Who will replace Beastie Boys at ACL?
Something tells us Prince ain't picking up the phone
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Yesterday’s announcement that the Beastie Boys will be canceling all of their upcoming concert dates while Adam Yauch seeks treatment for cancer came as a serious blow to organizers of this year’s ACL Festival, who were counting on the group to headline the first night of the three-day festival. Now the scramble is on to find a suitable replacement, and this morning’s Austin American-Statesman floated 47 artists as a possible substitute for the Beasties’ Friday-night slot. Of course, most of these are just pipe dreams—and a lot of them are outright impossible, either due to scheduling conflicts or, say, the band not even being together anymore. Here are all of those supposed candidates, broken down by the likelihood with which you’ll see them in Zilker Park on October 2.
Definitely NOT happening:
Black Eyed Peas: Its The E.N.D. World Tour kicks off Sept. 15, and includes dates during the festival in Australia.
Bruce Springsteen: ACL falls right in the middle of his ballyhooed “Farewell To Giants Stadium” shows.
Pixies: The band’s Doolittle tour hits Europe this fall—and Dublin on Oct. 2.
Dinosaur Jr.: It has shows scheduled in Boston Oct. 1 through Oct. 3.
Muse: The group is scheduled to play Virginia and North Carolina during the festival.
Probably not happening:
Prince: He did play Coachella last year, so he’s no stranger to big outdoor festivals or suffocating heat, and he does have three albums scheduled for release this year, so he has something to pimp. But do you really think Prince would take kindly to being a last-minute substitution?
Paul McCartney: Granted, The Only Living Beatle That Matters has been way more active on the touring front than he has in years, and he also played Coachella, which means he’s open to this sort of thing. But his current tour already ends at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington on Aug. 19, and that’s a lot of downtime in between. And again, don’t you think if they could have booked Paul McCartney, they would have done it already?
Nine Inch Nails: Trent Reznor has been bitching and moaning his way through his current tour already. Odds are that his foresworn last-ever live date (Sept. 6 in Los Angeles) really is it for a while.
Beyoncé: She’s touring through Australia until September 25, and something tells us “popping through Austin” isn’t high on her homecoming wish list.
Outkast: They’ve been promising a new record for almost four years, but both Big Boi and Andre 3000 have said that their solo albums will come out first—and there’s no release date in sight for those either.
Red Hot Chili Peppers – The band went on hiatus “for a minimum of one year” starting in 2008. Meanwhile, drummer Chad Smith is busy with Chickenfoot, and touring every day right up until Sept. 27. Doesn’t leave a whole lot of time for rehearsing.
Oasis: The band’s year-plus Dig Out Your Soul Tour is rumored to be its last round of live performances for a while, so Liam Gallagher can “concentrate on his fashion label” and brother Noel can finally get started on his solo career.
Morrissey: He’ll be touring England through this week and then picking up with another round of UK shows in mid-October. It seems likely that Moz will be enjoying his holiday back in the motherland.
A Tribe Called Quest: It did reunite for some Rock The Bells shows in 2008, but as always, Q-Tip’s solo career (and Phife Dawg's health problems) will probably take precedence.
Wu-Tang Clan: Yeah, right. Everybody’s still pissed at RZA, for various reasons.
Elvis Costello: He’s currently on his Secret, Profane And Sugarcane Tour, which drops through Austin in September before it heads to Australia on October 8. Seems unlikely he’d double back.
Band Of Horses: The band’s current tour does end Sept. 5 in Victoria, B.C., but all sources say it’s due to enter the studio in October to work up a new record.
M.I.A.: She just had a kid, and judging by her very sparse summer dates (only two in all), it seems unlikely she’ll be ready to hit the road again by then.
Tool: The group’s handful of summer dates—one of which is in San Antonio this Friday—ends Aug. 22. That leaves two whole months for Maynard to go get lost in his vineyards again.
Could happen but it’s unlikely:
Radiohead: Its European tour ends in August, but it’s likely the band would rather start work on a new record before heading out again.
Kanye West: He doesn’t have anything scheduled—just a voiceover gig on The Cleveland Show—but again: Think Kanye would be happy about being a Plan B?
Rage Against The Machine: Guitarist Tom Morello is way more involved with his The Nightwatchman and Street Sweeper Social Club (see below) projects, and the group’s recent spate of reunion gigs didn’t seem to change his mind about that.
Blur: The group’s triumphant reunion this year hit a high point at Glastonbury, but the “thank you” message on the group’s website sort of sounds like that’s it. And October is a long way away—plenty of time for Damon Albarn to alienate Graham Coxon again.
Franz Ferdinand: It has a month off between its current North American tour and heading to Australia on Oct. 11, so it’s likely they’ll use that time to do stuff like, you know, drink tea and knit scarves or something.
The Cure: Last year was its biggest North American tour in a while, and we’re guessing that Robert Smith already had enough of sweating his mascara off at this year’s Coachella.
The Roots: It’s the house band at Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, and we have it on good authority that that means it can only fly in for Saturday gigs. Unfortunately, the open slot is on Friday.
Phish: It has its very own three-day festival coming up on Oct. 30. Why would it agree to be a sub on somebody else’s festival a few weeks before that?
Depeche Mode: Provided David Gahan stays healthy, it will be in Guadalajara on Oct. 1 and Mexico City on Oct. 3. It’s doubtful they’ll fly up and back just to play ACL last minute.
Jane's Addiction: Its current reunion tour ends, appropriately enough, at this year’s Lollapalooza. Seems unlikely that Perry Farrell wouldn’t want to end it all over again at his own festival.
Public Enemy: Chuck D, Flava Flav et al. have been playing festivals like Bonnaroo and Coachella for a year and change now, but a cryptic announcement on its website says “the final World end” will be this week in Tokyo. Doesn’t sound promising.
Spoon: It’s finishing up its new record in the fall and reportedly gearing up for a major tour in 2010, so it’s conceivable that it could preview both of those with an ACL gig. But festival organizers C3 also billed its recent “SpoonX3” shows as its “final Austin shows for the year,” so this would sort of negate that.
My Morning Jacket: Its 2008 tour ended in injury for frontman Jim James, so it could bounce back just to prove something. But James is also pretty busy with Monsters Of Folk (see below).
It could happen:
Monsters Of Folk: The new collaboration among My Morning Jacket’s Jim James, M. Ward, and Conor Oberst has its debut coming out Sept. 22. If there’s going to be a James-related project dropping through, we’d bet on this one.
Street Sweeper Social Club: On a similar note, Tom Morello seems way more interested in this project with (The Coup’s Boots Riley) than he does Rage Against The Machine. Still, is it headliner-worthy?
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs: It has a small break in between its appearance at the Monolith Festival and the start of its European tour, so it could work. Probably just needs the right offer. UPDATE: Time Out Chicago is reporting that the band has just been booked as the Beasties' replacement at Lollapalooza. Since Lolla is also booked by C3 Presents, this could definitely happen.
Snoop Dogg: He gets off his European tour on August 29, and he’s also got a brand new album (Malice In Wonderland) dropping in September. However, he’s already touring America, and dropping through Austin next Tuesday. Think he’ll be ready to come back that soon?
Willie Nelson: Has a show in Kansas City on Sept. 30 and another in Tulsa on Oct. 2, so as long as he doesn’t get busted in between, he could probably swing through here.
Ludacris: He supposedly has a new album, Cineplex, due this year, but there’s no release date scheduled, and he’s only played live sparsely of late. That doesn’t mean he can’t surprise us…
The Flaming Lips: The festival mainstays do have a break between their Sept. 13 date in New York and their Oct. 18 date in San Francisco, and Wayne Coyne obviously loves Austin.
Wilco: It has a brief European tour through Aug. 28, then takes a nice long break before playing Chicago on Oct. 18. It’s also obviously quite fond of ACL, having played the inaugural year and three times since.
Al Green: The good Reverend has been playing a lot of state fairs and casinos lately, and he’s got some time between his Sept. 11 gig in Oklahoma and a Boston show on Oct. 15. But it’s doubtful he’d attract the same sort of audience as the Beasties.
The Mars Volta: The group has no dates after its Monolith appearance, so it could easily drop through—but, of course, it headlined last year.
TV On The Radio: It’s been touring nonstop since Dear Science (its last gig is scheduled for August’s Outside Lands festival), and it could come back for one last farewell to its breakthrough album.
Gov't Mule: It’s also been touring incessantly, and the last show is currently Sept. 26 in San Francisco, so it would be easy to tack on one more date.
Femi Kuti: His European tour ends in August, giving him plenty of time to regroup.
The Killers: It heads to Mexico for a string of November dates, so it wouldn’t be out of the way to stop through here for a follow-up to 2007’s triumphant headlining set.
