ACL Live is fast approaching the halfway point of its inaugural season as Austin’s newest major live music theater. When the venue opened its doors, the hype was downright unwieldy – promos touted it as one of the world’s finest music venues, and with a sleek, fiercely contemporary space like ACL Live possesses, it was hard not to be impressed.
At this point, though some of the novelty has worn off. Perez Hilton has thrown a party there, Bill Maher has made up New Rules from its stage, and anyone who’s curious about the space can drop by for Wine Down Wednesdays without ponying up for a ticket. With all of that in mind, CultureMap took a look at ACL Live to see how it’s fitting into our live music lives.
SUBJECT:
Concert Sound and Visuals
GRADE:
A+
COMMENTS:
Notable Achievements:
There’s no way to put it except to say that the ACL Live performance space is the single best-sounding room in Austin, which means that it’s also probably the best-sounding room in the state of Texas, and among the best in the country – maybe the world. That’s not hyperbole: the room was built with those goals in mind, and an exceptionally talented team spent years figuring out how exactly to do that.
The fact that the space is also a TV studio helps, too. It’s built like a fort – if they’re taping a performance for Austin City Limits and an array of fire trucks blows down 4th St, it would be incredibly costly to re-shoot the set. That trickles down to a pretty great concert experience at the non-televised performances that most of us get to attend.
The sight lines at ACL Live are pretty incredible, too. If you’re on the floor for a general admission show, then the standard rules of concert-going apply: don’t stand behind someone really tall if you’re on the shorter side and you want to see. But if you’ve got a seat – even the proverbial “worst seat in the house,” according to ACL Live’s Freddie Fletcher, located on the upper balcony – you’re never going to have anything other than a perfect view of the stage from a relatively close distance.
Needs Work:
The sound quality and sight lines at ACL Live are so far ahead of the competition, there’s little room for improvement.
SUBJECT:
Booking
GRADE:
B
COMMENTS:
Notable Achievements:
When it comes to the rootsy, blues-based musicians who defined the early sound of Austin City Limits, ACL Live has done a bang-up job. The venue has seen performances by Willie Nelson, The Gypsy Kings, The Steve Miller Band, Diana Ross, John Mellencamp, Jonny Lang & George Thorogood, Jackson Browne, and more.
There’ve also been some unique moments at ACL Live with younger artists. Swedish dance-pop sensation Robyn was among the venue’s first-ever concerts, bringing a stage show that didn’t quite fit in any of Austin’s other venues to the space. Explosions In The Sky, in the interest of providing Austin audiences with singular experiences in seeing them play, dominated the ACL Live stage in June. And the recently-announced appearance by St. Vincent in October ought to be pretty great.
ACL Live has dipped its toe in non-music programming, as well. Performances by Bill Maher and Cedric The Entertainer were part of the venue’s inaugural season, and Garrison Keiler is bringing his Prairie Home Companion tour to its stage in September.
Needs Work:
All that said, there’s been a frustrating lack of performers whose first hits came within the past ten years gracing the ACL Live stage. St. Vincent, Explosions In The Sky, and Beirut are in a pretty exclusive club right now in that regard, which is disappointing. It’s great that Janet Jackson has a place to play in Austin now, but it’d be great to see some more adventurous bookings at ACL Live.
Of course, that’s not necessarily a reflection of the venue’s tastes, just the reality of its situation as a new venue. Iron & Wine would be a terrific act to see play ACL Live, but Sam Bean’s annual hometown performance has a history with the Paramount; Bon Iver’s September gig at the Long Center would have been a particularly memorable night at ACL Live, but a booking like that is in high demand, and it’s tough being the new kid in town.
SUBJECT:
Prices
GRADE:
C+
COMMENTS:
Notable Achievements:
Ticket prices are on the right side of fair at ACL Live. A younger act like Owl City will run you around $25 a head, which is what you could expect to pay anywhere in town. A hot bill like Carlos Santana, meanwhile, can break $100, but if you’re the sort of person who buys tickets to see Carlos Santana at a theater gig, you’re probably the sort of person who knows what that’ll cost. For a venue the size of ACL Live, it’s a pretty good deal – and the sound quality certainly beats a dead room like the Austin Music Hall for the price.
And let’s give ACL Live some credit – they could have installed a profit-seeking ATM, but they kept it local, going with United Heritage Credit Union. That means no or low fees.
Needs Improvement:
Want a bottle of water at ACL Live? That’ll be three dollars. Want a drink? You’re looking at $7-10. It’s clear that they’re not trying to compete with your average $1 Lone Star night on Red River, and maybe the Carlos Santana crowd is comfortable dropping ten bucks on a drink, but audiences at Explosions In The Sky and Robyn were a bit more grumbly.
SUBJECT:
Atmosphere
GRADE:
A-
COMMENTS:
Notable Achievements:
ACL Live doesn’t feel like any other venue in Austin, which makes attending a show there a unique experience. It’s not another beer-soaked rock club – we already do those well. It’s not a stuffy theater with bow-tied elderly volunteers tearing tickets – we’re covered on that front, as well. With the West Downtown location (and impressive balconies), ACL Live stands out.
The multiple bars are a plus, too. There’s almost never a serious wait for a drink, even at a sold-out show, which isn’t something you can say of most other venues.
Needs Work:
The flip side to breaking the mold for an Austin live music venue is that it doesn’t quite feel like Austin at all. Part of that is symptom of the general changes and development downtown – most of the things around ACL Live are brand new, so how do you tie it into the Austin music tradition? Atmospherically, at least, that’s a challenge. The venue was built largely by Austinites with roots in this city that go deeper than most – these are folks who can trace the tradition from the Vulcan Gas Company to the Armadillo World Headquarters to the Liberty Lunch, so it’s not like they’re a bunch of ringers. They’ll figure it out.