Day one started with a little post punk fix from Savages, because there’s really nothing like a little fierce intensity in the sunshine, right!? We had yet to hear them play their new album Soft Wills live yet so we made sure to stay and check out Chicago garage rockers Smith Westerns who were next up on that stage. Lead singer Cullen Omori rocked an awful pair of white terry sweatpants that were only redeemed by his vintage No Doubt tee somehow and the rest of the band kept it pretty quiet through the set.
Next we headed across the park to catch LA’s Local Natives beautiful harmonies in the sunshine. They delighted with their Talking Heads cover of “Warning Song” which was a highlight of the set, and the band made sure to let Austin know how near and dear they are to them.
We waded our way back to the AMD stage to see a few tracks of Vampire Weekend’s set and were pleasantly surprised to see lead singer Ezra Koenig rocking an army green jumpsuit. Bored by the high pitch screams of crazy Vampire Weekend fans, we headed over to catch Wild Belle’s more chilled out reggae vibe as the sun set for a while.
Once the sun had set and the stage was smoky enough we showed some Canadian love to Purity Ring, who we saw just the day before on our flight down to Austin, drum and all. They’ve become quite big after last years Shrines and we were impressed at how large the crowd was at the smallish stage for them. After about half their set we headed over to catch a few Queens Of The Stone Age songs, even though we had just seen them the night before at the ACL Live taping and ended up back at the AMD to see legends Depeche Mode.
All in all a pretty amazing first day at the festival, don’t you think? Check out some photos below.
Smith Westerns
Vampire Weekend
