Update: The $150 beer-and-food included passes are sold out. The $75 tickets are still available, however.
OK, the above video of for-real band Metallagher (they’ve got a MySpace and everything) looks absolutely godawful, but I posted it to prove how ridiculous the 90-band lineup for Austin’s Fun Fun Fun Fest is this year. The two-day fest â?? Sautrday, November 7, and Sunday, November 8 â?? has got a Metallica/Gallagher tribute band, for god’s sake.
But it’s not just a freak show: The Festival, which began in 2006 and keeps getting better every year, has finally surpassed ACL as the Austin’s premiere fall music event. Screw Pearl Jam and Them Crooked Vultures â?? FFFF has Mission of Burma, Death (the Detroit proto-punks, not the death metal act), and the freaking Jesus Lizard. They’ve also got some of the buzziest bands (No Age, Fucked Up, Atlas Sound, and both Crystal Castles and Crystal Antlers); old-school (GZA, Pharcyde), new-school(Cool Kids), and special-school (MC Chris) hip-hop; worthwhile regional acts (Neon Indian, The Sword, Shearwater); and actually funny, non-Gallagher-related comedy (Brian Posehn, The Whitest Kids U Know, Todd Barry); and a whole lot of other awesome shit.
Check out the lineup below, buy tickets ($75 for a two-day pass) here, and watch for our online concert coverage, which will begin appearing in this space over the weekend.
You can view/critique my personal schedule for the festival (still in progress) here.
And please don’t go to Metallagher. You’ll only encourage them.
Cedric Burnside and Lightnin’ Malcolm
The Underground Railroad to Candyland
This article appears in Nov 4-10, 2009.