I was lucky enough to score tickets to the taping of the Austin City Limits episode featuring Roky Erickson back in November. The performance airs tonight at 7pm locally on KLRU. Kings of Leon will be featured first, followed by Roky.
Roky’s backing band included Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top and members of Summer Wardrobe. The list of songs that will air are on the ACL show page. If I remember correctly, they played both “Night of the Vampire” and “I Walked With A Zombie”, but it appears that those two were dropped from the broadcast. It was a great performance and I saw several local Austin musicians at the taping, including King Coffey from the Butthole Surfers. Roky’s come a long way in the last 15 years and he never lost that awesome voice.
Here’s the schedule for January:
Jan. 5 – Crowded House
Jan. 12 – Kings of Leon, Roky Erickson
Jan. 19 – Coldplay (encore presentation from last season)
Jan. 26 – Brad Paisley, Dierks Bentley
It’s a pretty good representation of the breadth of music that the show is presenting these days. They’ve made attempts to update themselves and having bands like Kings of Leon and Coldplay are an attempt to do just that. Crowded House isn’t really keeping up-to-date, but it’s a little more pop oriented than would have been typical of the show in the past. Kings of Leon fall into the Blues / Rock category and Brad Paisley and Dierks Bentley are solidly Country.
4 Responses to “Roky Erickson on Austin City Limits Tonight”
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Damn I wish I’d been at that taping! The show last night was great; I just wish they’d given him a full hour. Roky’s recovery is one of the greatest things ever — years ago, I was certain his mind was gone forever. I’m so glad I was wrong.
The greatest tribute album EVER, bar none: “Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye.” Every artist on that record really seemed to understand Roky’s music.
“It’s a pretty good representation of the breadth of music that the show is presenting these days. ”
Took ’em long enough. This show was approaching Lawrence Welk-ian proportions of geezerness up until a year or so ago, with it’s incessant hippie-cum-cowboy ethos. At least now it more properly represents what one would expect to actually see and hear within Austin’s city limits (as opposed to Kerrville’s or Big Spring’s.)
I just hard a grup bout 5 guys (lead played electrik fiddul) on TV, Austin City Limits (just before 4 a.m. PST on 1-20-08) playing “Rock Me Momma” or sumthin like that. Does anybudy no whut thet song or grup is? Thankew!
I just hard a grup bout 5 guys (lead played electrik fiddul) on TV, Austin City Limits (just before 4 a.m. PST on 1-20-08) playing “Rock Me Momma” or sumthin like that. Does anybudy no whut thet song or grup is? Thankew!