first tune “C.L.U.B.” found popularity on the blogs in fall 2009. She’s also the first in a three-band block of bands on the Blue Stage Sunday afternoon. Next up is…

Austra
You know that kind of gothic friend who wears a lot of black and is likely into S&M? He or she probably asked you to tag along to see Zola Jesus last week at The Mohawk. This highly buzzed band bears more than a slight resemblance to Zola Jesus — and that’s not a bad thing. Watch them play “Lose It” and then stick around for something a little cheerier…

Baths
Flying Lotus’ audio doppleganger should be a solid set to chill out to and sip a few brews before running over to the Black Stage to watch a man urinate in his mouth. Of course I mean…

Black Lips
Black Lips have been selling out shows in Austin for some time now. They may not be a secret but they put on one of the craziest, stupidest, penis-filled rock shows you’re likely to see this weekend.

Cloud Nothings
Because even your snobbiest of snob friends have a soft spot for sunny pop-punk when they’re a few beers deep.

For more music, you can check out our rad Fun Fun Fun Fest 2011 playlist on Spotify right over here.

Friday at Fun Fun Fun in 2010 was a relatively tame affair. The fest was just getting underway with a Queen cover band as 9-5 workers raced out of the office. Todd Barry followed to a nearly non-existant crowd which slowly built through Chris Hardwick and culminated with a solid, if not all that big, showing for Weird Al. Compare that to this year. Fun Fun Fun blasts out of the gate with four stages in full swing in the noon hour and culminates with a three-way conflict that ACL wishes they had in their empty pits of despair they called main stage afternoon sets in 2011. You’ll have to choose from Passion Pit, Public Enemy and Danzig Legacy after your afternoon slowed with the multi-talented whirlwind that is Reggie Watts’ or the wildly under-appreciated Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah. Say yeah, indeed. Bigger isn’t always better, but it sure feels like it will be when in the hands of Fun Fun Fun’s tireless crew. Oh, and don’t think your night is anywhere near over after you leave the grounds. FFF6 will be taking over Austin this weekend.

I’m not big into “branding.” I couldn’t care less if I have to watch my favorite band on the Bud Light stage. Who gives a fuck if there are ads for kids movies on the side of my water that’s in the form of a juice box. It doesn’t bother me at all, but there is something so damn lovable about FFF’s dedication to being local and authentic and truly, deeply Austin. It’s more than having local food vendors and not having massive corporate sponsorship. It’s an attitude. A “let’s get fucking whiskey drunk and go ape shit at Slayer” attitude that no other festival would dare put out there. And they revel in it. The things they post on social media would make “Social Media Experts” from major companies or festivals’ heads explode. From their cryptic line-up release on YouTube with arty sailing symbols, to their unveiling of artists through Turntable Fm,** to their ingenious hype plan, Fun Fun Fun fest is on point. I can’t get enough of the #fffpractice hash tag they keep hyping hilariously.

Here’s 6 of my favorites:

• Watching Spinal Tap and hoping Slayer gets lost at @funfunfunfest and plays on the Black Stage with the rest of their brothren. #fffpractice -@toodarnloud
• Handing out Lone Star tallboys to trick or treaters in my Leatherface mask and @funfunfunfest tee, shouting SLAYER & GOLF WANG #fffpractice -@imperialguy
• Chugging red bulls like a beast and using nickels to pay for them. #FFFPractice -@annarverold
• just got up to punch myself in the face. going back to bed now. #fffpractice -@jsonmyfeet23
• Vomiting tacos to acquire a taste. #fffpractice -@masonbroday
• Practice makes perfect RT @Carlsam: @funfunfunfest posted a note to remind roommates to make sure I pass out face down. #fffpractice

The biggest wildcard to FFF making the leap is the venue change. Unlike ACL, Fun Fun Fun never felt overly crowded despite the small intimate setting of Waterloo Park. Still, moving to a bigger venue feels like the right move. Will the fest feel too big and spread out in Auditorium Shores or will it just be more room to get weird. You have to trust that it will be the latter. FFF hasn’t just expanded at the festival. They’ve now expanded to all over Austin with FFF Nites, like a mini SX, but with none of the pretension. Aftershows are now all inclusive for those with a wristband and they start up tonight (Thursday). You can catch Cowboy and Indian (with Landry from Friday Night Lights) on Thursday, a Spoon after show Friday night and Neon Indian and Passion Pit DJ sets, Budos Band, Kool Keith, Dom and Royal Bangs all for free the rest of the weekend. What a game changer!

Personally, I’m a mostly Orange stage (rock) guy. I can’t resist Saturday’s jaw dropping 7 hour stretch of The Joy Formidable-Tune-Yards-Ra Ra Riot-M83-Girls-Lykke Li-Spoon smorgasbord. I’ll only leave to get a glimpse of Childish Gambino and Neon Indian, but it’ll be hard to drag me away if I have a plum spot. Having said that, I’ll wanna catch Fat Tony, Big Freedia and Public Enemy on Blue, catch some comedy on Yellow whenever nothing sounds to my liking, and maybe let myself get sucked into the pit for some black stage shows. We’ll see. I’ve been going off Eric Pulsifer’s FFF spotify list, and he’s more than just my photographer this weekend, he’s also my “guy who’s done more research and who I’ll let dictate a lot of my show going, so here’s 5 suggestions from him.

Eric made a “14 bands your music snob friends will be seeing this weekend” article that you can read in full.

Here’s 5 to whet your apetite:
M83

Yeah, he’s not exactly under the radar any more (you can still get extra street cred if you pronounce “M83″ in French), but how can you not excited about seeing songs from the lovely double album Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming live? Since it first worked its way into my brain, I’ve been convinced that “Midnight City” is going to be 2011′s “Kids” — you know, the song that starts out brilliant and ends up being picked up by your music-ignorant bros and played ad nauseam to the point of disgust. (Please prove me wrong here, world. If you don’t know who or what M83 is, don’t go see him. Don’t listen to his records. Don’t make his songs your ringtone. Don’t ruin the magic for me. You know he’s French, right? How about Passion Pit, huh? OMG! Did you know he made those first songs for his girlfriend?)

Purity Ring
Though they only have three recorded songs to their name, they’re three damn fine songs. This chopped and screwed electro pop, which somehow isn’t a disaster. Get to the Blue Stage bright and early Saturday morning to catch these up-and-comers right after…

Active Child
Active Child was a last-minute addition to the lineup and ended up getting the first slot of the day Saturday morning, which should mean a sparse crowd. Good for us. I’ll be the tall guy up front rocking out way too hard to “Wilderness” at 12:55 p.m.

Chidish Gambino
Yes, this is Donald Glover of Community fame. Your literate middle-aged friends call it the best show on TV, so they’ll be sure to catch Don G. as his rap alter ego Childish Gambino or as himself doing stand-up on the Yellow Stage. He’s a funny dude, and, it turns out, a good rapper. Watch the un-funny but awesome video for “Bonfire.”

tUnE-yArDs
tUnE-yArDs’ beautiful, experimental debut, BiRd-BrAiNs, is a weird and wonderful mix of folk, loops and blasting beats. With a powerful voice and a beat-up ukelele, Merril Garbus’ eerie lo-fi tunes translated well to the live stage at South by Southwest this year. It will be interesting to see how the more polished W H O K I L L plays out during the solid Saturday afternoon-evening block at the Orange Stage.

**Remember when Turntable FM was a thing? Good lord, that came and went fast.

After we walked around and got our festival bearings, Suzanna Choffel was the first show we locked into. Suzanna fronted the four-piece with style, playing a strong lead guitar with a flower in her hair, short black boots on her feet and a big shawl in between. The Utopia Fest veteran talked knowingly of the cool weather from the night before without having been there and discussed how it rained at the end of her set last year, but she was enjoying the “beautiful blue skies” of the fest before going into what she called a rain dance. I don’t mean to suggest that her band wasn’t impressive on their own. The other woman in the band switched around from keys to xylophone to accordion and played them all competently. The guys in the band played bass and drums, but weren’t particularly noticeable. Caitlin described the songs as laced with jazz and country, which I’ll agree with, but it felt mostly like straightforward rock. I found myself dancing along and enjoying it, despite not knowing any of it going in. We did head backstage for a drink during the last two songs, but kept an ear to the stage. I’d see them again. 8.3/10

I’ll admit, I’m a sucker for theatrics, and Peelander-Z is a capital s Show. One letter doesn’t do them justice, they’re a caps lock SHOW. They were introduced as a cross between The Ramones and The Power Rangers. The kids in the audience wearing similar colored Power Rangers costumes gave weight to that assessment. They’re poppier than The Ramones,  and instead of singing about sniffing glue, they sing about tacos, steak and how there are too many Mikes, but I see the quick punk comparison. I would have thrown Les Savy Fav into the mix as well. I like to think they’re all still adjusting to life in America and write songs about new things that excite them. How can you not fall in love with a Japanese guy with flip up shades and hair like Bozo’s sidekick, died yellow, who yells “I’m so hungryyy!” after a song about “taco, taco, taco, taco, taco today!” And steak being “Medium, rarrreeee.” Look closely and you can see Peelander Yellow wearing Peelander Red’s wig over his dyed yellow hair while Red hung upside down to play bass.

At times I thought Peelander Yellow was the front man, but they all take their turns in the spotlight. Peelander Pink takes her turn to yell half English half Japanese lyrics and has the angry tiger outfit, Peelander Red has the hanging upside down trick and wears a giant squid costume and Peelander Green looks like he doesn’t know a word of English, but will hold up some signs when not playing drums. If I were to go through every extravagant show detail, I’d need a new post (which I guess I’ll have to do), but human bowling, crowd limbo, bringing up the crowd to play and, you know what, I’m gonna make this it’s own post. I love Peelander-Z! My face actually hurt from smiling after the show. When I saw them backstage later, I gushed about how awesome they were and asked when they were coming back to Austin. They said not soon, but also told me “Arigato,” which pretty much made my weekend.  9.4/10

Little Lo went on immediately after Peelander-Z on the smaller, more beautiful stage. I love Little Lo, but this was not a good set-up for them. Peelander-Z knocked us on our collective asses and it was just starting to get hot out, with The Black and White Years up next on the same stage. Hard to get the crowd across the field, but Caitlin and I booked it to Little Lo’s set and were literally the first ones there as they started their first notes. (See how there’ s no one in front of her for this picture?) Thankfully, the crowd started to fill in as they heard how gorgeous the young Austin band sounded in the hills. Unfortunately, Little Lo didn’t have George on violin/guitar, and Stephanie couldn’t hold a bow, so she was limited to one-handed keyboard because of her broken wrist. The power got cut less than a minute into their final song, as The Black and White Years took the stage across the field.

Despite all the things going against them, Little Lo powered through their 45-minute set, building a solid crowd as they went and sounding like a band a little more confident after going on their first tour. I think they did the best they could with what they were given. I was kind of drunk when I ran into Ryan McGill, their lead singer, after the show and I kept telling him they got screwed over by a tough time slot. He seemed happy with the performance, and I think he had good reason to be. They didn’t quite have the confidence they do in Austin with more friends in the crowd dancing, but they pulled off a more than capable set. Caitlin and I determined this was our 7th time seeing them and this was about their 3rd or 4th best show. The Parish EP release was far and away the best. I’m excited to see them back at full strength soon. 8.4/10

The Black and White Years were already underway as Caitlin and I scampered back to the main stage after they cut Little Lo off. The sun was beating directly down on the main stage and lead singer Scott Butler kept it red-hot. They’ve been named Austin’s best band in a number of polls, and with good reason. Smart lyrics and a tag as being “Devo light” with David Byrne stage presence and banter, but with more laughing, they’re a fun dance party that had the whole crowd grooving. When I wasn’t having a blast dancing with Caitlin, I was wondering what Little Lo lead singer Ryan was thinking as he watched the crowd intently from the side of the stage. I know I would have been wondering what I could do to get that reaction from my band, even though they’re a completely different kind of show. Also, I couldn’t keep my eyes off the wasted dude in front of us taking massive swigs from a mostly empty bottle of whiskey. I was convinced he’d pass out into a bale of hay in front of the stage, but he just hovered around like a heroin addict. I’m getting distracted. Even though they didn’t play two of our favorites, “Broken Hand” and “Cold,” The Black and White Years have a deep enough catalog that they had far more than enough for an hour-long set. Best banter was Scott saying he was going to look like a reverse raccoon after his set because he was staring at the sun with sunglasses for an hour. 9.1/10

The rest of the festival was all gravy. Literally. I got a bunch of free BBQ with gravy. I’m not going to Doc Collins this post and spend the whole time talking about how awesome it is to have a press pass, but Utopia Fest treated us like kings. Free BBQ, bottles of Fireman’s beer and 360 Vodka fueled us. In the less literal gravy aspect, we’d already seen two Austin favorites, caught a new act we liked and were completely blown away by Peelander Z. I was happy with anything that came next. Avi Buffalo covered “Funkadelic” as we met @risekevin IRL and a 360 vodka rep, who took us to her tent for a drink. We ended the night on our backs looking up at the stars as Danny Malone played sweet acoustic guitar. As Caitlin wrote on the quote wall of the fest, “If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.” We can’t wait until next year. I’ll make sure to camp and stay all weekend.

More tales from Utopia:

• The Drive to Utopia
• Weekend in Utopia
• Utopia: Name Says it All

Now I have to ask myself, “Could Neutral Milk Hotel really be getting back together?”

YES: He said it.

Well, kind of. During his Sunday night show at the stately Paramount Theatre in Asbury Park, New Jersey, at All Tomorrow’s Parties: I’ll Be Your Mirror, Mangum repeatedly implored the crowd to sing along with him. Like his Friday show before it, audience participation was low. (This isn’t unusual for these recent set of shows. It seems fans are too awestruck at the sight of their idol to dare vocalize during what may very well be the first and last time they see him perform.) But this night, Jeff asked the crowd to sing the horn melodies and added, “Scott [Spillane, one of the four members of Neutral Milk Hotel] is not here to play horns. But he will be soon.”

NO: That doesn’t mean a reunion is planned.

Mangum specifically mentioned Spillane and no one else from the band. While that’s one step closer to the full Neutral Milk Hotel roster, Spillane has previously joined Mangum on this tour at a stop in Montreal, so a Magnum/Spillane pairing isn’t a new development. We would still be missing Jeremy Barnes and Julian Koster.

YES: Right, but I’d bet money there’s a reunion planned for the Mangum-curated All Tomorrow’s Parties in December.

Spillane plus Mangum equals half of Neutral Milk Hotel. They’ve played together so we know there’s no bad blood there. What about the other two members of the band? Barnes and his band, A Hawk and a Hacksaw, joined Mangum on stage for a couple songs Monday night. Koster played with Mangum in 2008. All four members of the band will be together in December at the All Tomorrow’s Parties Mangum is curating. (Also in attendance will be just about every single person who has ever performed with Mangum in the Elephant 6 Collective, a group of artists including the members of Neutral Milk Hotel, Of Montreal and The Apples in Stereo.) What better place for Mangum to stage a Neutral Milk Hotel reunion than at a festival where he has selected the acts himself?

NO: Mangum and Co. have been together several times before and there’s never been a full reunion.

Jeff has made appearances at friends’ shows, including during sets by the Elephant 6 Holiday Surprise, but we’ve never had an honest-to-goodness reunion performance once. There’s no reason to expect anything different this time.

YES: He’s releasing new material.

New to you and me, at least. After a decade of sporadic appearances, Mangum is appearing in public regularly leading up to the November 22 release of boxed set including unreleased material. After baby-stepping back into fans’ minds with a private show in Brooklyn last December, Mangum has continued to pick up steam — playing more shows and adding more dates.

NO: This tour is to promote the boxed set. No new dates have been announced beyond the end of this year.

Even if Mangum is testing the waters that doesn’t mean he’s ready to dive back in. It’s likely whatever elements made Jeff want to disappear from the world of indie rock stardom are still present today. (During one show at New Jersey last weekend, a fan shouted, “Don’t ever leave us again!” The audience groaned, but Jeff handled it well: “Do we need to go see my therapist together and work this out?”) Mangum has an army of obsessive, worshipping fans who no doubt have unrealistic expectations for any future material Mangum may produce. That kind of pressure can’t be easy to deal with. Though Mangum probably isn’t hurting for cash by lo-fi indie standards — even a decade after its release In the Aeroplane Over the Sea was still moving units — the upcoming boxed set and the tour could just be a trip to the bank for Mangum.

YES: He’s made no attempts to separate himself from the Neutral Milk Hotel name.

On concert posters, it’s “Jeff Mangum (Neutral Milk Hotel).” Mangum even introduced himself at his performance to support Occupy Wall Street as “Jeff of Neutral Milk Hotel.” Then there are the songs. Other than a couple of covers (e.g., Daniel Johnston, Roky Erickson, Minutemen) Mangum is playing Neutral Milk Hotel songs. Of course, that’s what his fans want to hear, but considering that many former front-men refrain from playing their previous project’s material when they go solo, that seems to me a sign that Mangum hasn’t given up on Neutral Milk Hotel just yet.

NO: There’s no indication of new music coming from Mangum or Neutral Milk Hotel.

Mangum hasn’t debuted any new original material on the road. Most bands try out new stuff before it makes its way onto an album.This is just a victory lap for Mangum, a little bit of closure and a chance for his fans to see him one last time before he disappears forever.

YES: It would be really cool.

It would. It’s been 13 years since the world has seen a Neutral Milk Hotel show. That means any fan under the age of 30 has probably never seen the band play together. (The baby from Live at Jittery Joe’s doesn’t count — that was a Mangum solo show.) Besides getting a chance to hear these cult classic songs live with full accompaniment, a reunited Neutral Milk Hotel could mean new material.

But perhaps the question should be would a new album or a reunited band live up to fans’ great expectations? Maybe. After going into see Mangum this week with unrealistically high expectations of my own, I can confirm that some experiences can live up to the hype. If Mangum — who, let’s admit it, isn’t particularly charismatic, gifted at guitar, or the best singer — can exceed expectations, I’m confident Mangum, Spillade, Barnes and Koster could do the same on a stage together.

We got to the festival grounds early on Friday. It wasn’t even noon yet, but there were so few people going in at that hour, there was no way to blend into the crowd and the security set-up was air-tight. We started at the main entrance to scope out the situation. To get in, you needed a wristband with an RFID chip in it that went off when you walked through a metal detector like booth. Typically, guards stand off to the side of these booths and half-heartedly watch you go through, but these guards were smartly positioned inside the lane. You would have had to run them over to go through and with a second line of defense right behind them, it wasn’t worth an attempt. I saw some second-line guys with walkie-talkies, but no uniformed cops, so we figured we could try again when it got more crowded. We figured we might as well try the crash that got us in last year. Go to the booth where they help you if your ticket won’t scan, pretend the issue is resolved, pick up a schedule and walk right in. If only it were that simple.

Andy was wearing his Lolla 2011 wristband inside out and I was wearing a Rothbury 2008 wristband, so we at least had a cloth band on. We got by the guy at the opening to that line by asking him if that was the spot for wristbands that didn’t scan. He let us move up to the booth to work out our “problem” and we just stood there, pretending to talk to someone and picked up a schedule. At that point, all we had between us and the fest was a woman who looked to be in her 40s or 50s and she looked semi-distracted. I walked towards her confidently and was two or three steps from freedom, when she took one side step and cornered me, asking for my wristband. I tried to flash it quickly, and keep moving, but she was now firmly between me and the door and apparently if it’s broken, they don’t just let you go, they give you a working one. This wasn’t going to cut it. Also, it’s a pretty small area and everyone around us could tell we didn’t have the right wristband, so we played dumb and retreated. That’s a nice thing about security guards. If it doesn’t work and you haven’t made a grand gesture, you can always just walk away. Their job is to stop you from getting in. They almost never care what you do as long as you walk away and don’t start trouble. Cops are another story, but we’ll get to that.

We had just gotten a text that our friends were on their way to the American Legion party and that Big Boi was DJing at 2, so we figured we’d re-group, have a couple (or five) free drinks and then head back. Of course, Big Boi was actually scheduled for 2:30 and didn’t get to the decks until 3:15 and did almost nothing except text on his phone and repeat a couple lines until he sang “Shutterbug” at the end. That was pretty cool, and I had a solid buzz going and it was good to catch up with friends, but we came to festival. On the way out, we ran into McLovin (Christopher Mintz Plasse) and he looked even scrawnier and more awkward in real life than you’d imagine. We were like 5 feet away from him and looked at each other like “Do we have anything to say to him? Not really. Let’s go.” It didn’t hit me until I saw McLovin again at Bright Eyes that I was becoming him.

1. Self-Appointed Nickname: Like McLovin, I came up with a name for myself and talked myself into believing I could pull it off, while being blatantly obvious about it. I was either going to call myself The Festival Crasher or McLovin … or Seal

Click here to view the embedded video.

2. Blindsided by near success: When we got back to the festival grounds, there still weren’t enough people to blend in with the crowd well, but there was one guard I thought I could get by. He looked like Brian, the nerdy kid from “My So Called Life” with frizzy blonde hair, but more of a stoner. He had 5 people in his line and seemed overwhelmed. I told Andy to follow me and made a bee-line for him. The scanner next to me told me to go to her line, since she had no one waiting, but I insisted on staying. While I was talking to her, I kept moving up in line and was next. I put my Rothbury wristband against the panel and no green ding happened, but I pretended it did and took a few steps into the festival, doing my best “it worked” head nod. As soon as I cleared the metal-detector gate,  frizzy Brian started looking around, confused, saying “hey!” and I saw the last thing you want to see. A uniformed cop. Two of them actually. Shit.

Click here to view the embedded video.

3. Fuck My Life: I saw the cops and immediately started backpedaling. Not running, but moving back and stuttering. As Andy tells it, “I saw the cop look up at you, and the look wasn’t just, ‘oh, this guy is crashing’ but a ‘That’s the guy!’ recognition look.”  I had about 10-15 feet between myself and the cops and heard them calling “Get back here!” I turned around and saw them  walking towards me. “I was just … I’m leaving. OK. I …” “When an officer tells you to do something, you listen! Get over here, now!” If it was a security guard, I would have kept walking, but if I’ve learned anything about cops, it’s that you do exactly what they say. Respectfully. I had to avoid a resisting arrest charge, so I felt obligated to stop and chat. Andy slunk off, knowing we were pretty screwed if this led to me getting arrested on day one of the festival.

Click here to view the embedded video.

4. Old Enough to Party?: Cops have a funny way of talking. And by funny, I mean, they ask a lot of intimidating rhetorical questions and expect you to know how to answer them. “How’s your prison lingo?” the cop who took control of the situation asked me. “I’ve never been to prison, officer.” “Oh yeah? I’m surprised. (Knowing look.) Yeah, I know who you are. You like to crash festival gates, don’t you?” How do you answer that? I gave a sheepish smile and said “Well…I’m not trying to. I just want to go…” “Oh, no. You had your chance to leave like a man…” Since I didn’t know what to say to that, he asked for my license and wrote down my full name and ID #. “If I see you around here, trying to sneak in again, I’ll tase you. I’m serious. I’ll tackle you and I’ll tase you.” “I won’t try. I promise. I. I …” “You better be serious. This is your last warning.” “Thank you, officer. I won’t do it again.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

5. I’m in & Cops Can Have a Fun Time Too (This kid’s fucking crazy)

So they let me off with a warning, but effectively scared me shitless. I’ve been turned away from festivals several times, only to crash later, but I’ll admit it, they scared me straight. Not to mention that Andy didn’t have a ticket either and we were anxious to get in. We ran into a guy selling two wristbands and talked him down from 220 to 180 each. He even followed us to an ATM. I can taste the vomit in my mouth as I type this sentence. It was the first weekend wristband I’ve bought for a festival … ever. God, I hate this. I spent $180 I didn’t budget for a wristband and admitted defeat against my sworn enemy.

It got a bit stranger. I received a tweet from @bignastypigtax saying “@festivalcrasher Zach glad to see u honored ur pledge not to crash anymore. Buying that 3day pass was a great gesture.” That’s odd. I wonder who wrote that. One more tweet “@ZackTeibloom Thx for honoring ur raised hand pledge of no more crashing” Wait, who is this guy? They don’t even have a twitter picture. Let’s see who else they follow: Only @festivalcrasher. And these are their only two tweets ever. What’s even more bizarre is that I couldn’t get service to tweet from @festivalcrasher, so I was tweeting by text from @ZackTeibloom. The only possible explanation is that the cop set-up an account to follow me and was now tweeting me a congratulations…for not crashing. What is this world coming to? I don’t want to be friends with cops that aren’t Andy’s dad. I don’t want this at all.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Yeah, it was kinda cool when McLovin got fake taken away in handcuffs, but is this my life now? Am I done crashing? Am I just done taking risks on crashing events where they clearly have it on lockdown? I’m not ready to make any declarations, but this is a low point in crashing history. I didn’t even jump lines all week. What happened to me? What does this mean going forward? Am I going to have to go legit now?

You had to hope the band would play with the space, and they sure did. What a pure joy to see Win & Regine & Will and the rest of the band in such an intimate setting, with Regine especially going all-out in a way she couldn’t have on any other stage. Regine’s trademark ribbon twirl that she does for encore closer “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)” is usually restricted to a section of the stage, but with no fear of this friendly crowd, she roamed free, bouncing up and down the ACL stage stairs with abandon and a smile that lit up the room, even when she called for darkness.

Will Butler was a complete maniac all night long. He uprooted one of the fake plastic trees in the studio background and wielded it like a battle axe, striking the cymbals and whatever else he could get close to.

Click here to view the embedded video.

His manic energy never stopped, as he made exaggerated faces while dancing and leaping all over the stage. He’s not one to let his older bro get all the attention. It was business as usual for older brother, Win. When he wasn’t propped up with a foot on the monitor leading an over-head clap, the brilliant front-man wandered into the audience often, either strumming amidst the adoring throng or grinding his guitar on the studio cameras. Sometimes, he’d just take the microphone out, getting lost in the masses during a sing-a-long.

I’m getting way ahead of myself. Let’s start at the beginning. Getting a rare ticket to the Arcade Fire ACL taping was a pipe-dream from the moment it was announced, but somehow Andy’s e-mail was randomly selected for two tickets and I was supremely happy I entered the contest for him (and that he was more keen on seeing Stevie Wonder), so Caitlin and I could go see our band. Worried about getting a prime spot, we got to the steps of the W hotel at 5:30 after changing out of wet ACL clothes and waited in the already-formed lines for the 8:00 show, knowing the doors would open at 6. The line was all the way up and down the W stairs, with one side for A-L and one for M-Z. After a re-assuring talk from an ACL TV staff member telling all of us we would get in, we relaxed and tried to stay dry as the rain died down after rare back-to-back rain days in Austin. Once inside, we were told to hang out and have a drink or socialize and that they’d let us in at 7:40. Of course, people got in line and everyone else thought that was a good idea, despite the fact that ACL staff kept telling us it would be a free-for all at 7:40. And it was, but without much pushing, we settled in 5 rows back on the audience left, just next to the TV cameras with a great view of the low stage. Note: Don’t wait in such an unnecessary line, especially at an ACL taping. They know what they’re doing.

While we had to look up at Robyn and Yeasayer as they performed on a lofted stage at Moody, the ACL TV taping stage is down at almost audience eye-level, with the Austin skyline backdrop screen and an abundance of fake trees behind the band. It’s a gorgeous set and makes the 1,500 capacity theater feel even smaller. A quick introduction from an ACL TV honcho, and the band took the stage to a raucous greeting from what would prove to be the best crowd I had the honor of seeing a show with all year. They stuck to the request that we keep our cell phones in our pockets and kept their mouths closed, except to sing along. I didn’t know what to expect from a well-dressed crowd that could have been full of friends of the station that didn’t care about the band, but it was full of serious Arcade Fire fans who were even more apt to jump up and down than the Bee Caves crowd a few months ago. No one jumped more than Caitlin, but she’s got pogo legs at AF shows and it’s pretty darn adorable.

While this was a nearly identical set-list to the live Bonnaroo recording I’ve been playing non-stop since June, it felt fresh and always authentic, as anything Arcade Fire does tends to. Win’s hair has grown in a bit from his shorn all the way on one side haircut, and it makes him look more boyish, and all the more charming. The shirt buttoned all the way up didn’t hurt. “Ready to Start” is about as appropriate an opener as you can get and it set a good pace, before kicking it up a notch with “Keep the Car Running” and again with “No Cars Go,” which is pretty much exactly how I’d start a set if I were them. Not surprisingly, they started their ACL festival set with the same three songs the next night. The lovely Regine took front and center for “Haiti,” before Win gave his usual plea to help Haiti with PartnersinHealth.org, and then dove into six in a row off of The Suburbs.

There was a tiny bit of a lull for the slower 5 song stretch of Suburbs songs, but they closed with seven straight monster performances. “Month of May” got our juices flowing again, “Rebellion (Lies)” brought out our pogo legs, though no tears like at Bee Caves, and they just kept coming with a “Tunnels” and “Power Out” Neighborhood variations sandwich, with “We Used to Wait” nuzzled in between. There was almost a non-stop over-head-hand-clap for the final hour, as Will especially kept the energy sky-high. The studio went wild, with all hands in the air for the “Whoa-ohhhs” of “Wake up” and then Regine was a whirlwind in her brilliant “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)” ribbon dancing and vocals. What a gem.

In both shows, Win told us he wouldn’t see us for two years, but when they came back, they’d have ”Something interesting to say … Or a novelty reggae record.” I’d be completely up for either one.

9.8/10 Near perfection, but I never completely let go in the moment, and it didn’t quite match the intensity of the Bee Caves show (a 9.9), but a night I will never forget and feel lucky to have been at.

All photos courtesy of @TheOtherLeslie’s Twitter feed. Thank you for having us!

Set-list for Arcade Fire ACL taping

1. Ready to Start
2. Keep the Car Running
3. No Cars Go
4. Haïti
5. Modern Man
6. Suburban War
7. Rococo
8. The Suburbs
9. The Suburbs (Continued)
10. Month of May
11. Rebellion (Lies)
12. Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
13. We Used to Wait
14. Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)

Encore:

1. Wake Up
2. Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)