Sound on Sound’s main stage, the Dragon’s Lair, was home to acts like Explosions in the Sky, Courtney Barnett, Young Thug, Purity Ring, and more.
Photo by Daniel Cavazos
Whoever had the idea to throw a music festival inside a mystical forest deserves many a taco. Last weekend saw the inaugural run of Sound on Sound Fest, the new brainchild from the founder of Fun Fun Fun Fest. Located approximately 45 minutes east of Austin at Sherwood Forest Faire, SOS Fest was full of frolicking festivalgoers, music, and overall good vibes.
Many guests spent a good chunk of Friday and some of Saturday getting acquainted with the vast festival grounds. The four stages (Dragon's Lair, Globe Stage, Forest Stage, and The Keep) were for the most part adequately spaced, although comedian Todd Barry did have some fun with main stage act Cursive, whose tunes were seeping ever so slightly into the Globe Stage environment.
Despite a heavy downpour on Sunday (which caused a two-hour delay), those who remained were gifted with excellent sets from the likes of Kero Kero Bonito, Courtney Barnett, Explosions in the Sky, and several other late-day acts. Hats off to all of the grounds and festival crew for working swiftly to ensure everyone was safely evacuated during the rain delay.
Here's to looking forward year two of Sound on Sound Fest.
Perhaps the fest’s most popular food item: the giant turkey leg.
Photo by Daniel Cavazos
Perhaps the fest’s most popular food item: the giant turkey leg.
Music biopics never seem to go out of style, although they’re rarely very good because most of them tend to tell the same story. A musician/band gets discovered, rises to popularity, experiences trouble at their peak due to (insert sex/drugs/alcohol/ego), and either finds a measure of redemption once they’ve been sufficiently humbled or dies due to their lack of control.
Paradoxically, what few music biopics fail to do is properly showcase the music that made the person popular in the first place, a mistake that A Complete Unknown doesn’t repeat, becoming a smashing success in the process. The film follows Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) over a roughly four-year period from when he first arrived in New York City in 1961 to his then-revolutionary electric set at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965.
Dylan seeks out well-known folk singers Pete Seeger (Edward Norton) and an ailing Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy) when he first arrives, with Seeger taking him under his wing. Dylan starts to establish himself in the local club scene with his unique songwriting voice, meeting fellow singer Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro), with whom he starts an on-and-off relationship. As his popularity grows, his reaction is antithetical to what’s expected, as he rarely engages with fans and focuses on his next song(s) instead of the ones for which he became known.
Directed by James Mangold (Walk the Line) and written by Mangold and Jay Cocks, the film may not be much of a revelation for Dylan superfans, but for casual fans or those who know nothing about him, it is one of the most effective music biopics in recent memory, if not ever. Not only does Mangold track the musical evolution of Dylan, but he gives the full context of the people who influenced him most, including Guthrie, Seeger, Baez, and more.
The film is not a musical in the traditional sense, but the amount of music in it makes it the next best thing. Rarely does more than a few minutes go by before someone is singing, either on stage, for someone close to them, or as part of the songwriting process. Whether you’re a folk music fan or not, the way the genre is showcased in the film will make you believe in its power and why it was so popular at that particular point in time.
Dylan is famous for his enigmatic personality, and Mangold does a great job of maintaining that elusiveness while still exploring what drove Dylan early in his career. His relationships with Baez and the fictional Sylvie Russo (Elle Fanning) give him some dimension, but why he continually went back-and-forth between them (or why they put up with him) is only lightly explored. The film keeps most of the drama focused on the music, and it’s this decision that makes it as compelling as it is.
Chalamet has been “The Next Big Thing” since his Oscar nomination for Call Me By Your Name, but the combination of the Duneseries, Wonka, and now this has firmly established him as the star he is. His Dylan impersonation (including singing) is subtle-yet-clear, and he has the cool factor that makes him completely believable in the role. The supporting cast is also off-the-charts good, with Norton and Barbaro making the best cases for awards notice.
While 2024 has had its fair share of great movies, A Complete Unknown — in this critic’s opinion — should now be the favorite to win Best Picture at next year’s Oscars. It bucks the trend of mediocre music biopics by giving moviegoers the transporting feeling of what it was like to experience Dylan’s meteoric rise, and why his early songs remain so indelible.