Tito’s Saloon Brought the Heat This Year
Tito’s Saloon is officially one of Luck’s hottest venues - literally and figuratively.
In the weeks leading up to Luck Reunion, the saloon is a quiet, albeit busy, impromptu art studio for our team of sign painters and backdrop artists. While Potluck attendees enjoy a world-class meal under the Texas sky, painters finish up their last few signs and pack up their paints, brushes, and dropcloths while sound crews casually flip the stage from an art-staging area to a full-on concert venue. The quiet atmosphere is officially shattered when doors open at 11AM Thursday.
Where artists and crew members were painting, listening to music off iPhone speakers, or just taking a break hours earlier, 150 pairs of feet are stomping, dancing, and clamoring for a spot near the front of the Saloon stage. We kicked off the day with Southwest Airlines Artist on the Rise Finalist Luke Tyler Shelton, and confirmed what we at Luck already knew: he is a talent to keep an eye on. Shelton was followed by a dreamy midday set by New York songwriter Arsun, then we took it back up a notch with stand-out Tommy Newport’s groovy, falsetto-heavy new indie. One of our more surprising bookings this year was sister duo Aly & AJ - reporting live from backstage, this was one of the hottest topics of conversation among young people who tuned into Disney channel in the early 2000’s. The childhood stars did not disappoint, putting on a career-redefining performance that proved they are definitely not Disney kids anymore. But for any Disney fans asking, yes, they closed their set with their teenage anthem “Potential Breakup Song”, much to the delight of everyone present. Long-time Luck alumni Aaron Lee Tasjan welcomed Bobby Bare Jr., Ricki, Micah Nelson, Lafemmebear, Kim Richey, and Jessye DeSilva for a classic, dare I say, “Luck reunion” performance. Micah Nelson stayed booked and busy (same for his brother Lukas, who we think hopped in for, four, five? who knows how many sets throughout the day) as he was up next performing with his group Particle Kid, which always brings some edge to our little outpost in central Texas. We wound down the day with a dreamy set from Clay Frankel of Twin Peak’s side project, Hazel City, the last officially scheduled set on the Saloon Stage. As the sun was setting, we enjoyed heartbreakingly beautiful songs such as “Becca”, and the night seemed like it might flow peacefully from the Saloon Stage to sets playing in the Barn or Revival Tent, and eventually all roads would lead to Willie Nelson’s closing performance on the World Headquarters Stage. It didn’t quite play out like that, but it sure was fun…
Cut back to February 13th. We announced our lineup with great care to conceal certain day-of-Luck surprises, except by some poster-revision mixup or missed email, one artist (not to be named) leaked one of our biggest surprises of all: The Arcade Fire was coming to Luck Reunion. The Arcade Fire, the grammy-winning, indie-culture defining, decade-long fixture of the music scene was featured on one version of one post made by one artist, which was quickly pulled down. We hoped people would think they made it up, they were crazy, or experiencing some sort of strange Mandela-effect phenomenon. The accidental post seemed to have gone unnoticed for the most part, and we thought we were safe.
Guess we should have gotten on Reddit.
Rumors swirled on certain The Arcade Fire super-fan threads over whether or not they had imagined the announcement. Ok, good, in that confusion we still had plausible deniability. But sometime between the specific stage lineups being added to the app and our push notification confirming The Arcade Fire’s performance, a plan was already in the works. Doing “everything they could to control their bladders”, reporting claustrophobic-ly high temperatures, and probably enduring some sort of outdoor festival combined with high density indoor space smell, Arcade Fire fans camped out in the saloon all afternoon to secure their spot. Little did our founders and team know that the Saloon Audience had been camped out all day in anticipation of our “Surprise”. When the team went about clearing out the saloon to set up for the surprise performance, let’s just say that they met a little “Push back”.
Tensions ran high as The Arcade Fire loaded in for their not quite a surprise performance. But diamonds are only created under pressure, right? In a last minute effort to satisfy the gathering crowds, The Arcade Fire played a short acoustic set on the porch and front “lawn” of the Saloon. In an unpredictable twist, The Preservation Jazz Hall Band, who was performing one stage over in the Revival Tent, walked their crew over and started an acoustic Arcade Fire and jazz band jam session, the likes of which will never be seen again. The combination of a full jazz band and Arcade Fire done up in full clown makeup intermingling with the crowd created some of the most bad-ass, spontaneous, and energy-charged shots of the night. Eventually enough people came and went to get the line moving and a good number of fans were able to see The Arcade Fire in a once-in-a-lifetime intimate performance.
The Tito’s Saloon was a wild ride this year. You fans REALLY love what you love, and we love to see it. The Saloon’s footprint may be small, but it holds a whole lot.
