Oliver Tree gave us comedy, pranks, music, and scootering at ACL Fest
Oliver Tree is a quadruple threat. He pranked us (more on that later), gave a very fun set, did a scooter flip onstage and had us laughing during his hour on Sunday at Austin City Limits Music Festival Weekend 2.
You likely know Tree from his hit "Life Goes On." It's catchy and fun and was sandwiched between other fun songs like "Cowboys Don't Cry," and "Alien Boy."
We got to Tree's 4 p.m. set at the American Express stage a couple minutes late and found Tree telling the crowd that the next song would be his last of the day. Huh? Did we miss something? Did they move his set time? This writer was just about to text her editor that there would be no Tree review, because we somehow missed the set. But, it turns out, this is part of Tree's schtick. He made the same joke after every song, once even pretending to pack up the stage.
"Do y'all wanna hear one more song?" he kept asking.
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Yes, sure, we will be adding Tree's fun music to our future playlists, but also: He is so funny.
He told a story about riding a Razor scooter in high school and crashing into a pebble, leading him to break his wrists and a thumb joint.
"Out of nowhere, this little (expletive) pebble shows up. (Expletive) that pebble! Scream it," he said.
The crowd cursed the pebble again and again. No worries, though. The pebble did not permanently damage Tree's scooter abilities. He brought out a blue scooter, first asking, "I'm about to risk my life. Do you want to see it or not?" And then he rode it across the stage and into a little flip-twirl thing, falling immediately.
"Ah, second time on my cumulonimbus," he said, clutching his elbow. (An elbow is not a cumulonimbus. A cumulonimbus is a type of cloud.)
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He asked the crowd to get their "rockers" up, which in Austin is a "Hook 'Em Horns" sign. We are planning on calling the act of throwing up horns "rockers" from now on, because it's really cute.
At one point, he joked that headliners Red Hot Chili Peppers canceled their 8 p.m. performance.
"Now that they have canceled, ladies and gentlemen, we'll be all night until 6 in the morning. For anybody who doesn't want to hear that, welcome to hell, (expletive)," Tree said. We laughed and laughed.
At the actual end of his set, not all the fake-outs from the 55 minutes prior, Tree told us it was his grandma's birthday and could we please sing to her. The crowd obliged.
"Happy birthday to my grandma. She's 87 today," he said. "Scream that (expletive). Scream it louder! It could be her last birthday!" This came off very delightfully and not messed up, we promise.
He left us with a final laugh as we walked away from the stage: "This is the last show we'll ever play in America!"
We hope that's just another sweet prank.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Oliver Tree scootered during his ACL Fest set Weekend 2
